The Hebrew-speaking Arab campaigns “Isnad” and “Arabian Bee” aim to influence Israeli public opinion (Shutterstock)
Istanbul -
The efforts of Arab youth to support the Palestinian cause are renewed in the midst of the accelerating events of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle that has been ongoing for half a year, leaving behind widespread destruction and massacres against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Groups of young people launched popular electronic initiatives to infiltrate the Israeli social fabric and exert a tangible influence on it, with the aim of countering misleading information.
The initiatives also aim to reveal the facts that electronic censorship in Israel seeks to obscure regarding the developments of the war and the dire consequences borne by the occupation government and its military forces, whether inside Gaza or in the surrounding areas.
Among the most famous of these initiatives are the “Support” and “Arabian Bee” campaigns, in which Raji Osama, one of the volunteers, tells Al Jazeera Net that his joining came within the framework of the responsibility he felt towards the Palestinians who are being exterminated in the Gaza Strip without a supporter, and in support of the role of the Palestinian resistance. On one of the war fronts.
He added that Arab youth, with the acknowledgment of the Israeli media themselves, were able to establish their presence on the electronic arena, achieving tangible superiority on the media front during this battle.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Net, Ezz El-Din Dowidar, the Egyptian director and organizer of the “Attribution” campaign, said that it is an emerging popular initiative for blogging in Hebrew, which seeks to shape the views of Israeli public opinion by providing documented news coverage of the current events in Gaza.
It aims to challenge the strict restrictions imposed by military censorship in Israel, by conveying accurate details about the losses incurred by the occupying army, the current security and military situation, and matters that the Israeli authorities struggle to keep out of the reach of their audience.
The following is the text of the interview:
“Attribution” campaign focuses on information capable of moving Israeli public opinion (social media)
What prompted you to establish “Esnad”, what are your goals and what have you achieved?
At the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, we were blogging and publishing in foreign languages such as French, English, and various other languages. However, as time passed, we began to realize the urgent need to direct our messages in Hebrew to address Israeli society.
This trend was the result of our observation of the great interest and interaction of Western countries towards the issue and the ongoing war, as there were organized demonstrations periodically, and we felt the necessity of addressing these people and directing our efforts towards them.
Sufficient numbers of activists and bloggers specializing in foreign languages, in addition to the Arab and Islamic communities spread across Europe, were able to convey and clarify the picture with a deeper understanding of the local contexts of these communities.
We found the importance of our role in contributing to supporting the Palestinian resistance by taking over files that it cannot handle from within the Gaza Strip, such as military media tasks, media support, blogging in Hebrew, and what falls under the name of moral warfare.
This is what the resistance began with, but it needed support in this field to respond to Zionist propaganda and the rumors issued about the nature of the battle and its details, and our work and tasks began to develop from November 2023 until now.
By the grace of God, our campaign has achieved wide spread, and the number of participants has exceeded 50,000, carrying out various daily tasks. Last February, our “Attribution” initiative contributed between 2.5% and 3% of the total Hebrew content published in Israel, and this percentage increased during the last March.
In the early stages of the war, we were able to uncover the participation of Ukrainian mercenaries in the occupation army, and that the three Israeli detainees who died during their escape attempt were killed by these Ukrainian volunteers, despite attempts by media censors to withhold this information from the public.
We continue to expand our reach and strengthen our influence within Israeli society. Some members of the Knesset have even begun to follow some of our accounts and share the information published there, which has raised security issues at the Israeli leadership level, according to Israeli media reports.
The "Isnad" campaign was classified by Israeli newspapers and research centers as the first popular campaign targeting Israel with a tangible impact since the establishment of the state, reflecting the previous equation in which Israeli media agencies and campaigns dominated Arab public opinion.
What challenges did you face in the early stages of establishing these groups and how did you overcome them?
Finding volunteers in the early stages was certainly one of the most significant challenges we faced, in addition to dealing with the frequent closure of the accounts we were creating and constant security monitoring of our posts, which required the availability of a larger number of volunteers to overcome these obstacles.
However, with the increasing spread of our campaign’s successes and its noticeable impact on Israeli public opinion, in addition to press coverage that highlighted our efforts in the Israeli media, this greatly helped in expanding the scope of our campaign and increasing the number of volunteers joining it.
However, attempts to impose restrictions and pressure on accounts and publications are still in place, and we are making continuous efforts to overcome them, and we note the persistent attempts made by some Israelis to infiltrate the campaign and try to distort it from within, but we have the techniques that enable us to expose them.
What type of content does the campaign focus on spreading?
We focus our efforts on providing content that covers developments and facts related to the course of the war and its details, while emphasizing the political and economic aspects and details of the negotiations that remain absent from the public awareness of Israeli society.
We focus in particular on information capable of moving Israeli public opinion toward pressuring their government to stop the war and reach an agreement consistent with the demands of the resistance, including prisoner exchange issues. We also pay special attention to the actions and crimes carried out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Israelis or detainees in the Gaza Strip.
We also highlight the extremist statements of the Israeli Ministers of Security Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, trying to educate the public about the dangers of these statements not only to Israeli society, but also to the Arab peoples and the entire region.
Are you exposed to harassment from any quarter, or pressure not to continue the journey?
Until now, we have not faced any tangible challenges, but the main obstacle facing us is fear. Volunteers who live in countries ruled by a dictatorial regime are concerned about the reaction of these regimes to their participation in the campaign or similar campaigns.
We at “Isnaad” help young people to get out of this situation and rise from the seats of the helpless to the seats of the doers and gain self-confidence.
As for the harassment coming from the Israeli side, we mentioned previously that it exists, but we seek to turn it into a motivation that strengthens our resolve to move forward in our journey, achieve our goals step by step, enhance our efficiency and develop our technical tools to overcome these challenges with full force.
What message would you like to send to Arab youth and the international community through your work with these groups?
The “Al-Aqsa Flood” was a flood in our resolve and awareness. When we saw a besieged youth who was able to shake the entire world and put Israel on the path to the end with the least capabilities and equipment and a lot of faith in God, it was inspiring to us and to the Arab youth and helped us overcome the state of helplessness, watching silently and begging from the rulers. Or international institutions to stop the war or open the crossing.
We realized that we, as Arab youth, have the ability to advance on the front lines of the battle and influence it.
We urge the youth of the world to move beyond the stage of theoretical protests to actively engage in the action arena to change the course of the conflict. It is no longer acceptable to continue the pattern of protest without taking practical steps. It is illogical to demand our rights from our enemies or beg them to allow us to live.
Source: Al Jazeera