The not-so-civil online discourse around the Israel-Hamas war
- Grace Mackey
- Apr 7, 2024
- 6 min read
The Oct. 7 Israel-Hamas war was brought to the doorstep of many Americans through social media, and online discourse naturally came with it. Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine users have used the platforms to share their beliefs on the issue, with some users embracing it as a space for not only discourse but also political activism. Whether this discourse has been productive is up for question.
Throughout the nation, there is division over how social media has impacted civil discourse. When it comes to social media’s ability to foster respectful, productive conversations between users with opposing views, younger generations appear to be more optimistic than older generations.
According to a survey by Pew Research Center in 2022, 51% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 29 see social media increasing tolerance among its users for diverse views, with only 28% of U.S. adults over the age of 50 agreeing. While younger generations appear to have a more positive view of the effects of social media on tolerance, this outlook does not extend into the realm of civil discourse for most Americans.
The following chart displays the U.S. public perception of social media’s impact on civil discourse in 2022. It shows the percentage of Americans who believe social media creates more civility, less civility, or does not have much impact. According to the chart, 16.2% of Americans do not see social media having much of an impact, 14.1% believe it creates more civility, and 69.7% believe it has less civility.
The Israel-Hamas war brings both old and new frustrations with online dialogue between opposing views. Both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict have their fair share of troubles with online civil discourse, despite their recognition of its potential to encourage helpful conversations.
Amna Alian, a local Palestinian looking to start a chapter of American for Justice for Palestine in South Florida, looks optimistically to social media as a space for productive and educational civil discourse, as well as political mobilization.
“Finally, the American people, the world, now can hear the other side, because it’s people talking to people. That’s what social media is,” Alian said. “Social media does give us our voice back and it does allow us to organize and come together.”
Lesley Flahardy, a Palestinian history student at Palm Beach Atlantic University, shared Alian’s convictions about social media as a place for political activism. She argued that every user can speak out against what’s wrong, even if they aren’t the most well-informed.
“If you know that innocent people are dying, how informed do you really need to be to say something along the lines of, ‘That’s not okay'?” Flahardy said.
Alian agreed with the perspective that social media can potentially be a positive force of activism and dialogue about the Israel-Hamas war. However, she has found it difficult to have positive conversations online. Alian argues that social media conversations lack productivity because of the lies being spread by pro-Israel users. As a response, she attempts to expose their lies online.
“You can have a dialogue with non-Zionist Jews. With the Zionist Jews, there’s no way you can because they are just willing to continue to stand for the propaganda, the lies, the crimes,” Alian said. “If you establish this state in a criminal way and if you lied about the establishment of the state, you can’t defend yourself. All you can do is continue to lie, so there’s no dialogue.”.
Alian also pointed out that she’s been unable to speak freely about the conflict online without her words getting labeled as hate speech.
“If you call the Israelites terrorists themselves, you can get censored. You can lose your account temporarily or permanently,” Alian said.
Among pro-Israel social media users, the negative sentiment in online dialogue about the Middle Eastern conflict is shared.
Hindy Krasnianski is a Jewish Instagram user who works at the Palm Beach Synagogue. She described an interaction she had with a former Jewish high school classmate who was posting pro-Palestine content on her Instagram story. She said that her attempt to engage in productive dialogue about this conflict went nowhere.
Krasnianski’s questions for this user consisted of, “Why doesn’t ‘Free Palestine’ recognize that Hamas is radical? Why is Israel put to blame if we clearly see the evil that Hamas is capable of and Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza’s border to protect Israelis from Hamas and terror? This is not an occupation, so I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.” Her former classmate responded, “Hey, I appreciate your openness and dialogue and may take some time to process some response, but I will try to get to it soon,” but did not send another response.
Krasnianski described this type of response online as quite regular. “They will say something and then when you answer back to them, they won’t answer back,” Krasnianski said about her interactions with pro-Palestine social media users. “It is so easy to put something out there and to feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve done something.”
Jack Hasson is a Jewish and half-Israeli student at PBA and has had a similar level of unproductivity in his attempts to start an online civil discourse about the war. In responding to an indie rock band called Vansire who claimed on Instagram Palestinians are indigenous to the land of Israel with historical information about Jewish people that Hasson believed contradicted their statement.
“I just had to say, ‘Look, I’m a fan of you, and this is ridiculous, and here’s why it’s ridiculous,” Hasson said. “I told them about the archeological evidence, and they said, ‘Whatever man, free Gaza, free Palestine.’ They had nothing else to say after that.”
When discussing some of the other issues with discourse online, Krasnianski expressed that social media has an oversimplifying nature to it, which boils down the Israel-Hamas war into two clear sides, excluding some of its complexities.
“One thing that you’ll find interesting is that in this whole social media thing, people are very into buzzwords,” Krasnianski pointed out. “All these words, occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, these are all words that are connected and related to the Holocaust. So these words are buzzwords because, in our minds, we’re like, ‘Oh this is black and white.”
Hasson made a similar argument about the social media language and blamed misconceptions about Israel’s origins and diversity.
When discussing those who refer to Jewish citizens in Israel as “white settlers” and “colonists,” Hasson said, “There are hundreds of thousands of black Jews that live in Israel. And there are millions of Jews from Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, so the whole white settler colonialism thing is ridiculous.”
Hasson shared a photo of him and his business partner, Victor Robinson, who is both Jewish and Ethiopian as evidence of the diversity in Israel.
Dr. Joel Beinin, a Middle East historian and former Stanford professor, pointed out the deep emotional ties that many older Americans have to Israel that the younger generations simply don’t. Beinin cited the establishment of Israel as compensation for the Holocaust as a reason for these ties.
“They deeply and sincerely identify with Israel,” Beinin said. He described their mindset as that of, “This is what’s gonna protect the Jewish people from anything like the Holocaust happening.”
According to Beinin, another potential reason for the pro-Israel view among older generations is religion, specifically in the form of Evangelical Christianity. He said that they view the establishment of Israel
as one step closer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Beinin argued that while those in support of Israel and Palestine are at odds, many people sincerely support either side, as their passion is often backed by history and religion. The younger generation may lack a long history with Israel and are more prone to support Palestine as a result.
As a supporter of Palestine, Flahardy also claimed that opinions about the war are generalized online.
“You can be anti-Hamas but pro-Palestine and you could be anti-the Israeli Government but not anti-semitic,” Flahardy said. “There’s a clear differentiation between the two, and I think that most conflict happens when people group it all together.”
Flahardy also referenced her mother’s experience with online discourse as she has posted in support of Palestine, and said that much of it has not been very civil. She said that her mother frequently receives direct messages on social media doubting her Christian faith because she supports Palestine.
The effect of online discourse and political mobilization is complex. For example, A 2020 article written at the University of Milan studied the relationship between electoral participation and diverse opinions online, finding that election turnout was the lowest amidst “total opposition” and “complete agreement,” but highest among competing opinions.
The Pew Research Center reported in 2022 that 57% of Americans think that social media has been more of a good thing for democracy than bad, and 73% say that it has made people more “informed about current events in other countries.”
Regardless of how divisive the Israel-Hamas war is, both sides emphasized the need for not only discourse but discourse that is truly civil and productive.
“I’m fighting so hard for the day when we can speak honestly about what’s happening, and we can hear from both sides and then we can resolve the problem,” Alian said. “As long as we cannot hear both sides or allow both sides to speak and present their case, there is no other course. We’re gonna keep doing the same thing that we’ve done for 75 years.”
By Grace Mackey
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