Sheikh Jarrah in your face (book)

January 28, 2010 - 11:27 AM by

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For a few Fridays now, there have been demonstrations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem against the move by Jewish settlers to remove Palestinian residents from homes they claim are Jewish-owned.

Over 20 protestors on the Israeli Left were arrested at last week’s demonstration, which drew over 300 people. And tomorrow, sparks are expected to fly when a counter-demonstration by members of the extreme Right like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel takes place opposite the Left demo.

While the media in Israel has been covering the protests, most of the information coming out – both in terms of mobilization for these events -as well as the play by play of what’s going on there – have been disseminated through social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with a slew of blogs.

Rather than waiting until the nightly news to watch footage of arrests of protests, viewers can go straight to YouTube and watch the unedited action.

According to a story in The Jerusalem Post, activists and journalists both described a situation in which protesters were relying on the Internet to try and affect change on the ground and raise awareness of the arrests made during demonstrations in the neighborhood.

“It’s all Facebook, e-mails and Twitter,” said Didi Remez, a human rights activist, who has become noticeably involved in the Sheikh Jarrah protests as of late. Remez was arrested during a protest there last Friday.

Remez also said that distant audiences, like American Jews, who might be deprived of Sheikh Jarrah coverage due to the mainstream media’s lack of interest, were instead staying abreast of the situation via social networking sites.

“The American media is for some reason refusing to cover this,” he said. “Even though it’s becoming a major issue in Israel. And still, despite that, there’s a lot of awareness [of this issue] among Jewish Americans, the reason being that they are increasingly connected through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on.”

Sure enough, this morning, my Facebook page was full of posts calling on people to mobilize against the Right demo tomorrow.

Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Association for Human Rights in Israel and one of the protesters arrested two weeks ago, said that the use of new media was a driving force behind the success of the Sheikh Jarrah protest organizers. But, he added, that’s only part of the battle.

“Yes, the mobilization happens online,” El-Ad added, “but the end result is the most classic form of civil protest.”

Tags: , , , , , • Category: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, General, Life, Politics 

Comments

2 Comments on Sheikh Jarrah in your face (book)

  1. Rachel on Thu, Jan 28th 2010 12:30 PM

    2. A short survey by Ir Amim (For an Equitable and Stable Jerusalem with an Agreed Political Future) seeks to clarify the historical process of this matter until the issuing of the evacuation order, as well as the current political implications.
    http://www.ir-amim.org.il/Eng/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/sheikhjarrahrevieweng.pdf

  2. Destaques da Mídia – 2010-02-04 | PLETZ.com on Thu, Feb 4th 2010 6:49 AM

    3. [...] Jarrah in your face (book) http://israelity.com/2010/01/28/sheikh-jarrah-in-your-face/ [...]

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