In the past Hamas supporters and other anti-Israeli
protestors in the Arab world had to rely on the age-old method of expressing
their views – i.e. scrawling graffiti on walls. The influx of social media over
the last few years has opened up new channels for communicating hostile
feelings, on both sides of the conflict.
The Israeli military have been all over Twitter, Youtube,
Flickr and other social media sites employing a vast staff to ensure that the
war to win over public opinion is as active as any military objective. The
Israeli army have been open about their use of social media, as military
spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich admitted, “I’m sort of addicted
to Twitter, you can say. It’s a great tool to release information without the
touch of editors’ hands,” she said. “Militaries are usually closed operations,
but we’re doing the opposite.”
Hamas have also been active on social media sites with tweets
such as “Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they
are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves).” Hamas also regularly update their
Facebook page which publishes material in multiple languages in a clear attempt
to court opinion across the world.
What should our response to all this be? I suppose it is
inevitable, in a world where media outlets are now immediate and uncensored
that military leaders would seek to exploit this form of mass communication. I
can think of many prominent historical figures who would have loved the
opportunity to reach millions of people with their message and this is all the
more powerful when the message comes as an image or video. The task that faces
sites such as Youtube is phenomenal. With 100,000 hours of video being uploaded
on a daily basis it is impossible to effectively limit those who seek to use
social media for propaganda purposes and the current conflict has already seen
the release of videos showing assassinations and the horrifying images of
innocent civilian victims.
For educators this gives an opportunity to revisit lessons
about censorship and propaganda. It has always been an important aspect of
history and politics lessons to encourage a degree of scepticism and questioning
of news stories and politically motivated content. This is now all the more
important in an age when most children have fairly open access to content that,
by its nature, is trying to persuasive and often employs shock tactics to
accentuate its point. Schools should be discussing the current conflict in
Israel, not just from the perspective of history and current affairs, but as a
valuable lesson in how to digest the wealth of information that is fired at us
on in the battle for the control of social media.