Hot words online, desolation on the ground

This posting has 5 items:
1) Ma’an: The online front of a Third Intifada;
2) ISM: Palestinian and International civilians to resist revenge home demolition;
3) Interakyson.com: Fed up and angry, social media-savvy ‘Generation Oslo’ leads Palestinian unrest;
4) Al Monitor The ‘smartphone intifada’, women shoot the action;
5) BBC: Is Palestinian-Israeli violence being driven by social media?;

Another iconic image of a sole Palestinian man in Kfar Qaddum hurling a stone at seemingly impossible odds. Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP

The online front of a Third Intifada

By Albana Dwonch, Ma’an news
October 14, 2015

“Are we experiencing a third Intifada?” This is the most prevalent question puzzling local and international media as an atmosphere resembling the First and Second Intifadas envelops East Jerusalem, the West Bank and now the Gaza Strip.

Browsing through visual evidence online, where 1.6 million Palestinian youth express themselves daily, the answer may seem certain. Images of youth with their heads and faces wrapped in the iconic black and white checkered Palestinian kuffiyeh — with legs slightly bent in the air and arms stretched wide open clutching rocks — are flooding Facebook pages.

Meanwhile, we see daily posts, tweets and hashtags, such as #ThirdIntifada; #IsraeliOccupation; #gazarevolts, #Palestine #JerusalemIntifada connecting young people from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem who are otherwise geographically disconnected. Loose networks of young social media activists seem at the moment to be bonded by resistance against Israel’s occupation.

It looks and feels like an online front of a Third Intifada is raging in various social media platforms.

Yet, behind the images of youthful heroism and at the very centre of these loose networks, also lies a deep rift: The emotional ties between young social media activists that embrace the notion of intifada online and the political leaders who are expected to lead it on the ground are severely broken. “F&^k Israel… and a special F%$k you to the Palestinian leadership, who are doing nothing because they are worried about their seats,” wrote a member of a youth group online whose cursing language was also present in an explosive Facebook post, associated with triggering the youth-led 15 March movement in 2011.

Along with hashtags in English such as #ThirdIntifada, others in Arabic such as #Notofactionsandtheirseats are widely distributed and shared. The same young people who embrace the symbols and images of intifada simultaneously reject the traditional leaders of the First and Second Intifadas.

This online battlefield is indicative of a situation that has been brewing for some time now. Most of the polls, studies and reports in at least the past two years confirm the lost faith of a majority of Palestinian youth in their own leaders and parties. A report by Sharek Youth forum in 2013 concluded that at least 57 percent of polled youth in Palestine have abandoned their parties and traditional forms of organized activism. Another poll conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Research this year concludes that due to the increasingly dire conditions, the majority of youth living in Gaza simply want to emigrate.

The same poll indicates that young Palestinians prefer to personalize and express their daily hardships online, away from the established platforms of current political institutions. This growing gap reveals that beyond the revolutionary origins of the concept of intifada and its emotive power for Palestinians lies the aftermath of each intifada: a bitter reminder for young Palestinians of failed mobilization structures, internal division and their own political exclusion.

“Whether online or offline, we are trapped,” said another activist who decided to give up the protests altogether. “Trapped in a situation where if you are not with us, you are against us.” The 15 March demonstration remains a bitter testament of that reality. For too many young people, that demonstration also called for an intifada — one intended to end internal political division. It did not.

So with everything that’s going on in the streets and online, is the conception of intifada eluding everyone? Is intifada what we are seeing these days: an unpredictable series of unorganized violence by occupied people who are simply fed up? Is it an armed resistance led by traditional factions? Is it the ever-growing issue-based activism? Or is it the old cause, that of a strategic all-encompassing movement that aims to achieve national liberation? The answer, if you look online, may be that intifada at the moment is embedded in Palestinians’ personalized forms of resistance, with youth reshaping the old conceptions of an intifada, both online and offline.

Take the case of Muhannad Halabi [see below] : On one hand, he declared his call for a Third Intifada on his Facebook page. On the other, he ditched the online forum and pursued his own form of intifada: He consumed all of his personalized rage on Oct. 1 by stabbing four Israelis and killing two. Officially, Halabi was not associated with any Palestinian party or traditional movement on the ground.

There are others who may be associated with factions, however most recent stabbings have not been factional but rather “self-initiated,” said another activist. This backs the prevalent opinion the current spike of violence is not part of an organized effort or strategy by the current factions. Meanwhile, a growing number of young Palestinians are battling their own forms of intifada. Some of it is directed against Israel, but some is directed against their own leadership: protesting against their authoritarian governance, the lack of electricity, or a range of other issues.

“There is a growing mass of Palestinian youth who employ various social media tools for different types of activism,” said a social media trainer and activist during an interview via Skype. “The problem is that the parties always stick to their firm ideologies. There is no strategy, no interest from the current parties and organizations to capitalize on this energy which exists online.”

The problem for the parties though, remains the following: that these young activists show to have the capability to organize, but without using the mobilization structure of the established organizations on the ground, preferring instead various platforms of social media. And they are getting better at it with every temporarily failed effort.
What then does the Third Intifada really mean?

What’s going on in the streets does trigger the memories and rhetoric of the revolutionary origins of the First Intifada. The kuffiyeh, rocks and flag are powerful symbols of the collective hopes of a people to rise up against injustice. Yet, based on the opinions of these activists – this is not a Third Intifada. What seems clear this time is that the rupture between a personalized and a traditionally organized intifada is official. Without an organized inclusive effort to capitalize on the disenchantment of this growing mass of young people, an intifada with the potential to lead to a better tomorrow for Palestine will remain as elusive as it has proven to be historically. Until then, the battleground that rages online and offline will forge ahead, enabling, at least momentarily, a personalized intifada for each Palestinian.

Albana Dwonch is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington currently conducting her research and writing her dissertation in Jerusalem.

 Muhannad Halabi, aged 19, stabbed and killed two Israeli settlers in Jerusalem . He was then shot dead and his family home ransacked by the IDF on October 3rd, 2015.

 

Palestinian and International civilians to resist revenge home demolition

By International Solidarity Movement
October 08, 2015

Palestinian civilians joined by International solidarity activists will gather tonight, Wednesday 7, October ’15, at the home of the bereaved family of Muhannad Halabi, which is threatened by demolition in retaliation for the fatal stabbing of two Israeli settlers in the Old City Jerusalem on Saturday 3 October ’15.

Muhannad Halabi, who was a 19 year old student, was killed by the Israeli military at the scene of the stabbing. A home of his family in the village of Surda, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, was ransacked on Sunday morning and the family was violently attacked by the Israeli military and Muhannad’s uncle sustained a head wound requiring five stitches in the raid. Occupation forces are expected to carry out a revenge demolition of the family home.

Revenge demolitions of the houses of Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis, as a means of collective punishment, has been Israel’s long established practice. To further the retaliation, Muhannad’s body is being held by the Israeli government and refused return to his mother, who has been hospitalized three times due to grief and anxiety.

A member of the Abu Jaber family sits on the ruins of the East Jerusalem home that was punitively demolished by Israeli forces on 6 October 2015. A member of the family, Ghassan Abu Jaber, killed four worshippers in an attack on a synagogue last year. Photo by Yotam Ronen ActiveStills

Following a series of new measures announced by Benjamin Netanyahu the retaliatory house demolitions have been moved forward. On October 6th two houses were blown up which were former homes of two Palestinians who carried out attacks against the Israelis last year.

Marie, an international activist from the US staying in the house stated: ‘Punishing a family for something that one of their members have done, is just not acceptable. This is illegal and should not happen in any country which respects human rights and considers itself democratic’.

‘We have to be present at this horrible and violent miscarriage of justice, whose only aim is to humiliate and make destitute even more innocent Palestinians living under a brutal Israeli occupation’, added Dezeray also from the United States.

A NEW INTIFADA? | Fed up and angry, social media-savvy ‘Generation Oslo’ leads Palestinian unrest

By Sarah Benhaida and Hossam Ezzedine, Agence France-Presse / Interakyson.com
October 14, 2015

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — An 18-year-old Palestinian, his face covered with a black-and-white keffiyeh, is fed up with talk about negotiations.

“We’re going to keep throwing stones at soldiers,” he said at an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where youths have been gathering daily to protest.

“The Palestinian Authority will stop us because they prefer negotiations, but we have to say no. We must show that we do not agree.”

Amid violent protests and a wave of stabbings spreading fear in Israel and warnings that a full-scale uprising could erupt, a new generation of Palestinians has been leading the unrest.

It is in some ways a post-Oslo generation — those who have grown up in the aftermath of the Oslo accords of the 1990s that promised Palestinians much, but which many young people now see as a failure.

They know little of the 1987-1993 and 2000-2005 intifadas, when hundreds of people were killed in near daily Israel-Palestinian violence.

For many of these youths, their horizon has been the Israeli-built separation barrier cutting off the West Bank.

Their image of Israel is to a large degree soldiers and Jewish settlers whose homes are built on land they see as part of their future state — itself an extremely distant dream at best.

Relatives of 13-year-old Palestinian Ahmad Sharake, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes near the Beit El Jewish settlement yesterday, mourn over his body during the funeral procession on October 12, 2015, in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazun, on the outskirts of Ramallah. Sharake was killed, on October 11, in clashes that broke out as hundreds of Palestinians near Ramallah attempted to approach a road to throw stones and firebombs at settlers

They have followed the Arab Spring uprisings and the three wars in Gaza since 2008 on the 24-hour news channels.

Two-thirds of the Palestinian population is under 30, and the Internet has fed their anger and stoked protests, with pictures of “martyrs” and youths throwing stones repeatedly shared on social media.

Footage of Israeli security forces shooting dead alleged attackers has also spread widely online.

The latest trend has been for youths to smile at photographers as they are being arrested, images that have caused outrage in Israel.

‘A martyr like Ahmed’

At a funeral Monday for 13-year-old Ahmed Sharake, killed during clashes in Ramallah, his friends jostled to get closer to his body, their anger palpable.

Ahmed’s classmate Firas, also 13, said “it doesn’t matter if we go to school tomorrow or not. What matters is the fight against the army and the settlers.”

Asked about his future, he replied bluntly: “I prefer to become a martyr like Ahmed.”

A poll last month revealed that more than half of Palestinians no longer believe in a two-state solution, with a majority saying they favored a return to armed uprising in the absence of peace talks.

Since the beginning of October, around 30 Palestinians have died, including alleged attackers, and hundreds have been injured, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Another 400 have been arrested, around half of them between the ages of 14 and 20, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Club rights group.

Seven Israelis have been killed and 98 wounded since an upsurge in violence began on October 1, according to Israeli rescue authorities.

The Palestinian leadership has struggled to control the unrest despite president Mahmud Abbas calling for peaceful resistance.

“This is the generation that saw the growth of settlements, and these clashes are a natural response to the politics of successive Israeli governments since Oslo,” Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told reporters.

Ironically, many of those in the streets would likely reject the idea that Erekat represents them, and protesters have even chanted slogans against Abbas, whom they accuse of giving in to Israel’s demands too easily.

Khalil Shaheen, a writer and political analyst, told AFP those on the streets were no longer responsive to the Palestinian Authority, the governing administration that Abbas heads and which was created by the Oslo accords.

It was to have been in place for just five years, when a final peace agreement would be negotiated. That was two decades ago.

“This new generation is using social media to incite and mobilize, a way unknown to the traditionalists in the Palestinian factions,” Shaheen said.

They are not only angry with the Israeli occupation, but also “with the choices taken by the Palestinian authorities, including the Oslo agreement.”

One resident of the Jazalone refugee camp near Ramallah, where 13-year-old Sharake’s funeral was held, said young people were acting on their own.

“The youths leave by themselves. We are not sending our children against soldiers,” he said. “They go out alone because their whole life they’ve lived under the threat of settlers and soldiers.”

Palestinian women take pictures on smartphones during the funeral of a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Feb. 24, 2015. Photo by Ammar Awad / Reuters


The ‘smartphone intifada’

Social media is playing a vital role in the current Palestinian protests.

By Daoud Kuttab, Al Monitor / Palestine Pulse
October 13, 2015

Every revolution seems to have perfected or made particular use of a technological advancement. The current series of protests begun by Palestinian activists Sept. 13 is no exception. Social media via smartphone appears to be the flavor of the month in modes of communication, due to the ease it offers for instantly uploading video.

Danny Qumsieh, owner of the radio station Mawwal FM in Bethlehem, believes that the availability of high-quality mobile video cameras has made a huge difference. “Now everyone is involved in taking videos, positing them and sharing them with as many people as possible,” Qumsieh told Al-Monitor.

Mamoun Matar, a leading Palestinian broadcasting engineer, observed that technology has allowed many more people to take part in the ongoing Palestinian national struggle, stating, “Everyone has a mobile device or a laptop, and those who can capture photos and videos, and the rest work in the backrooms to edit and circulate the powerful images around the world.” Matar pointed out that young activists today are doing much of the work that traditional broadcast media used to do. This is unlike the second intifada that began in October 2000, when Al Jazeera and other Arab and regional satellite stations actively covered Palestinian protests. “Not this time,” said Matar. “They are busy with violent events in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Libya, so they are not giving Palestine as much attention as before.”

Khaled Abu Aker, director of Amin, one of Palestine’s first news websites, told Al-Monitor that for the first time, Palestinians no longer need traditional media. He said, “During the first and second intifada, we used to get calls asking the media to come and cover events. Today, the youth are doing the broadcasting themselves.” One entrepreneurial media outlet, however, has been providing the live TV coverage that many Palestinians and their supporters seek. Technicians from the Palestine News Network posted a camera near the main location of protests in Bethlehem and was able to live-stream scenes from the protests.

Ahmad Buderi, a veteran Palestinian journalist, observed that while most people around the world use social media to share family pictures and videos, Palestinians put it to a totally different use. “In Palestine, especially during times of tension, social media becomes a political platform, often reaching the status of political mobilization,” he told Al-Monitor.

Buderi, who worked for the BBC and various regional TV networks, commented on how leaders and politicians also use social media for their own purposes. “What is unusual is that political leaders aggregate various powerful videos and then write commentary that reflects their own ideological point of view,” Buderi said. He argues that ideological and political leaders use this method because of the weakness and restricted nature of the local media, and because they want to reach youths on the front lines of protests.

During the first intifada, which began in 1987, the main tools of communication were fax machines and the printing press. This time around, neither is being used.

“In the previous protests, the Israelis tried to track fax communications and looked for the printing presses on which the underground leaflets were printed prior to their distribution. Now it is all technical on both sides,” Buderi explained. He also pointed out that the use of technology is not restricted to the Palestinians, of course. The Israeli military and intelligence services today are also using high-powered tools to monitor and identify protest leaders.

The videos from the protests that are going viral tend to fall into one of three categories. Some of them record clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. A video recorded moments after a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem Oct. 3 was posted on the same day and received more than 142,000 hits on YouTube. Other videos document the Israelis’ use of excessive force against Palestinians. CCTV footage recorded Oct. 7 at a supermarket in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Tor shows Israeli security forces following a Palestinian boy into the store, roughing up the child and beating the shop owner. More than 624,000 people have viewed the two-minute clip.

Perhaps the videos viewed the most are those that document simple acts of courage by Palestinians. A video recorded Oct. 10 shows an unarmed elderly Hebron man verbally confronting well-armed Israeli soldiers and trying to force them through sheer determination to leave the area. More than a million people have viewed this video, filmed by Bilal H. Altaweel, a young Palestinian photographer from Hebron. Videos and photos are also highlighting the marked increase in the number of young Palestinian women participating in the protests, a new phenomenon.

The 1979 Iranian revolution featured the widespread use of audiocassette tapes to spread the word, and the first intifada harnessed the power of faxes to disseminate instructions among the public. Today’s Palestinians are using social media to broaden support for their cause and to communicate among themselves. In all these cases, however, technology alone does not make the rebellion. People do, with an assist from technology to inform and encourage within and beyond a movement.

Is Palestinian-Israeli violence being driven by social media?

By BBC
October 15, 2015

EXCERPT

While there is no clear evidence that the attacks have been centrally organised, Palestinians have taken to social media to celebrate and encourage them.
In the wake of the first attacks, Hamas, the militant group which dominates Gaza, published a video online encouraging Arabs to knife Jews and launch a new intifada (uprising). The staged scene, set to dramatic music, depicted two “Jews” bullying Arab children, before an Arab bystander stabs them both.

The clip was removed from Hamas’ YouTube channel after Israel’s foreign ministry complained that it glorified violence and incited more attacks.

Other posts praising and encouraging attacks on Israelis have also emerged on YouTube and Facebook, while Twitter hashtags including “Jerusalem Intifada” or “Intifada of the Knives” are gaining traction on Palestinian social media.

Many of the attacks and aftermath have been filmed on mobile phones and CCTV, getting quickly uploaded and shared. Israeli officials have expressed fear that images of assailants being shot could fuel anger and inspire further attacks.

Experts have also noticed a marked increase in anti-Arab rhetoric on Israeli social media sites, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. It says the use of inciteful language among Israelis on the internet soared in the wake of the first stabbing attacks.