Social media exposes Palestinian suffering, but international efforts fail to halt Israeli aggression in Gaza and Rafah.

Since the last two decades, the internet, mainstream media, and social media have been crucial in global perception management, leading to international popular protest movements, street marches, and riots, ultimately influencing the political decisions of world powers. Palestinian solidarity movements have existed as long as the Palestine-Israel conflict itself. Israel has consistently labeled Palestinian resistance as terrorism and violence against the State of Israel, branding all Palestinians as threats to the state. World powers involved in the conflict have continued to provide military and financial support to Israel. Mainstream media has also shown bias towards apartheid Israel. With the rise of the Internet and Communication Technologies in Palestine around 2000, global solidarity movements became more developed and influential. Digital platforms were recognized for the first time as tools for Palestinian rights activism and communication during the Second Intifada. Many pro-Palestinian websites launched during this period included Hear Palestine, Palestine Monitor, Al-Awda, and Electronic Intifada. During this period, internet access became widespread in the occupied territory. By 2007, internet usage in Palestine, especially on platforms like Facebook, surpassed that in other Arab countries in support of Palestinian liberation movements.
From 2000 to 2012, many campaigns, activities, and movements were organized by Palestinian solidarity groups in the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Germany, Australia, and the USA. Palestinian solidarity movements joined hands with university students, trade unions, and religious and peace-promoting societies internationally. The rebirth of solidarity movements after the second intifada led to the political failure of U.S.-sponsored talks between Israel and Palestine. At that time, Palestinians gained successful international support for their struggle, and seventy-nine students of the University of California Berkeley were arrested at a protest in 2002.

The projection of the 2008-2009 war in Gaza through websites, online petitions, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs played a pivotal role in gaining the support of the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement internationally, which was formerly launched in 2005 by the Palestinian civil society organizations to end the Israeli occupation. 

In 2008, the Palestinian perspective of air attacks and ground invasions during military operation Cast Lead was portrayed on the internet with a Palestinian perspective, which negates mainstream media reports. This was the time when meagerly resourced pro-Palestinian solidarity camps in Europe and the USA got added value to their support through the internet against well-funded and influential Israeli diasporas. In response, students in many U.K. universities occupied main buildings and urged them to cut ties with Israeli universities and start collaboration and scholarship programs with Palestinian universities. They also demanded to stop arms and munitions exports to Israel. Resultantly, the popular public opinion and support shifted towards Palestine in this virtually created new war zone. In this war zone, ordinary Palestinian civilians on Facebook and YouTube appeared more empowered, well-heard and convincing than the state appointments of Israel, the USA and European countries. The projection of the 2008-2009 war in Gaza through websites, online petitions, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and blogs played a pivotal role in gaining the support of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement internationally, which was formerly launched in 2005 by the Palestinian civil society organizations to end the Israeli occupation. The charter of movement was to secure equal rights for Palestinians and to gain the right for refugees to return. American and U.K. universities, academics, and unions have also acknowledged the BDS call well. Celebrities around the world also declared their unconditional support for the Palestinian national struggle, cancelling their tours and concerts in Israel.
Later, in 2012, social media was used for the first time during a military conflict by Hamas and Israel to shape their narratives during Operation Pillar of Defense. Despite having meagre resources, Palestinians succeeded in winning information warfare against specialized and well-funded Israeli social media and international mainstream media. The reason that the Palestinian narrative was well-heard internationally was the coverage of killings and capturing of innocent civilians, including children. An example was made for the first time, in which the narrative of the weaker side can be portrayed successfully compared to the powerful and resourceful enemy. Real-time videos, caught by cameras gave a sense of authenticity to Israel’s brutality, created an emotional reaction internationally and enhanced Palestinian solidarity manifolds. In this period, student networks coordinated through online meetings and interactive internet-mediated platforms to exchange information and decide the course of action. Twitter and Facebook were used for general awareness campaigns to organize meetings and activities. The online digital resistance to publicize hunger strikes for the release of Palestinian prisoners in 2012 also got a reasonable percentage among online content on social media and blogs, leading to protests, electronic lobbying and debates in many European countries’ parliaments.
Social media also gave new heights to citizen journalism in the Palestine-Israel conflict. All Palestinian nationals experiencing Israel's brutality switched on their mobile cameras and became frontline reporters on social media, broadcasting and sharing real-time updates and short videos. In 2014, tweets of Operation Protective Edge with the hashtag “Gaza Under Attack” portrayed live streaming of Palestinians living during the operation and became an example of real-time streaming of the battlefield. A series of solidarity protests took place around the world. In July 2017, Israel installed nine electronic gates at Al-Aqsa Mosque, followed by a massive online protest by the Palestinians and street protests internationally persuading Israeli leaders to remove electronic gates. These online protests led to international solidarity and became a victory for Palestinians. In 2020, the Instagram hashtags portrayed a unique coalescence of Palestinian conflict and U.S. riots. The hashtag “Palestinian Lives Matter” portrayed the killing of young Palestinian Eyad al-Hallaq by Israeli Police and the death of George Floyd in the USA were associated in pictorial form by the Palestinians and shared on Instagram. This online charged expression gave Palestinians a cross-cultural digital platform to achieve attunement, support and solidarity worldwide.
In April 2021, Israel made several Palestinian families homeless in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Palestinians used TikTok with the hashtags “Save Sheikh Jarrah” and “TikTok Intifada” to portray the illegal use of Israel’s power, calling for action by global communities. After that, international protests and street marches took place in Washington, London, Sydney, Chicago, and other cities against Israel’s infiltration of Sheikh Jarrah’s neighborhood. And a new term emerged in the digital resistance platforms: "TikTok Intifada". Protests were observed across the USA, including universities.
After October 7, 2023, the world had witnessed the most extreme outrage of Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. On October 30, 2024, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) declared that “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” Israel bombed schools, universities, buildings, mosques, churches, journalists, hospitals, water resources, food storage warehouses, UN refugee centers and powerhouses. This made evident that their targets were not Hamas militants but the Palestinians and their livelihood.

On December 7, 2023, the New York Times quoted Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and reported that 23000 tons of explosives, equal to two nuclear bombs, had been dropped in Gaza and also in the areas where citizens were present. The use of white phosphorous munitions in civilian areas raised serious humanitarian and ethical concerns around the world. People in many countries moved out in huge numbers and continued their protests impactfully. The protests have only been in the USA since November 4, 2023, and have drawn crowds of more than 300,000 people. The number is persistently increasing day by day as the conflict continues. Social media is also stormed with messages of people from all countries expressing their grief and insulting the USA, European, and Israeli stakeholders in the conflict. Footages and videos of live burials in mass graves at different hospitals sparked an outcry on social media, shocking the UN's Human Rights Chief.

In 2014, tweets of Operation Protective Edge with the hashtag “Gaza Under Attack” portrayed live streaming of Palestinians living during the operation and became an example of real-time streaming of the battlefield.

In April 2024, starting from Columbia University in New York, several colleges and university students across the USA pitched camps. They demanded an immediate ceasefire, academic amnesty to Palestinian students, disbandment of financial assistance, arms and munitions supply and boycott of business contracts and Israeli products in American supermarkets. Several days of protests and encampment resulted in using state power to end the encampment and the resignation of Harvard and Columbia University presidents. Many other university presidents faced trials and lawsuits, but on social media and mainstream media, the world witnessed that the pro-Palestinian encampment was well responded to by Palestinian children living in refugee camps in Rafah and other areas in Palestine. 
Social media, citizen journalism, and electronic solidarity movements provided solid evidence against the mass genocide of Palestinians in the Palestinian-Israel conflict. But violence, atrocities, and human rights violations by the Israel Defense Forces are still on the rise. Sadly, international solidarity and world humanitarian organizations have not yet succeeded to force world powers and the Israeli government to end the protracted conflict in Gaza and Rafah.

References
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