Palestine and the Jewish State

Palestine under Occupation: Reaching the ‘Other’ through Bearing Witness and Citizen Journalism Introduction The conflict in Palestine is largely portrayed in the mainstream media as a complex issue (Chomsky & Pappe, 2015). A theoretical reason for this portrayal of the conflict is rooted in what Robinson (2002) has described as the ‘CNN effect’—the special relationship that exists between the state and the media, which facilitates the construction of a narrative that supports the aims of the state, particularly when it comes to foreign intervention.

Al-Ghazzi (2017) has described, for example, how CNN uses embedded reporting to foster a narrative supportive of the U.S.’s aims in the Middle East. With a particular focus on the Palestinian conflict, Western mainstream media and states partake in the CNN effect by framing the conflict as ‘complicated’. This complication, however, is not represented in the largesse unevenly distributed between the two sides of the conflict. That Israel is the recipient of billions of dollars of aid annually from the U.S.

government is no secret; nor should it be surprising that Palestine receives but a fraction of the same sort of assistance: Congress has requested only approximately $250 million in aid for Palestine for fiscal year 2019 (Zanotti, 2018), while Israel on the other hand has been selected to receive nearly $40 billion in military aid over the next ten years (Baker & Hirschfeld Davis, 2016).

Were the conflict depicted by mainstream media in much simpler terms—i.e., as a Zionist-occupation of Palestinian territory—it would be much more difficult for the state to justify this kind of support to Israel.

This uneven distribution of funds as well as the coverage of the conflict by mainstream media suggests that the Western state is far more sympathetic to the Israeli-side of the story—and as Robinson (2002) indicates, the effect of spectacle, the application of soft power, the use of embedded reporting, interventionism in the guise of humanitarianism, and the CNN effect all go hand in hand.

Soft power or the influence of political aims through the injection of funds into the targeted arena is a common method employed by the U.S. overseas, and as Seib (2009) points out, ‘the effective exercise of soft power depends largely on its being a part of a comprehensive, well-designed public diplomacy effort’ (p. 780). The ‘complex’ narrative regarding the Palestinian conflict is part of that ‘well-designed’ effort on the part of the state and the media industry.

One major factor that is contributing to the emergence of the other side of the story, however—i.e., the Palestinian side of the conflict—and, by extension, potentially enabling more sympathy to be generated among the Western populace for the Palestinian side—is the rise of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism has come about thanks to technological innovations, which have essentially placed cameras and video recorders in the hands of citizens via mobile devices (iPhones, Androids, hand-held cameras, etc.).

These users can record real-life events and share information via social media with followers all over the world. What was once a monopoly of information in the days of old media has become a wide-open, much more democratic field in which citizen journalism gives what supporters of this type of news (also known as alternative news) view as the other side of the story—the side that ‘fake news’ media does not provide (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017).

The question is: is citizen journalism truly capable of opposing the special relationship between the state and its media—i.e., the CNN effect? Does citizen journalism pose a threat—informational, social, political or even economical—to the combination of soft power, interventionism, embedded reporting and the CNN effect that the U.S. possesses? To answer that question, this paper provides an examination of the ways in which social media platforms are being used as a tool in citizen journalism with a focus on the Palestinian conflict.

Particularly, the study explores the rise of blogging in Palestine, with a focus on Electronic Intifada, the Palestine Chronicle, and independent bloggers. Twitter, photojournalism, and the idea of digital information-sharing as a form of education and as a social weapon to be used against the state (that is, against Western enablers of Israel) are also explored. Finally, whether all of this information sharing via citizen journalism leads to economic, social and political changes with regard to the popular narrative on Palestine will be discussed.

In political, social and economic terms, the link between citizen journalism and BDS (Boycotting, Divestment, Sanctions) movement will be analyzed. Against this analysis, the question of whether citizen journalism is a force to be reckoned with or rather merely a virtual reality for people to feel as though they are empowered and in charge of change may be answered. Citizen Journalism Citizen Journalism consists of a range of web-based practices whereby ‘ordinary’ users engage in journalistic practices.

Citizen journalism includes practices such as current affairs-based blogging, photo and video sharing, and posting eyewitness commentary on current events (Goode, 2009). It purports to cut out the middle-man of the mainstream news service industry and thus evade any type of control, censorship or obstacle presented by outlets that only entertain the notion of certain kinds of narratives being developed and promoted (Allan & Thorson, 2009). It dispenses with ‘the authority of the professional journalist’ while still providing original reporting and interviewing for its audience (Kperogi, 2011).

Electronic Intifada Beginning as a blog following the 2000 Intifada, Electronic Intifada serves as an activism platform that focuses on Palestine, its people, politics, culture, and place in the world. The idea for the blog started with a young journalist wanting to share the ongoing crisis in Gaza to the world despite all the challenges the Palestinians faced: ‘We had to find a way to keep the world updated while the electricity and therefore the Internet are out.

Our friends and colleagues in the West Bank offered to tweet on our behalf if we send them the updates through the mobile network’ (Baker, 2012). The impact of Electronic Intifada on the BDS movement has never been quantified, but the platform provides visible and constant support for the movement, which has gained traction among Western activists such as Roger Waters, who has had his coverage of his performances in Germany cancelled by the German media following his public support of BDS (Al Jazeera News, 2017).

+972 Magazine Another example of a blog news platform is +972 Magazine, in which ‘each blogger owns his or her channel and has full rights over its contents’ (+972 Magazine, 2018). This platform includes works by both Israeli and Palestinian citizen journalists and focuses attention on abuses by the Israeli state, acts of heroism by both Israelis and Palestinians, and other aspects of the conflict that do not receive attention in state-directed media outlets.

The Palestine Chronicle: Blogging as a Form of Collaboration Blogs with a special focus on Palestine have turned more and more into news platforms with live updates and collaborative interactive exchanges as well as online platforms for independent news reporting in times of crisis times. The Palestine Chronicle is one example of this: what began as a small exercise in blogging has become a major source of independent news, with the help of independent, professional journalists who write with a desire to bring objectivity to the Palestinian conflict.

These sites are numerous and indicate that interest in what is truly taking place in Palestine is growing among Westerners—but is it making any difference on the political, social or economic levels? As Pappe (2009) states: ‘Activism among young people has sparked broader popular movements…. They have been talking about Zionism, writing about the occupation and are actually worried. Sooner or later this should affect the population and make a huge difference’ (Chomsky & Pappe, 2015, p. 85).

Thus, goal-oriented action and social change may be the ultimate objective—but, for now, activist blogging might only be a way for Palestinians and those sympathetic to their plight to feel empowered in what often seems a helpless situation amid the heavy hand of the authoritarian security apparatus and the hegemonic state-directed media apparatus. Even the recent protest against President Trump’s decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was muted by the mainstream media.

As the numbers of Palestinian dead and wounded climbed upward into the hundreds, the citizen journalists took to social media to raise awareness. Yet the move of the embassy proceeded and was lauded as a great victory for Israel. The suffering of Palestine continues to go unrecognized in mainstream media: it does not accord with the desired CNN effect. One must wonder, therefore, whether citizen journalism will ever have more impact than giving helpless citizens a brief feeling of relevance and power by sharing their stories.

Chomsky and Pappe (2015) indicate that citizen journalism can make a difference and lead to social, political and economic change. They point to the protests against the Vietnam War, the release of the Pentagon Papers, and the movements supported by students. Yet, that example pre-dates citizen journalism in the Digital Age. Today’s citizen journalists are online and their impact can be calculated in terms of numbers of social media followers. In terms of getting a Western nation to condemn Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, time will tell.

Till then, social media is by far the chosen platform of citizen journalists in Palestine seeking to tell and share their side of the story—but it too has its limits. Twitter Twitter illustrates the ease with which a message on social media can become popular quickly and—just as quickly—be shut down for violating the ‘rules and regulations’ of corporate social media platforms.

Numerous voices have been censored—their accounts banned, shadow-banned, or suspended—for promoting what appears to be a narrative contrary to that produced by the CNN effect. For example, Ayman Mohyeldin, an NBC News correspondent, was purportedly pulled out of Gaza after posting on Twitter about an Israeli strike that killed four Palestinian boys, accompanied by the hashtag #horror (Carr, 2014). Then there is the death sentence of Syrian social media activist Mohammed Abdel-Mawla al-Hariri charged with ‘high treason and contacts with foreign parties’ (Glasser, 2013).

This case is significant because of the chilling effect it may have had on opponents of the government and its potential impact on the flow of information coming out of the country. Around the same time, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, spoke to a Russian TV channel and conceded that his government lost the media war the day the uprising began (Al Jazeera, 2012). Yet Twitter and other social media platforms have helped spread information not covered by mainstream news outlets.

For example, the story of the organization of a protest across all Palestinian territories on 15 March 2011 describes how Gaza Youth Break Out, through a Facebook page and Twitter account, promoted democratizing Palestinian politics and ending the political division. Locally, the news was dominated by reports of the killing of a settler family and sporadic attacks from Israel.

While the protests managed to attract attention as evidenced by photos posted on Facebook or Flickr and then tweeted, the protesters used #Palestine to circulate their demands for an immediate halt to protest repression and respect for freedom. The protests, broader events in the region as well as the eighth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie (a young Palestinian rights activist) led to several hundred solidarity tweets which denoted clear support from across the world.

Education as a Weapon As Chomsky and Pappe (2015) show, education is vital to change and for Palestinian rights to be recognized by states in the West, education rather than state-sanctioned propaganda is required. For that reason, education can be considered a non-violent weapon: it produces change not through Western-style ‘humanitarian intervention’ in which bombs and missiles predominantly figure but rather through awareness and understanding. Digital information sharing is a major part of educating the masses in the 21st century.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population by using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles, is an example of an activist group committed to using digital information sharing for educative purposes.

By publishing records of its work and activities online, ISM (2011) ‘aims to support and strengthen the Palestinian popular resistance.’ Its activities include ‘being immediately alongside Palestinians in olive groves, on school runs, at demonstrations, within villages being attacked, by houses being demolished or where Palestinians are subject to consistent harassment or attacks from soldiers and settlers as well as numerous other situations’ (ISM, 2011). Their educative role is based on challenging the narratives that spring up in opposition to Palestinian rights activism.

Thus, they state their objection to their critics’ application of the term anti-Semitism to their activities, citing this term as a tool for stifling criticism of Israel or opposition to Zionism. They argue that this term falsely conflates being Jewish with support for an ideology, Zionism, or the colonial and apartheid policies of the state of Israel. The ISM shows how it is possible to use an educational approach to change minds and attract attention through the use of non-violence.

For the ISM, education is their weapon of choice. Teaching itself could be classified as transmitting information to the world and to the global mainstream media through bearing witness. Indeed, the ISM combines activism with citizen journalism and education to promote social, political and economic change. As Hamdi (2011) puts it, ‘I wanted to show them how the geography of Palestine is broken by settlements, as though they are the centre and the Palestinian towns are marginal.

No propaganda; we let them see the truth’ (Hamdi, 2011)—this is the essence of the ISM’s education as a weapon approach to media. The BDS Movement If citizen journalism is to have an impact, that impact must be discernible in terms of social, economic or political action. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality with respect to the Palestinian people. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

BDS supporters seek to pressure Israel in three principal ways: (a) by boycotting Israeli goods, universities and cultural institutions; (b) by divesting from companies that provide vital equipment to the Israeli military; and (c) by urging countries to place economic sanctions on Israel for its human rights abuses. While the BDS is a campaign to boycott ‘every Israeli product’, Chomsky states that ‘we need to make sure we are not staying at the level of slogans….

It’s an era when between slogans and the truth is an abyss’. In other words, sloganeering may sound appealing to the ears—but the BDS movement is about action based on empirical evidence—facts—the truth—which is what action must be based upon in order for peace to be achieved.

The fact that Western states overwhelmingly support Israel in its occupation of Palestine indicates that In order for citizen journalism to be effective, change is what must be produced—and the BDS movement is the best indicator of whether social, political or economic change is possible.

Chomsky argues that the more one understands how the special relationship between the state and the media works, the more one knows that boycotting needs to be aimed at the USA as well as at Israel in order for it to be effective (Chomsky & Pappe, 2015). The BDS movement is thus the measure of the social, economic and political achievement of citizen journalism.

If citizen journalism is to stand as a real threat to the power of mainstream media engaged in achieving the CNN effect, it must be able to convert its online presence and sharing of information into a real change situation. Boycotting Israel would not only unite supporters of Palestinian rights but also use economic and political leverage to force state governments to recognize the inequality that currently characterizes the Palestinian conflict. With Israel being supported by billions of dollars and the plight of the Palestinians virtually being blacked-out.