The Intifada Will Be Live Streamed — Is That Bad?
We in the pro-Israel community have spent the past decade bracing for the next intifada — another uprising. And now that it seems to be upon us, we are set with our talking points: why peace talks failed, why the Hamas and Palestinian Authority unity government is to blame, how the Israelis try to protect civilian life and so on.
What we are not prepared for is seeing it all through the eyes of social media.
I am not speaking of the tweets, status updates and other editorial blurbs shared by people who have an interest in the conflict and a strong opinion about it. Those micro-blasts of opinion may test friendships and drive people from each other. But that is not a new phenomenon.
I’m speaking of the immediate first-person journalism that thrives on social media: people who capture in a video, using a simple smartphone, the actual events as they happen. In just a few days, I’ve seen a bus filled with Israeli passengers pummeled by rocks. I’ve seen Israelis rushing to a bomb shelter in Beersheba. The most upsetting part of that video is what you hear — children sobbing uncontrollably, calling out for their parents. I have seen videos taken by Palestinians of Israeli-driven cars barreling through a group of youths throwing stones, bodies flying after impact.
Much more of this is coming, and it will be deeply upsetting. When the last intifada was petering out, Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist. The iPhone didn’t exist. The ability to rapidly capture and share videos didn’t exist. Now there are millions of people walking around Israel and the Palestinian territories, all of them capable of capturing in an instant a moment of sheer terror, panic and death.
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/201809/the-intifada-will-be-live-streamed-is-that-bad/#ixzz37fUhTVA8
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