Israel has lost the war online and here's why.
You see, for long the narrative has always been dominated by the mainstream media.
You know, the same guys that say that Palestinians just so happen to die
while Israelis are brutally killed
or when Palestinian residential apartments are completely leveled to the ground by Israeli missiles
they just so happen to collapse
or when Palestinians are ethnically cleansed and forcefully displaced from their homes,
they're just being evicted following a failed legal dispute.
These are the kinds of voices that have long controlled the narrative
and they've been doing quite a bad job of doing so.
I mean just take a look at this Australian news report
on the pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney.
(voice of new's reposter) - In one symbolic gesture a demonstrator managed
to scale town hall waving a flag to the crowds below,
Bill Hogan joins us now from the CBD and Bill, have police found that man who scaled town hall?
I mean, never mind the 243 Palestinians killed and the 65 children and 39 women brutally murdered,
let's just focus on this one guy waving his Palestinian flag.
Mainstream media is a joke and it sucks
but in all honesty, it doesn't really matter anymore.
See the battle of public opinion is no longer restricted to mainstream media,
the battle is taking place online.
And in the past few weeks,
we've seen Palestinian voices dominate our news feeds and timelines.
We've seen Tik tok and Twitter trend with the hashtags free Palestine
and save sheikh Jarrah.
Millions of voices have been raised across the world in support of the Palestinians
and the movement has gained serious momentum.
So much so that Israel is now losing the battle of public opinion.
Their propaganda is getting squashed online daily and they are clearly beginning to panic.
And it's not just online,
we're seeing some of the largest pro-Palestinian protests in history
take place across the world,
meanwhile Israeli protests are beginning to look like book club gatherings.
And of course, for the first time we're seeing empowered Palestinian voices
represented in the mainstream news.
Voices that are not only successfully countering the narrative
but actively redefining the conversation.
- To start it's not really an eviction, it's forced ethnic displacement to be accurate.
And it's not just the Palestinians,
we're seeing waves of Jewish people come out boldly in protest of Israeli war crimes.
I mean take a look at this American Jewish and Zionist reporter on Fox News.
- It's effectively one of the world's largest prison camps
and it's being bombed with bomb supply by the United States of America,
it's outrageous that we gave Israel these hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons
without insisting on a cease-fire now,
why not a cease-fire now?
We're even beginning to see words like, "Israeli apartheid" and "ethnic cleansing"
now become a part of the mainstream conversation.
With human rights watch, coming out harshly in a 213-page report,
declaring Israel guilty of apartheid,
a statement which was even reiterated by a center for human rights in Israel itself B'TSELEM.
It's clear, Israel has lost the battle of public opinion and it's an incredible sight to behold.
Yet in saying all this, the fight's not over yet.
Online activists have come out claiming their posts are being silenced
and many have accused social media companies of deleting and restricting their posts.
Pressure is also mounting from the Israeli lobby
and its affiliates to silent voices of dissent from celebrities to influencers alike.
I mean, what could have possibly made the Incredible Hulk
to go from bravely speaking out like this..
- When you're talking about that kind of inequality,
that kind of oppression, that kind of apartheid really...
to now tweeting like this?
Speaking the truth is not an easy task
and we're already beginning to see a wave of posts come out online,
expressing that they have either lost their jobs or have been threatened into remaining silent.
Calling for a free Palestine is crucial but it's a struggle that comes with mounting pressure and significant risk
but with our trust in Allah, The One to whom all power belongs
and with our faith in seeing a free Palestine.
Let our fight continue.
Free Palestine.