GJV: Hasbarah Facebook Campaign is Just Slacktivism

If you are a Jewish student on Facebook, then your exposure to infographics probably stands at around 500% of normal due to the storm of social media hasbarah meant to buoy Israel’s Gaza operation, called Pillar of Defense. Most people don’t think twice about re-posting these images, confident in their “contribution” to Israel’s safety or happy to flex their Zionist bona fides. To Israeli writer Adam Ehad, the slacktivism of social media hasbarah is more than simply ironic. It is tragic. Read the excerpts below from his latest article and check out the rest over the Global Jewish Voice:

There is a somewhat sarcastic term used in Israel to refer to the city of Tel Aviv: “Medinat Tel Aviv” (The State of Tel Aviv). Located in the center of the country, out of range of the vast majority of both Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s missiles […] Tel Aviv’s sirens were sounded, in earnest, for the first time since the Gulf War. […] and the newsfeed on my Facebook page soon featured a barrage of videos, pictures and posts all about the four rockets which have (thus far) landed in Israel’s central region. […] In effect, it seems like nothing more than naivety has turned my entire Facebook newsfeed into a pro-Israel social media campaign. My Israeli friends tell me, “We need to provide alternative information to our friends abroad who only experience the anti-Israel media.” Ironically, it’s only their friends who will see their posts. […] If there is one thing we can all look forward to, it’s the end of the insufferable pomposity of the online campaign. […]

Get the rest of the story over the Global Jewish Voice, an initiative of New Voices Magazine in partnership with AJC: Access and the World Union of Jewish Students.