Dubai: Social media users have vented their fury at Israeli atrocities in Gaza online as the death toll keeps rising. People are demanding world leaders to step in and put an end to the brutality.
It all began when Mohammad Abu Khudair, a 17-year-old Palestinian, was abducted near his home last week and his burnt remains were later found in a forest in Occupied Jerusalem. His death triggered several days of violent protests and people turned to social media to question why media organisations were not giving this incident enough attention.
Several people have changed their avatars to messages that read, “Pray for Gaza” or “You don’t need to be Muslim to stand up for Gaza. You just need to be human.”
On Twitter, #PrayForGaza and #GazaUnderAttack have been trending for two days with people constantly sharing whatever information they can find. Several pictures and posts are being retweeted multiple times.
One such post was by a Danish journalist, Allan Sorensen, who took a photograph of Israeli residents in the town of Sderot. Along with the picture, he tweeted: “Sderot cinema. Israelis bringing chairs 2 hilltop in sderot 2 watch latest from Gaza. Clapping when blasts are heard.”
This photograph has already been retweeted 9,550 and received hundreds of comments.
One tweep, @Baydu, posted: “@allansorensen72 If this is true then God help us all. What’s become of the human race?”
@sNarah wrote: “@allansorensen72 I really hope this isn’t true, but it is isn’t it? If it is my faith in humanity has just been compeletely destroyed.”
Another trend that went viral on twitter was #TweetLikeABC after the American brodcasting service’s anchor, Diane Sawyer, incorrectly identified a picture from Gaza as that of an “Israeli family trying to salvage what they can”. Several tweeps posted pictures, mocking Sawyer’s slip.
One user, @Mendelpol, posted a picture from the famous movie series, Star Wars, and wrote: “#tweetlikeabc OFFICIAL Hamas bombs Death Star.”
ABC later apologised for their mistake, but the topic continues to trend.
On Facebook, a video of a Russia Today presenter, Abby Martin, has been shared by multiple users. In the video, Martin expresses her opinions on air about the situation in Gaza and lashes out at the US media’s coverage of the war. She also critices the US government’s approach to the crisis.
According to Agence France-Presse, Yildiz Tilbe, a Turkish female pop singer, posted a succession of anti-Semitic tweets, following which a petition campaign was launched on social media to convince the singer to offer an apology.
After the criticism, Tilbe wrote that she was not racist.
Her tweet read: “There is oppression against Muslims everywhere in the world. Is there any single American or Jew being massacred, whose country is bombed or whose people are killed?”
