As yet another ceasefire between Israel and Hamas unravels, spokespeople on both sides have taken to the airwaves to offer their perspective of the conflict.
For decades, this has been the case, as the Middle East continues to be a hot topic in global news. For those in the western world, however, the narrative of one side has always been more prominent than the other due to Israel’s appeal to western society.
Western audiences are more familiar with the voices of Israeli politicians, activists, and pundits than they are of their Palestinian or Arab counterparts. And whenever the western media introduces an Arab voice, they’re usually tasked with defending the actions of repressive regimes or organisations like Hamas or Hizbollah.
Yet as the world become ever more connected, we find ourselves open to a range of new sources in our intake of everyday news. Thanks to social media, users were introduced to a variety of perceptions during this Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Politicians, activists, journalists, doctors and everyday civilians are taking to social media to share instant statistics, pictures, updates and stories that provide other perspectives and counter-arguments from that offered by the mainstream western media.
Social media has also introduced us to individuals in Gaza living in the midst of the crisis. For example, Farah Baker has over 140,000 followers on Twitter. Her daily tweets and pictures outline what life is like for a 16-year-old girl in Gaza.
On July 28, she tweeted an image of a military strike in her neighbourhood with this caption: “This is in my area. I can’t stop crying. I might die tonight.” When you insert a name, face and location to the story you add proximity to it. The crisis no longer becomes a newspaper headline; it comes to life as you realise that it affects real people similar to the ones we interact with on a daily basis.
We’re only a tweet away from knowing that morgues in Gaza filled up so quickly that ice cream freezers are now used to store dead bodies. It is as visually arresting as it is informative. Viral images of small lifeless bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets inside of an ice cream freezer will make you question how precise Israel’s “precision attacks” really are.
For years, Palestinian deaths in the conflict were looked at as statistics. They were merely numbers and percentages that give you an idea of how much damage was done. Social media is slowly changing that.
Save The Children recently released a poster that includes the names of 373 children who died in Gaza between July 8 and August 3.
This poster was heavily circulated online because of a strong desire to show the world that there is more to these children than just being casualties. They had names, they had fathers (who they were named after) and just days ago they were children with futures ahead of them. Their only crime was being from Gaza.
The fact that Israel blockades 1.8 million people within Gaza and heavily restricts the economic growth of Palestinian territories might not have been as deeply discussed online as they are today.
Videos like the ones of UN representative Chris Gunness crying on live TV after a UN school was bombed in Gaza, or of a Palestinian man being killed by a sniper while looking for lost relatives might have been overlooked previously. Stories about the killing of the four boys on the beach or the (brief) removal of NBC reporter Ayman Moheyeldin might have had different conclusions if it weren’t for the strong role that social media played.
Eyewitnesses tweeted the scene of the four boys playing on the beach before being killed by mortars.
As for Moheyeldin, his removal from Gaza might have lasted longer if it hadn’t been for the outrage expressed on social media at NBC’s decision.
Social media is no longer an optional resource. It is a major contender when it comes to global news and politics, especially for topics as complex as Middle East affairs.
Mainstream media can no longer count on commentators of their choice to provide black-and-white narratives of the situation. Now there’s much more to the story.
Moh Hashem is a Canadian journalist who writes about the Middle East for various Canadian media outlets
On Twitter: @Mohhashem2
