Dear Palestinian Supporters, You are Unknowingly Hurting the Cause
If it weren’t for social media, I would have never known what was happening in Sheikh Jarrah.
I am someone who rarely checks or reads the news. I am privileged enough not to care. Where I am and where I am from are luckily safe places, or as safe as they can be in the current state of things. So imagine my surprise when I was scrolling through TikTok, a platform meant purely for entertainment, I come across a story about Sheikh Jarrah. The story started with a sketch, a person knocking on the door of a house and demanding the residents leave because they are taking their home. The sketch ended with the user going on a monologue that this is happening in the Palestinian neighbourhood, Sheikh Jarrah.
For the algorithm that controls my ‘For You’ page, this one sketch turned into two, then three, the whole world spoke about it. Content creators from across the globe were either sharing, liking, commenting, dueting, or stitching similar sketches and actual video footage of what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah. It was both exhilarating and heartwarming seeing so many people come together for a single cause. The more people interacted with the posts, the more it reaches until it finally hit international news. The hashtag ‘SaveSheikhJarrah’ was trending. Finally, a Palestinian issue is making headlines.
I, of course, did my part, liked and commented on the videos to help boost them for as many eyes to see. The more people talked about it, the more I shared. Soon enough, the whole world is talking about what is going on in Sheikh Jarrah. I started investing more time, sharing, liking and commenting. Boosting the stories of Palestinians and, like so many others, lending my voice and support. Social media has become saturated with the Palestinian turmoil, exposing the crime and hate they endure from the Occupation. Protests around the globe are rising, demanding action from World Leaders. It felt like maybe this time, there is hope. The onslaught of criticism stopped the Occupation from taking more homes. And while that was a small victory, it was the beginning of a war.
Shortly after the news of what was happening in Sheikh Jarrah spread like wildfire, the Occupation retaliated with the unimaginable. They attacked innocent civilians praying in Al Aqsa Mosque. The details of why the attack took place are unimportant. What is important is the fact: innocent people attacked while praying. And we know this happened because, again, social media relayed the news. Video footage showing the destruction and brutalisation of Palestinian civilians spread faster than anything I’ve seen before. On the ground footage that finally showed us what we had known all along. It was and still is horrifying to watch. And from there, all hell broke loose.
Empowered by the overwhelming support from the world, Palestinians started sharing their turmoil. The air raids, organised by the Occupation, and the devastation were shared relentlessly by the Palestinians, only to be reshared by the world. On the ground footage that otherwise would never have made it in mainstream media. Everyone is interacting with the videos, and for anyone who was not familiar with the story of Palestine is getting a tough pill to swallow about living in an Apartheid state.
But as we have now entered the second week of what is nothing less than a war crime and attack on human rights, social media started to change. While people are still sharing what is going on in Palestine, they are also interacting with social media posts from the Occupation. I see more and more videos of creators fighting back against the Occupation’s posts and comments. Either they are fact-checking them or calling them out on their lies, the support for Palestine is still there. However, instead of echoing the Palestinian voices, the Occupation’s presence is in the spotlight.
Anyone who has ever been in an argument knows that arguing with someone who refuses to listen is futile. You could spend an hour talking to a wall, and it won’t change the fact that it is a wall. Arguing with the Occupation on social media will achieve nothing more than give power to their voice. The Occupation and their supports know too well what they are arguing for and will stand their ground. They justify their murders with self-defence. And with the U.S. being their strongest ally, they will not stop nor change their mind. They have all the video evidence they need to show their crimes, but in their twisted ideology, it is justified. And yet, people feel compelled to prove them wrong.
While there is nothing wrong with trying to shed light on the truth, it is a futile attempt when it comes to the Occupation. Time and energy are spent dispelling Zionist lies. Time and energy that are better spent giving voice to the voiceless. Currently, there is a media blackout in Palestine set forth by the Occupation. Palestinians can no longer share the horrors as quickly as they could before. With this blackout, the Palestinian voices will be silenced if we don’t continue to speak for them. Continuously interacting with the Occupation’s social media is slowly overshadowing Palestine. The more people interact, the more views they get; this is what happened when the first story of Sheikh Jarrah started trending. However, instead of continuing to spread the truth, we are busy trying to point out the fractures in their well-crafted lies. And if anything, that hurts the cause more than it helps.
Think about it for a moment. They know we are coming after them, they know we are using social media to amplify the voices of the Palestinians, they see the comments and hashtags, and yet, all their accounts are public. Every account can be interacted with, be it a TikTok duet or stitch, a comment or a retweet. Their channels are open because they know we will scramble to attack them without thinking. And they know, the more we interact with them, the more they can push themselves into the front page of our social media. I have seen the blond IDF soldier (who I refuse to learn her name) more than the pictures of the dead she helped murder. Can you name one Palestinian who died?
Rashid Abu Arreh, 16 years old
Said Odeh, 16 years old
Abdel-Raouf Salha, 13 years old
Hassan Shalbi, 13 years old
Yazin Al Masri, 2 years old
Ibrahim Al Masri, 12 years old
Yahya Khalifa, 14 years old
Lena Saher, 16 years old
Their names, faces, and what they went through is what should be highlighted. It should be shared and reshared when taken down. The stories of the struggling Palestinians should saturate social media so that everyone everywhere knows what is happening. Let us continue lending them our voices and showing them our support.
I understand the need to lash out at a video showing an IDF soldier slipping off the Palestinian flag or their head of media division spewing nonsense on TikTok. But replying back to them, be it with a video stitch or duet, makes their presence spread wider than the small corner they had on the internet. Their lies are overshadowing the truth, the Palestinian struggle is growing smaller as we watch and ridicule the Occupation. We all need to stop giving them attention. We need to stop giving them any more of our time and energy. They are murderers, they don’t deserve it. I don’t want to know their names, I don’t want to know what they recently posted, I don’t care, and neither should you. I care to know the names of the Palestinians fighting. I want to know how bad the situation is, I want to know how I can help. That is what we should be doing.
