Israel’s long arms of repression crack down on pro-Palestine online activities
As Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day, Israeli propagandists launched an online counter-campaign.
On May 15, activists all around the world participated in a campaign, organized by “Palestine Online, VPalestine, Palestine Defense Forces and Palestine SunBird” and other social media pro Palestine groups, marking the 72nd anniversary of Nakba to reaffirm that they uphold their right of return, as per UN Resolution 194.
Meanwhile, Israeli cyber groups’ attacks swept social media, reiterating the Israeli mindset of repression.
On the 72n anniversary of Nakba, Palestinians around the world, following the WHO orders, couldn’t organize peaceful protests amid the Covid19 outbreak.
The four social media groups launched a large-scale campaign inviting people to tweet using the two hashtags #NakbaDay and #KeyToJustice so that they can join the Palestinian long-standing struggle for freedom and to reiterate the right of return to the Palestinian homeland that they were expelled from in 1948.
The two hashtags went viral. A lot of Pro Palestine activists, politicians and Journalists follow the campaign requests and post on social media supporting the Palestinian right of return in addition to Palestinians who tweeted sharing their support to the Palestinian cause.
Yet, the virtual sit-in was encountered by hate speech from Israeli propagandists. some anti-Palestinian accounts invited people to tweet with the hashtag #KeyToPeace, claiming that the Palestinians are the obstacle to peace and covering up war crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces and the killing of more than 320 Palestinians in Great Return March protests when the Palestinian people peacefully protested in weekly marches to demand their right of return – the right enshrined in the international law and guaranteed by UN Resolution 194 which was adopted by a majority of 35 out of 58 members.
Not only did Israeli and anti-Palestinian propagandists generate #KeyToPeace hashtag in a counter-campaign to pro-Palestine hashtag #KeyToJustice that has gone viral, but also they posted provocative and dehumanizing content with the hashtag #NakbaDay to whitewash the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The #KeyToPeace is not allowing terrorists to hide behind BDS NGOs. #KeyToJustice is holding them accountable. #TerroristsInSuits pic.twitter.com/d18UEqwtrT
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) May 15, 2020
The counter-campaign also spotlighted false claims about Nakba. Anti-Palestinian activists claimed Palestinians continue to wage terror and wars and that the Nakba is the Palestinian failed attempt to annihilate the Jewish state.
Today, Palestinians mark #NakbaDay – their failed attempt to annihilate the nascent Jewish state in 1948.
Yet only 'catastrophe' is instead of seeking to build better future for both people as #KeyToJustice, they continue to wage terror.
NEWSFLASH: #Israel ain't going nowhere! pic.twitter.com/QbuWKEmENi
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 15, 2020
The Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli organization founded in 1996 after the start of the “peace process”, aims at monitoring Palestinian public opinion, media, and education curriculum.
The organization claims that it monitors incitement by Palestinians against Israelis on the media. it’s not just studying the Palestinian media, however, it studies the Palestinian society, sporting and cultural events. It also cooperates with Parliament members in many western countries to cut off financial fundings of Palestinian authorities.
ِAccording to the Jerusalem Post newspaper The Strategic Affairs Ministry has been recently pressuring for an initiative to involve Israeli and foreign youth into a counter-campaign.
Israeli propagandists and cyber groups are used to countering Palestinian Campaigns being organized to expose the real face of Israeli apartheid. these groups aim at terrorizing Palestinians and whitewashing Israel’s crimes.
Nakba is the Arabic for catastrophe or cataclysm experienced by the Palestinian people when they were forced out of their homes and villages in historical Palestine by Zionist militias.
On May 15th, 1948, Zionist militias ethnically cleansed Palestine from its indigenous people to make way for the creation of a Jewish European colony in the Arab country.
On the day of Nakba, Zionist gangs expelled nearly 750,000, killed around 15,000 native Palestinians including children, women, elderlies, and destroyed about 531 Palestinian villages.
Palestinians inside and outside Palestine annually commemorate the day by organizing either peaceful demonstration on the ground or social media campaigns.
