Raveeha Rabbani - Week 11 - Social Media has Become the Last Hope for the Palestinians
Social Media is the invention that took the world by storm in the late 1990s, and it has grown immensely since then. Nowadays, it is the main source of influence in regards to pop culture, and basically everything else. Generation Z is the generation that has revolutionized the ways in which social media can be used and for what purposes it can be used.
It is a common stereotype among parents (Generation X and older) that social media is only a waste of time that causes their teenagers to lose focus on day to day activities and ruins their mental health, and while this is definitely true in some cases, social media has also been playing an extremely important role recently.
Ever since the Palestinian Genocide, that actually began in 1948, escalated on October 7th, 2023, individuals from all around the globe have utilized social media as a tool to raise awareness about what is actually happening. Social media platforms have allowed for the spread of information quickly and effectively, without government intervention. Social media is a space that is supposed to be controlled and utilized by the normal people who do not have huge positions of power. This means that the content that can be found on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and Youtube is content that has been published by creative, and passionate individuals who actually care about what they are presenting to the world. This is the reason why social media has been one of the most powerful tools in the spread of awareness regarding the Palestinian Genocide.
There have been non-profit organizations, journalists, lawyers, students, and millions of people who have contributed to uncovering the truth about what is actually happening by presenting (verified) statistics of the lives lost, children massacred, people stuck under rubble, journalists and healthcare workers targeted and killed, in order to try and make the world realize what is actually at stake.
This genocide is the most documented genocide in the history of humankind, and it is the genocide that has made the most headlines in such a short time. Yet, western leaders fail to do anything about it, the United Nations fails to do anything about it. Journalists from Gaza are literally posting photos and videos from Palestine whenever they get internet access, just so someone from the outside world does something about it. Nobody willingly posts their young children covered in their own blood, faceless due a bomb blowing their body parts apart, dead or dying. This is their last resort because social media is their only hope in getting any kind of help.
You know how last year in English 10H we did a whole unit on genocide, specifically the Holocaust? Well, who knew we would be living in a world which has become desensitized to it in just a few months. Even though the Palestinians and their allies are trying their best and desperately asking for a ceasefire, there is a large majority of people in the world, especially in the west, who remain unfazed. This is because they lack the ability to feel for the Palestinians, because somehow a Palestinian child's life is less valuable than an American child's.
The reason why we learn about genocides, or specifically the Holocaust, in high school is so that we grow up to be responsible, sensible, morally upright individuals who, when granted power, do not misuse it. What is the point of learning about the mistakes of the past if we continue to keep our silence when they are repeated right in front of our eyes?
Hey Raveeha! I first became aware of genocide in Palestine when I saw reporters such as Hind Khoudary and Motaz Azaiza documenting the horrors of the IDF, sharing photos and videos of young children covered in rubble crying for their families, and hospitals with countless people being bombed. Along with these primary accounts, ways to help the Palestinian people were also shared. For example, there is a widely advertised app that allows people to send WIFI to the struggling Gaza civilians. The Israeli Defense Forces have also used social media to spread infuriating propaganda, justifying their acts of terror. But through social media, brave civilians were able to share the truth with evidence, and educate the rest of the world. The United States government has played a large part in supporting Israel, while other countries such as Iran have worked to support Palestine. Through social media, citizens are able to realize what their country is responsible for, and allow them to make more educated decisions when voting in the coming elections. In terms of your writing, I appreciated your inclusion of how we did a genocide unit in English 10H, as it created a sense of relatability within your audience. You were able to connect something most of us experienced to the overall point in your blog. Great job!
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