Social media intifada: a new stage of bloody conflict?
Three years ago, in the 2015 year, in Israel, against the background of the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli confrontation, a new round of escalation of the conflict began, which claimed many lives. In most cases, Palestinian radicals attacked Jews on both sides of the green line (the so-called Israel border until 5 on June 1967, when the Six-Day War began). Many media outlets in those days dubbed this surge in violence against Jews the Knife Intifada or Jerusalem Intifada, because, first, most of these attacks were made in this sacred city for both Palestinians and Israelis. secondly, these attacks are connected, according to part of the Palestinian society, with statements on the Palestinian social media pages about the continuing desire of the Israelis to seize the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, fueled by the speeches of the PNA formal leader Mahmoud Abbas, Orykh he declared that he "blesses every drop of blood shed for Jerusalem, since it is shed for Allah, thereby being pure and bright."
In order for these attacks to become not just a local, one-time act of intimidation and disobedience to the “actions of the Israeli apartheid regime” (as the Palestinians call it), it is necessary to create a powerful information front with the aim of supporting them. For this, there are familiar media outlets: television and radio companies, print publishers. However, there are several “buts” here: firstly, the fullness of the images cannot be transmitted by radio and print; secondly, there is no “feedback” either on television, on the radio, or in the print media; thirdly, traditional media, even those that are integrated into social networks, belong to someone, therefore have their own editorial department, which means they are politically engaged, which does not allow using them as a platform for publishing such materials. Thus, publications in traditional media undergo certain censorship, serve the political interests of some power group and are published with their sanction. Fourth, in this context it will be perhaps the most important thesis, all of the above traditional media are outdated and inaccessible tools for promoting ideas and information for young people. Young people in the PNA are a significant group of the population; the most politically active part of society, which is not a witness to the peace negotiations of the early 1990s, but a contemporary of the failure of the peace process - the most radical part of Palestinian society, which does not trust the Fatah formal leaders and the PNA leadership as a whole. Often, social networks are the only place where young Palestinians “have their own voice.” Consequently, social networks are the simplest and most convenient means for calls for the fight against Israel to coordinate these activities. In addition, recently many social networks and instant messengers began to use end-to-end encryption technologies, i.e. blockchain technology or simply “honeycombs” (the same communication structure between participants as in network terrorism). Thus, even if the instigator can calculate, they will catch him, while the rest of the participants will remain safe and be able to continue the common cause. It is worth noting that the successful role of social media, which they played in mobilizing young people, broadcasting, added to the popularity of social networks among Palestinian youth. News and the publication of opinions during the popular uprisings of the so-called “Arab spring”. Consequently, the vast majority of Palestinians believe in the power of social networks and use them as an alternative discourse in relation to the main, traditional media.
The social network intifada is a phenomenon that, in fact, is not controlled by anyone from the Palestinian leaders of Fatah (in the Western press you can find terms such as "leaderless" / "leaderless pawn"). Of course, one cannot deny the role of radical Islamist movements and the role of Hamas in incitement and appeals to kill Jews published on social networks, but they are only a catalyst. Unlike the Second Intifada, when bomb attacks were planned and carried out by individuals in certain radical fighting cells of a Palestinian organization (this or that group took responsibility for the terrorist attacks), the Knife Intifada showed that the attacks were carried out spontaneously, often the attackers did not belong to any of the formal political movements. Consequently, since the attacks are individual, incitement to them is carried out through social networks. This is indicated by the reports of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Moreover, the instigators are anyone from among the users of social networks, and the most effective way is to publish the images or videos of the knife attacks themselves, as well as what happens after, for example, neutralizing the attacker.
Images have always been one of the central elements of the intifada. Since the first intifada, Palestinian media have published images of soldiers beating children, tanks against the demonstrators throwing stones - these were the tools of the effective influence of the Palestinian authorities on the world community and their own population. However, before, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had a monopoly on such images for the most part, and now IDF no longer has such a monopoly. Everyone writes them down, publishes and shares them. Today, such images are everywhere, since the information and technological revolution in the field of video recording and processing has made video filming available for the population. Palestinians are shooting attacks on mobile devices, Go-Pro cameras, using Periscope, Instagram applications, using livestream technologies, using online broadcasts of street video surveillance cameras. Thus, thanks to mobile recording technology, Palestinian and Israeli leaders have lost control of what is happening.
Publications can be divided into several types: first, these are caricatures-pictures; secondly, these are videos showing direct attacks, or the death of attacking Palestinians, as a result of their neutralization by the Israeli security forces; thirdly, the video that calls for the murder of Jews, and explains how this can be done most effectively. However, there is another type of images, the general theme of which is the photo-collage of the “before and after” [terrorist attack] shahid (“martyr”) life: one picture depicts them happy and healthy, the second - dead. All publications are accompanied by hashtags in Arabic and English. The most popular are: “The Intifada Has Started”, “The Third Intifada”, “The Jerusalem Intifada”, “Poison Your Knife Before You Stab”, “Slaughtering the Jews” and others. In their work “Incitement in social networks as the basis Palestinian violence ”(Incitement on Social Media: The Fuel and Detonator of Palestinian Violence), published on the website of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Israeli research institute, in the notes indicates a minimum 50 publications in Palestinian groups and on social media pages that are izyvayut an attack on Jews, or contain images of knife attacks carried out against Israelis and photos of dead "martyrs".
One of the most popular images and the most powerful tool used in the media and social networks for incitement is the depiction of dead children. So, for example, in Palestine, still remember the video with 12-year-old Mohamed Al-Dur, who was killed in a shootout between Palestinians and Israelis in 2000 year. Images of a 12-year-old boy screaming in horror and dying in the arms of his father are unquestionably an extremely powerful tool of pressure. Modern publications are very similar to those associated with al-Dur: a video from 3-year-old girl Rahaf Hassan, who died in the arms of her father after Israeli air strikes on Hamas positions in Gaza, or a demonstration of children in the burning house of the Dawabshesh family set on fire by Jewish extremists in the framework of the so-called “Irreversibility of Impact” action, and many others.
Palestinians often publish videos that, in their opinion, refute the official statements of the Israeli authorities about knife attacks. So, as an example the Palestinians cite history Fadi Alluna, who was shot dead by the Israeli security forces. The Israeli authorities said that he had a knife and he tried to attack and was neutralized as a result. In the Palestinian groups in social networks, they denied that Allun had a knife and published a piece of video in evidence in which he doesn’t have a knife in his hands, trying to call on the Palestinian community to respond and avenge Fadi Allun. However, obviously provocative posts appear on Palestinian pages on social networks aimed at inciting Palestinian youth to commit more knife attacks. The story of Ahmad Mansara is a vivid example. According to the Palestinian news agency Maan, on October 12 of the year 2015 in the Jerusalem district of Pisgat Zeev, brothers Ahmad and Muhammad Mansar (13 and 17 years, respectively) made several knife attacks, injuring an 12-year-old boy. While trying to hide on Ahmad, fire was opened. On the same day, photographs of the wounded Ahmad Mansara were published by many Palestinian groups and Facebook and Twitter pages, comparing it with the aforementioned Muhammad al-Dur, launching the hashtag (in Arabic) “the new al-Dura”. The next day, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking live on Palestinian television, said that "Israel is killing innocent Palestinian children." Only the next day, the Israeli media published a photo of Ahmad, in which he is alive and undergoing rehabilitation in an Israeli hospital.
The state of Israel is trying to fight provocations and is trying to prevent attacks by analyzing posts and hashtags. In many ways, this work is done by the 8200 Division, which is an essential component of Israeli electronic intelligence. Thus, during the Knife Intifada, the Israeli security services were monitoring social networks. According to information provided by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (Haaretz), since the beginning of 2015, more than 800 people have been detained by the Israeli security forces suspected of incitement in social networks. The American Vice News channel, in its documentary film Digital Intifada (Digilal Intifada), indicates that the suspects were detained for several months (sometimes up to six months), without making any official charges and denying them the right to legal assistance. The court was also not conducted due to the fact that the data contained in their cases were classified. However, the obvious result of the actions of the Israeli side was not given, since it is physically impossible to track, arrest and imprison all those who are engaged in incitement in social networks and urges to participate in the Knife Intifada. It is also impossible to remove all the content containing appeals to kill Jews, since it will appear again and again, caused by the actions of the Israeli security services.
Considering the intifada of social networks, which began at the end of 2014 - at the beginning of 2015 and continues to this day, it should be noted that today Palestinian youth use social networks as the main resource for inciting continued violence against Jews in Israel and as the simplest form of confrontation State of Israel. Hashtags like Poison the knife Before You Stab and others (mostly in Arabic) are used to spread propaganda, praising and encouraging new attacks and attacks. On Instagram, Facebook and Twitter many photos and short videos are published explaining how to make an attack so that it is as deadly as possible. For this purpose, anatomical maps are published, on which the most vulnerable and deadly places for stabs are marked. The social media intifada is a movement that does not have a formal leader from the official leaders of the Palestinian Authority (both from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), but which is driven by Palestinian youth, a contemporary of extremely unsuccessful attempts at a peaceful settlement within the framework of the process the Oslo 1993 and 1995 Agreements and the violent acts of both the Palestinian radical militias and the Israeli military and Jewish extremists living in settlements in the West Bank; young people who do not believe the Palestinian leaders who signed peace agreements (but at the same time falling under the ideological influence of the radicals): the high level of unemployment among young people, the poor quality of education and lack of leisure - not what they expected from peace with Israel. And this is an extremely dangerous situation, since today's youth leaders in social networks in Palestine, publishing photos and video clips of attacks calling for violence against Jews, tomorrow (or once) will become the official leaders of the Palestinian people who will have to sit at the negotiating table. But will they sit? ..
In order for these attacks to become not just a local, one-time act of intimidation and disobedience to the “actions of the Israeli apartheid regime” (as the Palestinians call it), it is necessary to create a powerful information front with the aim of supporting them. For this, there are familiar media outlets: television and radio companies, print publishers. However, there are several “buts” here: firstly, the fullness of the images cannot be transmitted by radio and print; secondly, there is no “feedback” either on television, on the radio, or in the print media; thirdly, traditional media, even those that are integrated into social networks, belong to someone, therefore have their own editorial department, which means they are politically engaged, which does not allow using them as a platform for publishing such materials. Thus, publications in traditional media undergo certain censorship, serve the political interests of some power group and are published with their sanction. Fourth, in this context it will be perhaps the most important thesis, all of the above traditional media are outdated and inaccessible tools for promoting ideas and information for young people. Young people in the PNA are a significant group of the population; the most politically active part of society, which is not a witness to the peace negotiations of the early 1990s, but a contemporary of the failure of the peace process - the most radical part of Palestinian society, which does not trust the Fatah formal leaders and the PNA leadership as a whole. Often, social networks are the only place where young Palestinians “have their own voice.” Consequently, social networks are the simplest and most convenient means for calls for the fight against Israel to coordinate these activities. In addition, recently many social networks and instant messengers began to use end-to-end encryption technologies, i.e. blockchain technology or simply “honeycombs” (the same communication structure between participants as in network terrorism). Thus, even if the instigator can calculate, they will catch him, while the rest of the participants will remain safe and be able to continue the common cause. It is worth noting that the successful role of social media, which they played in mobilizing young people, broadcasting, added to the popularity of social networks among Palestinian youth. News and the publication of opinions during the popular uprisings of the so-called “Arab spring”. Consequently, the vast majority of Palestinians believe in the power of social networks and use them as an alternative discourse in relation to the main, traditional media.
The social network intifada is a phenomenon that, in fact, is not controlled by anyone from the Palestinian leaders of Fatah (in the Western press you can find terms such as "leaderless" / "leaderless pawn"). Of course, one cannot deny the role of radical Islamist movements and the role of Hamas in incitement and appeals to kill Jews published on social networks, but they are only a catalyst. Unlike the Second Intifada, when bomb attacks were planned and carried out by individuals in certain radical fighting cells of a Palestinian organization (this or that group took responsibility for the terrorist attacks), the Knife Intifada showed that the attacks were carried out spontaneously, often the attackers did not belong to any of the formal political movements. Consequently, since the attacks are individual, incitement to them is carried out through social networks. This is indicated by the reports of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Moreover, the instigators are anyone from among the users of social networks, and the most effective way is to publish the images or videos of the knife attacks themselves, as well as what happens after, for example, neutralizing the attacker.
Images have always been one of the central elements of the intifada. Since the first intifada, Palestinian media have published images of soldiers beating children, tanks against the demonstrators throwing stones - these were the tools of the effective influence of the Palestinian authorities on the world community and their own population. However, before, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had a monopoly on such images for the most part, and now IDF no longer has such a monopoly. Everyone writes them down, publishes and shares them. Today, such images are everywhere, since the information and technological revolution in the field of video recording and processing has made video filming available for the population. Palestinians are shooting attacks on mobile devices, Go-Pro cameras, using Periscope, Instagram applications, using livestream technologies, using online broadcasts of street video surveillance cameras. Thus, thanks to mobile recording technology, Palestinian and Israeli leaders have lost control of what is happening.
Publications can be divided into several types: first, these are caricatures-pictures; secondly, these are videos showing direct attacks, or the death of attacking Palestinians, as a result of their neutralization by the Israeli security forces; thirdly, the video that calls for the murder of Jews, and explains how this can be done most effectively. However, there is another type of images, the general theme of which is the photo-collage of the “before and after” [terrorist attack] shahid (“martyr”) life: one picture depicts them happy and healthy, the second - dead. All publications are accompanied by hashtags in Arabic and English. The most popular are: “The Intifada Has Started”, “The Third Intifada”, “The Jerusalem Intifada”, “Poison Your Knife Before You Stab”, “Slaughtering the Jews” and others. In their work “Incitement in social networks as the basis Palestinian violence ”(Incitement on Social Media: The Fuel and Detonator of Palestinian Violence), published on the website of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Israeli research institute, in the notes indicates a minimum 50 publications in Palestinian groups and on social media pages that are izyvayut an attack on Jews, or contain images of knife attacks carried out against Israelis and photos of dead "martyrs".
One of the most popular images and the most powerful tool used in the media and social networks for incitement is the depiction of dead children. So, for example, in Palestine, still remember the video with 12-year-old Mohamed Al-Dur, who was killed in a shootout between Palestinians and Israelis in 2000 year. Images of a 12-year-old boy screaming in horror and dying in the arms of his father are unquestionably an extremely powerful tool of pressure. Modern publications are very similar to those associated with al-Dur: a video from 3-year-old girl Rahaf Hassan, who died in the arms of her father after Israeli air strikes on Hamas positions in Gaza, or a demonstration of children in the burning house of the Dawabshesh family set on fire by Jewish extremists in the framework of the so-called “Irreversibility of Impact” action, and many others.
Palestinians often publish videos that, in their opinion, refute the official statements of the Israeli authorities about knife attacks. So, as an example the Palestinians cite history Fadi Alluna, who was shot dead by the Israeli security forces. The Israeli authorities said that he had a knife and he tried to attack and was neutralized as a result. In the Palestinian groups in social networks, they denied that Allun had a knife and published a piece of video in evidence in which he doesn’t have a knife in his hands, trying to call on the Palestinian community to respond and avenge Fadi Allun. However, obviously provocative posts appear on Palestinian pages on social networks aimed at inciting Palestinian youth to commit more knife attacks. The story of Ahmad Mansara is a vivid example. According to the Palestinian news agency Maan, on October 12 of the year 2015 in the Jerusalem district of Pisgat Zeev, brothers Ahmad and Muhammad Mansar (13 and 17 years, respectively) made several knife attacks, injuring an 12-year-old boy. While trying to hide on Ahmad, fire was opened. On the same day, photographs of the wounded Ahmad Mansara were published by many Palestinian groups and Facebook and Twitter pages, comparing it with the aforementioned Muhammad al-Dur, launching the hashtag (in Arabic) “the new al-Dura”. The next day, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking live on Palestinian television, said that "Israel is killing innocent Palestinian children." Only the next day, the Israeli media published a photo of Ahmad, in which he is alive and undergoing rehabilitation in an Israeli hospital.
The state of Israel is trying to fight provocations and is trying to prevent attacks by analyzing posts and hashtags. In many ways, this work is done by the 8200 Division, which is an essential component of Israeli electronic intelligence. Thus, during the Knife Intifada, the Israeli security services were monitoring social networks. According to information provided by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (Haaretz), since the beginning of 2015, more than 800 people have been detained by the Israeli security forces suspected of incitement in social networks. The American Vice News channel, in its documentary film Digital Intifada (Digilal Intifada), indicates that the suspects were detained for several months (sometimes up to six months), without making any official charges and denying them the right to legal assistance. The court was also not conducted due to the fact that the data contained in their cases were classified. However, the obvious result of the actions of the Israeli side was not given, since it is physically impossible to track, arrest and imprison all those who are engaged in incitement in social networks and urges to participate in the Knife Intifada. It is also impossible to remove all the content containing appeals to kill Jews, since it will appear again and again, caused by the actions of the Israeli security services.
Considering the intifada of social networks, which began at the end of 2014 - at the beginning of 2015 and continues to this day, it should be noted that today Palestinian youth use social networks as the main resource for inciting continued violence against Jews in Israel and as the simplest form of confrontation State of Israel. Hashtags like Poison the knife Before You Stab and others (mostly in Arabic) are used to spread propaganda, praising and encouraging new attacks and attacks. On Instagram, Facebook and Twitter many photos and short videos are published explaining how to make an attack so that it is as deadly as possible. For this purpose, anatomical maps are published, on which the most vulnerable and deadly places for stabs are marked. The social media intifada is a movement that does not have a formal leader from the official leaders of the Palestinian Authority (both from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip), but which is driven by Palestinian youth, a contemporary of extremely unsuccessful attempts at a peaceful settlement within the framework of the process the Oslo 1993 and 1995 Agreements and the violent acts of both the Palestinian radical militias and the Israeli military and Jewish extremists living in settlements in the West Bank; young people who do not believe the Palestinian leaders who signed peace agreements (but at the same time falling under the ideological influence of the radicals): the high level of unemployment among young people, the poor quality of education and lack of leisure - not what they expected from peace with Israel. And this is an extremely dangerous situation, since today's youth leaders in social networks in Palestine, publishing photos and video clips of attacks calling for violence against Jews, tomorrow (or once) will become the official leaders of the Palestinian people who will have to sit at the negotiating table. But will they sit? ..
- Matvey Tsaryov
- twitter.com
Information