Social Media and Online Coverage: Israel-Hamas Conflict (Month Three) – updated

Virtually Islamic News > Blog > Gaza > Social Media and Online Coverage: Israel-Hamas Conflict (Month Three) – updated

This news section represents content primarily generated from 8 December 2023 onwards (some posts were created before that date). Month One is here. Month Two is here

It’s depressing that we’ve got to the point where this is the third (monthly) collection of content related to the Israel-Hamas situation and its repercussions. I will continue to update this page. Many of these posts feature on my X page (@garybunt), and are usually posted there first, along with related materials (there’s often a time lag between posting on X and posting here!). The intention here is to keep a record of these posts (X posts disappear from time to time). This relates to my interest in digital archiving as well.

There are thousands of potential posts, so what follows is only a snapshot of activities. Warning: there are images of violence and injuries in some posts. Sequencing is date-related. The pages (from various months) link back to the earliest days of this crisis. Scrolling and loading the page can take some time (depending on net access/bandwidth).

As with all other posts here and elsewhere, reposting and retweeting is for recording, information and research purposes – and does not necessarily imply endorsement.

David Cronin, Electronic Intifada, Meta’s Nick Clegg assures EU that Palestinians are being censored, 27 December 2023. Opinion/analysis “The concept of “dangerous organizations” is mainly limited to what are called “non-state actors.””

asking for a friend …

Harry Davies and Manisha Ganguly, The Guardian, Gaza war puts US’s extensive weapons stockpile in Israel under scrutiny, 27 Dec 2023. “Their precise location is classified, but somewhere in Israel there are multiple closely guarded warehouses that contain billions of dollars’ worth of weapons owned by the US government.”

https://twitter.com/hzomlot/status/1738242336184836390
https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1737591531396014419

Al Jazeera, Meta ‘stifling’ pro-Palestine voices on social media, rights group says, 21 Dec 2023 “On Tuesday, Meta’s independent oversight board criticised the company for removing posts that showed human suffering in the ongoing Gaza war. It restored two such posts, including an Instagram video of the aftermath of a strike on or near al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.”

And here’s the report link: Human Rights Watch, Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content, 20 Dec 2023. It’s available in Arabic, German, French, and English.

The full English language PDF is here.

This is such a powerful statement from Dr Amira Qadeeh
https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1736176069554700743

Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, IDF says Israeli hostages it killed in Gaza were bare chested and waving white flag, 16 Dec 2023 “While two of the hostages fell to the ground immediately, the third fled into a nearby building. When a commander arrived on the scene, the unit was ordered into the building where it killed the third hostage despite his pleas for help in Hebrew.” Incredible, but revealing episode.

Chris McGreal, The Guardian, How American citizens are leading rise of ‘settler violence’ on Palestinian lands, 15 Dec 2023 “The Biden administration instituted a travel ban on extremist Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians but there is a glaring loophole for US citizens”

https://twitter.com/alifewithallah/status/1735666156956995824

Shereen Fernandez and Waqas Tufail, ­­Palestine, Islamophobia and the policing of solidarity, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 14 Dec 2023. “Our focus is on the way in which counter-terror legislation in the UK, primarily the Prevent Duty, has been used to securitize and silence activists in recent weeks, and permitted the spread of Islamophobia. As we seek to show, the selective usage of counter-terror legislation on pro-Palestinian protestors and activists is part of a much wider trend of criminalizing dissent, felt significantly by racialized Muslims and Arabs in the post-9/11 era.”

Journalists Under Attack (cont/d)

Among the many criminal actions being undertaken in this conflict situation, attacking and killing journalists and media staff appears to be a strategic aim. Numerous examples have been recorded. This is simply today’s toll:

Propaganda under Construction

Construction of propaganda

 Michael Robbins, MaryClare Roche, Amaney A. Jamal, Salma Al-Shami, and Mark Tessler, Foreign Affairs, How the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza Is Changing Arab Views, 14 Dec 2023 “Tunisia is geographically remote from Israel, and its population’s growing appetite for an armed resistance is unlikely to directly affect the war. But if other Arab states have had similar shifts in opinion, fighting on Israel’s borders could flare further. And in all likelihood, anger at Israel has grown even more in countries closer to the conflict or in those housing more Palestinian refugees, such as Jordan and Lebanon. The potential for greater violence is, therefore, serious. The Middle East and North Africa, after all, are plagued by more ongoing conflicts than any other part of the world.”

The New Arab, Israel army website ‘compromised by Jordanian hackers’ amid Gaza war, 14 Dec 2023 “The Israeli army’s website was reportedly compromised by Jordanian hackers amid the Gaza war on Wednesday.”

Awaiting more details on this story
I haven’t seen the full Ha’aretz report yet.
Afikra podcast with Dr Ibrahim Abusharif (Northwestern in Qatar) on ‘unlearning western bias in journalism‘. Also on Spotify (see below). It’s an interesting discussion. I’m not biased(!), but I supervised Dr Abusharif’s PhD at UWTSD.

Rory Jones, Summer Said, Dov Lieber and Saleh Al-Batati, Wall Street Journal, The Hamas Leader Who Studied Israel’s Psyche—and Is Betting His Life on What He Learned, 10 Dec 2023. “Yahya Sinwar drove a strategy to exploit Israel’s willingness to trade Palestinian prisoners for hostages; Gaza leader spent two decades in prison in Israel.” Paywalled article. Well worth seeking out.

Recommended clip from Yousef Hammas at Channel 4 News

Husam Zomlot, The Guardian, There is mass murder being carried out in Gaza and the world is just watching. This can’t go on, 9 Dec 2023 Opinion Piece

“Today, as the world watches Israel’s mass murder in Gaza, the wholesale destruction of entire areas, town and cities, the mass displacement of nearly 2 million people, the global rules-based order has never looked more impotent or imperilled.”

“Although limited and providing only intermittent communication, eSIMs are at least something. “Every one of my friends and colleagues abroad is concerned every time I’m forced offline. It’s a mutual fear that I may never speak to them again,” Eman said.”

Sky News, Israel-Hamas war: US vetoes UN resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza – as UK explains why it abstained, 9 Dec 2023 “The US indicated it would veto the motion at the United Nations Security Council, arguing a ceasefire could leave Hamas in charge of the territory while still holding more than 100 hostages.”

https://twitter.com/Zeinobia/status/1733160979188380071
People,infrastructure, facilities, history – nothing is spared in Gaza
This image is the equivalent of the Abu Ghraib photographs, and will form part of future histories and analyses of the Israel-Hamas ‘conflict‘ and its impact on ordinary people. They would offer evidence in international human rights cases (highly unlikely to make it to court).
Infrastructure elimination
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GRB

Digitally distracted professor. Researcher/author on Islam, Muslims and the internet. Emoji-free zone. Reposting does not imply endorsement, etc. #HashtagIslam #Islam virtuallyislamic.com

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