Beyond the Great Divide..
21 November '18..
Since the recent outbreak of violence in Gaza and Israel, I have been working on research that looks at Hamas PR and the speed in which it is delivered from Gaza to global anti-Israel activists. I thought I had left Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party behind. I was wrong.
Background
The research is looking at ‘independent’ social media journalists in Gaza and how they are pushing raw Hamas propaganda directly into the veins of anti-Israel activism worldwide. The very notion of press independence and Gaza is absurd. Hamas controls Gaza and everybody inside knows it. I will give just a few examples here:
- Mohammad Lafi, 24-year-old rapper from the Jabalia Refugee Camp in Gaza, held for five days in January 2017 by Hamas authorities after he released a music video entitled “Your Right” that called for people to demonstrate and participated in protests around the electricity crisis. (See report).
- Fouad Jarada, 34-year-old journalist with the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, arrested in June 2017 by Hamas forces three days after a Facebook post critical of a Hamas ally and a string of critical news reports. Authorities held him for more than two months on charges of “harming revolutionary unity,”. (ibid)
- Gazan journalist and activist Amer Balousha published a post on Facebook in which he wondered whether his leaders’ mothers also have to sleep on the floor in order to cool themselves down in the unbearable summer heat. In response he received private Facebook threats which he ignored. A few days later he was called to appear at Hamas’ Internal Security where he was beaten and held for weeks. (see report).
- In April 2017 Hamas arrested 17 activists and journalists charged with “spreading false rumors and news through social networking sites.”. (see report).
- ‘The prisons run by Hamas that I observed were typical of prisons in a third-world country. What was the most depressing is the charges pressed against prisoners, and how normalized those charges were. One man who I spoke with was a journalist who “misused technology.” Another was simply a “Palestinian Authority employee.” Another was a young lawyer who “insulted high authorities” in a moment of anger. They had all been brought in to be “disciplined,” which means terrorized, humiliated and scared into submission’. (see report)
International journalists know the drill, but are physically safer (they just won’t be let in again) but threats are still directed to the locals they work with. Gazan social media activists, sitting vulnerable in their homes with their families – they have no protection at all.
Pallywood
Yet it cannot end there. There is also a Hamas propaganda machine that churns out material it wants delivered to the gullible global community. This industry has even been given a name ‘Pallywood’. In the age of social media, with no filter at all between Hamas HQ and the online community, there is little doubt that much of what comes out from Gaza is nothing more than a Hamas directed newsreel. Logically, if Hamas control Gaza, if local independent reporters cannot write anything against Hamas and if some social media activists have 100,000s of followers, it would be beyond reason to suggest Hamas and these activists do not have an operational relationship.
Why wouldn’t Hamas use their power to control a pipeline with an audience of millions? The relationship can be one of ‘cooperation through intimidation’, but it need not be. With no alternative but to tow the Hamas line, why wouldn’t a social media player seek potential rewards for doing so?
(Continue to Full Article)
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