Is Social Media the Most Dangerous Weapon Against Israel?
By Ben Stone, 2020–2021 CAMERA Fellow at Duke University
In 2021, social media is a weapon; it has the power to politicize and the power to spread disinformation. And tens of thousands of students across the US — maybe more — have successfully used social media to find their anti-Israel voices over the past week.
The situation between Israel and Hamas — and the Palestinians in general — is quite nuanced, yet far too many young people have taken to social media to bash Israel for these events, with absolutely no knowledge of the issues involved.
They have done no research into the topic, but simply re-post one or two posts by anti-Israel propagandists that give biased and false narratives, only adding to the divide.
It takes fewer than 30 seconds to repost an Instagram story, and it comes far too easily for American students, who are removed and safe from the barrages of rockets aimed at Israel.
Duke University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter and other Duke students have been posting Instagram stories purporting to explain “What’s really going on in Sheik Jarrah,” claiming that Israel is suddenly evicting Palestinian families out of the blue and engaging in ethnic cleansing.
Click here to read the rest on the CAMERA on Campus blog
