A call to use the internet for good.
A call to use the internet for good.
We make up social media. What's more important—peace or your party?
My trip to visit my family in Virginia somehow happened to fall right after Hamas’ attacks. My Teta (one way to say “grandmother” in Arabic) lives among a decently large Arab community for the size of the town, and so when I visit I get a peek into the culture that I don’t really get otherwise.
I could almost feel the collective pain. Every conversation had a backdrop of destruction. Every prayer held Gaza’s men, women, and children.
For the last week I’ve been able to hide behind the devastation, fear, and hopelessness that is expected when genocide is taking place. I felt justified to go quiet, as a hurt Palestinian-American. But soon that justification turned sour. The “American” part reminded me that I have the privilege and responsibility to be as loud as I can be for Gaza.
This is a call to you, as a human, to care loudly. To talk about Palestinians. To educate yourself. To educate others.
The death count continues to rise—it’s over 5,000 Palestinians at this point—and yet, I am no longer feeling quite as hopeless.
This is why:
Just on my little phone, I am able to watch the starving, the injured, the dead, and the grieving. I am able to watch the huge demonstrations chanting “free Palestine” all over the world, and the thousands of civilians promising to fight the media and propaganda war.
Three weeks ago, I was ready to swear off of social media. Tired of algorithms and ads and fake lives and the race to make a profit.
Now, I remember that we ARE social media. We make the internet what it is.
This is the first time in our generation that something so big has been so widely broadcast on social media. For the first time, we can see the truth with our own eyes. It still takes some digging, research, and fact checking, but it’s there from the people experiencing it. We don’t have to rely on corporate-funded news outlets to tell us stories anymore.
And yet, most of my Instagram is still acting like everything is the same. You’re posting your parties and your food and your memes. And look, I get it. Life goes on, you want to enjoy it. This is how you’re used to using the internet. The “war” in the Middle East is just another day in the Arab world. Except it’s not.
The propaganda from the US and Israel is so blatant that it is being debunked left and right online. It is hurting not only Palestinians, but Israelis and even Americans. This is telling us something. This is telling us that our government has no problem lying to us for its own benefit. This is telling us that we have money for war and murder, but not for healthcare or debt relief or poverty aid. This is telling us that a western government’s quest for more money and power will always come before innocent lives (and we are not exempt from that, not forever).
The problem is, we have been conditioned to look for comfort. We can see a war is happening, and we can notice that it makes us feel bad, and then we can bury ourselves in entertainment or food or blankets. We have been conditioned to think that if something bad is happening far away, we can’t do anything to help. And it doesn’t affect us anyway, so we might as well just go about our daily lives.
Our government wants us to feel powerless. Like we can’t help each other. But we’re all on the same planet, and it all comes back around. We’ve learned about Western imperialism, we know some history of colonialism. Now we’re witnessing it happen. Aren’t we tired of it? Have we just accepted that this is how the world has to be run? Will it take another world war to get us to take action?
I am hopeful because I am seeing us make a difference. I am seeing calls to boycott companies that fund Israel, and make calls to their representatives. I am seeing people learn about the Israeli occupation for the first time. I am seeing people having conversations and changing their minds. I am seeing people crying over children they’ve never met, and I am seeing people outraged at their governments for not listening. I want to see more of this. I want us to use the internet for good, for once.
I want to see Americans fight to liberate the people of Palestine. It means so much more than just Palestinian lives. It means the empowerment of the people of the world. It means the turning of a new leaf.
I am just now hearing about the war in Sudan, and the suffering in the Congo. I want the people in the West, with all our privilege and comfort, to fight for the liberation of all people because that is our duty as humans. What are we doing that is more important?
I am remembering the Algerian revolution against the French occupiers. How the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) was able to gain the support of the international world through an appeal for human rights. After over 130 years of occupation, they were able to self-liberate. They didn’t have the internet.
Palestinians are not able to form a resistance outside of Hamas, as Gaza is under siege and the West Bank is split up by Israeli settlements. They depend on us to put pressure on our governments. It will be difficult, but don’t for one second think it is impossible. We now have the internet as a tool.
We cannot underestimate the power of writing, speaking, making art, and sharing stories. This is what we’ve done in the past to make change. Don’t wait on others to do the work for you.
That being said, I know you still have a life, and work, and need to eat. So if you have any questions that you aren’t sure how to get answered, or you need ideas on how to help with what little time you have, please feel free to send me an email or DM and I’ll send you any resources I can find.
This is a call to let yourself feel the sadness, desperation, and rage. Let yourself feel these human emotions and see how they compel you to act.
I’m posting on my personal stories every day with updates, stories, and CTAs.
More resources to come soon—I’m hoping to create some sort of master doc when I get home from my trip.
See you next week.
xx Hanna