#advocate for Palestine as much as I can on my little platforms | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gentlebeardsbarngrill · 4 months

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01/15/2024 Crew Recap

Hey all, today has been a very very very long day. I’m typing this with my eyeballs glazed over and half open. However, so much has happened in such a little amount of time I wanted share a few things before I pass out I know a lot of you are in different timezones, are busy with life, and taking a break, so maybe this will help with parsing through some of the crazy stuff the crew has been up to.

The petition hit 50K, and is at 52.5K at the moment

Fundraisers: I didn’t even realize there were two different fundraisers for Palestine/Gaza going on but we blew both out of the water. (Note: the second picture is from a November campaign but I think its just as important to highlight— ty for the correction anon!)

The Emmys hashtag turn out was great tonight. There was some pretty amazing and creative stuff going on across all the platforms. Some can be seen on IG, but if you wanna see the majority of it, check out twitter #SaveOFMD #75thEmmys

---We have new ways of protesting and advocating for our show, see here for the thread on tumblr (from twitter):---

And to support that @saltpepperbeard was kind enough to put together a wonderful guide on how to Call It Through as a Crew: Alleviating Some Phone Anxiety which as someone who is socially anxious and sometimes verbally vomits on people when on the phone, is AMAZING and thank you so much for doing that to help.

-- > There is also this new thread on some new places to call into. Don't quote me on that being an official thing we should do, I'm sure @renewasacrew and others will have more in the AM, I just wanted to share it so people could follow if they wanted to.

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New Articles!

Our Flag Means Death: Here’s why season three deserves to be aired

Petition to save BBC show with rare Rotten Tomatoes score gets 50,000 signatures

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There's so much more that's happened today-- but I can't write it all down because my brain is couscous.

<---So instead, I'm going to use this last part to gush over you all and your amazing contributions in all your unique ways. The community support the last few days has been SO INCREDIBLY UPLIFTING.-->

I saw (and experienced) people reblogging asks where random followers, anons, and mutuals just reached out and sent love because they could tell people were struggling.

I've seen comments all over the place on Tumblr, IG, Twitter, and Facebook where each and every person is encouraging each other to speak their mind, or complimenting their artwork, encouraging them if they were feeling uncomfortable with things outside their comfort zones, coming up with new and exciting ways to fight back, people reaching out to the cast/crew just to say hi and remind them we love them.

I've seen Self-Care checkpoints all over, reminding people to drink water, take a break, block your notifications for a while, not engaging in negative behavior.

I've seen people being so nice on instagram posts that the people who were being dicks about all our comments turned around and decided to watch OFMD!

I saw so many people doing new analysis of scenes and characters, and having really deep and friendly discussions that make everyone think in new ways.

I saw people digging through old tumblrs to bring life back to old posts and artwork.

I saw so much NEW artwork, new FICS! New GIFS! So much new art and love!

I could literally go on and on, but I've just...I had to dump this out of my brain otherwise I'd explode. I've just seen so much today that continues to make me so proud of our little safe space ship and so happy to be apart of this community.

You all continue to be the best of the best of humans, and I am so very grateful to get to witness and be apart of it. Rest up lovelies and have a good day / night, wherever you may be. May you dream of sexy middle-aged gay men kissing, or hugging, or whatever else you want them to be getting into.

#ofmd #our flag means death #stede bonnet #gentlebeard #edward teach #renew as a crew #rhys darby #blackbonnet #save our flag means death #save ofmd #ofmd s3 #renew our flag means death #renew ofmd #ofmd daily recap

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borathae · 6 months

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it’s the fact you have this platform with lots of followers and don’t use it to advocate for the right things

If you are the lil bitch fucker that keeps spamming me with "israel vs palestine" ANON messages, get off the fucking internet and get a fucking life.

Anyone with a fucking brain between their skull should know what I think about this very serious fucking topic and the fact that you make it into a little internet trend by going "hihi israel or palestine? pick one hihi" says way more about your fucking character than mine. You're fucking pathetic for sending in mutlitple asks like that just because you think it's cool to "jump onto the trend". Just because it's currently "trendy" on social media to pick sides, doesn't mean it's fucking okay to make it a thing. IT IS NOT! As if war and genocide is ever something you should make into a "lil social media trend", it's fucking disgusting how y'all are so chronically online these days that you don't even use your rotten brains for just one second to think "hey maybe I shouldn' t actually make it into a trend and go around saying hihi which side to pick to any stranger on the internet". Seriously fucking get a fucking grip on reality you bitch ass. There's actual people losing their homes and lives in Palestine right now, you assface, they're not just props in your newest "internet trend poll".

I don't "advocate" about the "right things" on this fucking blog because it's literally not that kind of blog. It's a blog where you can come to escape reality. You can fangirl/boy/enby, you can read and look at fanart, talk about bangtan and their music and you can FUCKING ESCAPE REALITY. It has never been a political/worldnews kind of blog because there are a lot better blogs out there for that. Blogs run by people who want to make it possible that people keep up to date with everything happening in the world, people who have politics as their passion and who will have a way broader vocabulary on the topic than I ever will.

Having followers no matter how many doesn't mean you automatically have to speak up about everything happening in the world just so lil bitch strangers like you can sleep better at night. I will not goddamn fucking perform my activism as if I'm a lil circus clown just to get off lil bitches like you. I'll donate as much as can, I'll try to keep up with the news as best as possible and I'll send prayers to everyone suffering and I'll do it not because I want to look better on the internet but because I actually fucking care about the people. And yes something like this is possible. You can actually care about world topics and partake in helping the innocent people in need without boasting about it on the internet. Yeah what a fucking wild take, but's it's actually fucking possible.

And now for the last fucking time so that even rotten brained bitches like you understand it, I generally don't tend to speak up about political or worldnews matters on here because this blog is a possibility for anyone who wants to escape the burdening realities for a little while.

If you would have come here actually wanting to seriously talk about this topic or asked me to give you guys options on how to help the people of Palestine, I would have fucking loved to do so. But instead you come here on anon like a lil coward bitch and try to make it into a "hihi funny internet trend hihi pick sides hihi funny". You're fucking disgusting and there is a reason why I've ignored you until now.

Now for anyone who actually wants to help and do something that will actually help the Palestines, I'll give you a list of organisations you can donate to. Make sure to see if you can donate from your country, I picked out the European sites of the organisations.

MAP

Islamic Relief

Save the Children

UN -> it will contain a list of more donation options

I am sure that there so many more organisations you can donate to, but I picked out the ones which I personally think trustworthy and to which I've also donated without any problems (please educate me if one of them is a scam and I haven't heard about it yet). Also feel free to leave more links in the comments, so there will be an array of possibilities for anyone who wants to help.

#anon #asks

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witchakyeon · 3 months

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updates+ramblings

❧ 1/31 (originally shared on Ao3)

Hi lovelies 🩷 I have endless things to say, but I'll attempt to be brief...

There is so much happening in the world we exist in right now, and I'm sure each of you reading this is processing life differently. I don't usually talk about myself beyond the small things (complaining about uni, mostly), but this year, I'm feeling things in my body and in my heart differently. I'm feeling a need to share and open up more...

This tiny corner of this huge place has become a space where I feel like I can do those things. Ao3 is a platform, and as someone with a space on it, I want you all to know that I do not support or tolerate and I am against violence of any type in any area of my life or the lives of others. I'm black, queer, neurodiverse, chronically ill, a pisces, and so on, and it goes against my truth and the things I've been slowly learning how to stand and fight for in my 20s (freedom, autonomy over one's own body, safety, etc.) to be silent about the things I've learned, experienced, and witnessed, and the struggles others are facing. I do not feel comfortable calling myself an advocate for anyone but myself or for anything other than my own needs right now, but I am taking those first ugly, messy, unpolished steps toward that reality, and that's meant sitting with discomfort, a lot of reading, and more than anything, a lot of fucking up. I wasn't raised to...believe in, seek, or fight for justice, but it's one of my (western eurocentric) birth cards, so I knew I'd become connected to it someday, someway, somehow.

I am against the gen0cid3 happening in Palestine, and I hope you all have been boycotting and showing up however you can. I am against the child labor happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I hope you all have been learning and taking action. I want to bring more awareness to realities in Sudan and Tigray and so many more. Wherever you are, whatever path you're on, there are things that you can do. There are things that we can do as people that will influence what happens in our world, one way or another. And wherever you live, guys, please register to vote and learn when and where elections that you can participate in are being held.

My absence late last year was noticeable to me (I love interacting with you all and sharing my writing so much, seriously), and I wanna let everyone know that I'm still around. I was dealing with workplace abuse, my class load was Heavy, and there was...so much going on in my personal spaces/relationships. 2023. Sucked. One good thing: I wrote a ton of stuff, and I'm so ridiculously excited to share it with everyone. Another: things have been shifting around me (in positive ways) this winter, and I'm feeling better.

Also, since I wasn't able to write 24 prompts last year as planned, this collection will be continuing into 2024 (which honestly feels like fate, or something...) until I reach that number. I have plans to finish stories this year to make space for new things, and really, I can't wait to cross paths with you all more. I'm thankful that my silly little tales are entertaining and even sometimes heartwarming, and honored to share them with y'all, the sweetest folks ever.

Hope you are taking care and taking things at your pace <333 so much love

- moon

#witchakyeon #moon writes #<3

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demobsblog · 5 months

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I get that you are disappointed that CR isn't speaking up about Palestine, but you people need to stop expecting white celebrities to be advocates for something that they probably don't know shit about. They're staying in their lane and I rather that be the case than see them say something uneducated or harmful. As for you, since you seem to hate them so much, remove your silly little profile picture, change it to a Palestinian flag and actually do some real legwork by elevating posts by Palestinians, rather than going on this pointless crusade and forcing a D&D group to speak on a topic that is none of their business. Elevate voices of ACTUAL Palestinians ffs...You folks are so damn performative when it comes to who you want to speak up. Your desire for white saviours is showing...

You’re truly just yapping, first of all These guys arent 15 year old kids playing DND stop acting like they’re not grown ass adults who can easily learn about what the fuck is happening i’m sure they see shit online , as for my pfp i only put it as this to get attention from CR fans, And i do elevated Palestinians ? I’ve been advocating for them ? I’ve been boycotting numerous of things, posting donations and news on what’s happening on other accounts you don’t know shit about me to make a huge assumption that i’m “performative.” on top of that Im resharing Palestinian art, food, photos on other platforms as well.. so seriously shut the fuck up..

I’m not even white dumbass so thanks for randomly assuming my race and assuming i don’t genuinely care about what’s going on all because I am disappointed in my once favorite people ! Wanting to add its “none of their business.” yet the speak up about million other things, donate to million other things but not this? Interesting especially since they stole from Palestinian cultures for their shitty campaign. Black lives matter wasnt their business yet the spoke up, Ukraine wasn’t their business yet again they spoke up.

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allypacino · 4 years

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I know I probably shouldn't put it out here so soon because, you know, I might jinx it, but I'm gonna say it anyway because I'm realising tumblr is actually a good platform for these sort of things.

I'm writing a book.

It's a historical fantasy (I know, I know). The cast is majorily POC, the main characters are Asian. I've been researching a lot about history in the 19th and 20th century, and boy it has been brutal.

I've had to research Frantz Fanon and decolonisation methodology, the british empire, transatlantic slavery, neocolonialism through west-reliant infrastructure in Africa, old African empires, old Asian empires, the sino-japanese war, the Phillipines' independence movement, the Bangladesh independence war, Mao Ze Dong, guerilla warfare, the art of war and so much more. At this point I'm planning my afterword as much as I'm planning the story itself.

Imperialism is so awful, y'all. And colonialism is not even close to being a thing of the past. South Africa and Palestine are still struggling with self-determination of their indigenous people.

Decolonisation is an active process, and it's not just changing the curriculum and putting poc on posters. It's about accountability, reparation, and a system overhaul which advocates for the prosperity of third world nations and BIPOC everywhere.

I think what I want to say is: although you shouldn't stop voting or signing petitions, a big piece of the work is understanding the oppression which imperialist powers profit from. Liberals in charge will grease the progressive process a little but if you stop demanding for change they will stop too, because progress to them just looks like a slightly better version of the present.

I've gotten way off topic. I'm writing a book. It's about colonialism and culture and assimilation and war. It's got magic and myth and history. It's possibly got a slowburn enemies to lovers 80k (we'll see about this one). It's about people.

I hope I can talk more about the book on here (including my excel sheet of fictional countries and how i'm struggling to plOt). I hope it can come to fruition. But even if it doesn't, i know i've gained something from the research alone.

#Bye ive got a test to study for #Oh and i basically wrote this bc im gonna need yall to make decisions for me regarding character names and stuff hehe #Writing #Books #Ya fantasy #Historical fantasy #Colonialism #Imperialism #Fascism

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ruminativerabbi · 5 years

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Omar and Tlaib: A Way Forward

Sometimes I have to search around to find the topic I wish to write about in my weekly letter to you all, but other times the universe simply presents me with an issue that it feels almost impossible not to write about. This is one of those weeks. And that was before President Trump called the loyalty of Jewish Americans who vote Democratic into question.

I am thinking, of course, of the huge brouhaha surrounding the proposed, then banned, then half-unbanned, then cancelled trip of Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) to Israel.

The single point of near-universal consensus is that the whole incident was handled maladroitly by all concerned—and that really is saying the very least.

The congresswomen, by declining to go on the actual trip of members of the House to Israel that took place just a few weeks ago, were making it clear that they had no interest in actually visiting Israel or hearing what representatives of our staunchest ally in the Middle East might or might have had to say to them…and then feigned shock when they were called out for insulting the leadership and citizenry of Israel by planning a propaganda tour featuring meetings solely with Palestinian bigwigs and Arab members of the Knesset. (The itinerary for the trip they then proposed to make on their own confirmed their intentions clearly, although Rep. Omar now says—contrary to the itinerary she herself released—that she would have met with at least some Israeli officials.)

President Trump, by putting his oar in where it wasn’t even remotely needed, seems to have made Prime Minister Netanyahu feel obliged to ban the Omar and Tlaib from entering Israel lest he appear weak or—and, yes, I know how weird this sounds to say out loud—unmanly. (The ensuing firestorm on this side of the world would have been considerably less hot had it not seemed that the Prime Minister’s decision reflected more than anything his desire not to provoke President Trump or to irritate him—which paradoxically actually did make him look and sound weak. And unmanly weakness was indeed the specific issue in play: the President’s tweet confirmed as much: “It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit.” He didn’t have to say who specifically was going to be labelled weak for not banning the two!)

For his part, the P.M. himself, more than aware of the importance of playing ball with his nation’s biggest supplier of foreign aid and himself an extremely savvy politician, seemed somehow not to understand what a huge error of judgment it was going to be to appear to disrespect members of Congress…and, at that, the specific members of the House that the world was just waiting to see if he would dare to insult.

The whole incident played out in Israel entirely differently than it did here. For your person-in-the-shuk Israeli, the whole rumpus was basically uninteresting. I saw very little coverage in the Israeli press—not none, but nothing like what I saw on every American website I visited while we were in Israel. When it did come up, most regular Israelis I talked to seemed confused why this was even an issue. Although I think most Americans surely do not, everybody in Israel remembers when, in 2012, the United States barred a Knesset member, Michael Ben Ari, from entering the United States because the party he represented, the Kahanist Kach party, was formally labelled as a terrorist group. (Nor, for the record, is it unheard of for the United States to bar entry to people deemed undesirable for one reason or another, a list that over the years has included such dangerous criminals as Amy Winehouse, Diego Maradona, and Boy George. For a full list of people now or once barred from entering the United States, click here.) So the notion that Israel would bar entry to two individuals who have been outspoken in their animosity towards the Jewish state and who openly and shamelessly support the BDS movement, and neither of whom is above lacing her rhetoric with openly anti-Semitic language, merely because they were also elected to Congress—that didn’t seem that big a stretch to most Israelis that I heard giving forth on the topic. Indeed, when I did hear Israelis talking about the issue, the question was more why Israel shouldn’t decline to offer unambiguously hostile people a public platform on which to promote invidious policies than it was why they should let them in without any assurance that they would be at least minimally respectful of their hosts’ sensitivities.

Still, Israel could have turned this whole affair to its own advantage by inviting Rashida Tlaib and Ilan Omar to come to visit, but by making the invitation conditional upon their agreement to meet with Israeli officials and learn about the Israeli take on the Middle East conflict. It would have been a good thing if that happened too, because, as their comments about Israel over the last few days prove, both Omar and Tlaib are as naïve as they are hostile towards the Jewish state. Omar wants Israel to grant Palestinians “full rights,” but without saying what she means exactly. Does she want Israel to annex the West Bank and make its Palestinian population into Israelis with the full rights of citizens? It seems hard to believe that that’s what she means. But then what does she mean? Is she in favor of a two-state solution featuring a State of Palestine in which the Palestinian citizens would have “full rights?” But then why is she not addressing the Palestinian leadership and telling them to declare independence and get down to the work of nation building? When she denounces the Israeli decision to bar her entry as “unprecedented,” does she not know that our own country also bars entry to people deemed hostile or dangerous, or likely to promote views considered inimical with the nation’s best interests? When she speaks about “the occupation,” does she not realize how bizarre it is to blame Israel for “occupying” the Palestinians’ land when Israel has repeatedly offered the Palestinians an almost complete withdrawal in exchange for their willingness to live in peace? And, of course, also without showing the slightest interest—at least as far as I can see—in the places in the world that actually are occupied by foreign powers—Tibet, for example, which has been occupied by China since 1951 or the part of the Western Sahara that Morocco has illegally occupied since 1976.

For her part, Rashida Tlaib sounds more calculating then naïve. When she denounces Israel for setting up roadblocks that inhibit free travel from the West Bank into Israel, she conveniently forgets to mention the reason those roadblocks were set up in the first place: to prevent terrorist attacks on innocents of the kind that were part and parcel of daily life in Israel during the first and second Intifadas. To suggest that those roadblocks were set up to harass innocents like her elderly grandmother instead of owning up to the fact that they have worked so well, as has the security fence, that terror attacks inside Israel have plummeted to almost zero—that crosses the line, at least in my estimation, from finessing the details to make a point and approaches something more reasonably called manipulating the facts to create a wholly false impression. (I think we can all be confident that, if violent terrorists were blowing up children in discotheques and pizzerias in her own home district, she would support any plausible effort to end the carnage even if it caused her grandma some inconvenience.)

It would, therefore, be a good thing for both Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to come for a visit to Israel. Nor is it too late. In my opinion, Israel can and should offer to invite them to Israel if they are willing to listen, to learn, and to refrain from promoting anti-Israeli views while they are in Israel as guests of the State. Contrary to the President’s tweet, principled reaching-out towards people who have in the past been hostile but who could conceivably change their minds would be seen by all—or certainly by most—as an act of strength, not weakness. There is, after all, a lot to learn. Understanding Israel today requires knowing a lot about Jewish history and its impact on Jewish reality today. It requires understanding the relationship between Israel and both Judaism and Jewishness, a relationship that is obscure in many ways even to relatively savvy observers of the Middle Eastern scene. And it requires understanding the specific way that Israeli identity has been forged over the decades against a background of unremitting hostility on the part of most of its neighbors and, even more perfidiously, on the part of the United Nations—and how decades of exposure to that kind of stark enmity so often tinged with not-so-subtle anti-Semitism has made Israelis, to say the very least, wary and mistrustful of the world.

It would surely have been better if we hadn’t come to this impasse in quite the way we have. But having come to this crossroads, we must now traverse it and I believe we can. If they are truly sincere in their interest in learning about Israel, Representatives Tlaib and Omar should indicate their willingness to come and to listen. Israel, for all it is barred by its own laws from admitting to the country people who advocate policies inimical to the nation’s survival (and specifically the BDS movement), should find a way around that restriction to welcome them both and to help them understand where Israel is coming from and why it acts as it feels it must. If everybody involved is willing to take a step back and to calm down a bit, what at the moment is an impasse can become a crossroads that all concerned can grow mightily by traversing.

#Ilhan Omar #Rashida Tlaib

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digitalmark18-blog · 6 years

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How Israel polices Palestinian speech online

New Post has been published on https://britishdigitalmarketingnews.com/how-israel-polices-palestinian-speech-online/

How Israel polices Palestinian speech online

Social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter have come under enormous pressure to police their sites more rigorously. One of the unfortunate results has been a major clampdown on political speech.

The onslaught intensified after Russians were charged in a scheme to subvert the 2016 US presidential election, allegedly using fraudulent Facebook and Instagram accounts. It succeeded beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams.

Since then, Americans have vilified Facebook for permitting itself to be exploited in such a fashion. In response, the company has placed restrictions on the use of its private data by third parties, and removed hundreds of pages that touted fake news.

But while many of these changes have strengthened the security of the site and its users, the added scrutiny has bled into other areas, including political speech.

Reassuring legislators

Facebook and other social media sites have also faced intense pressure from the US right wing, who complain about Silicon Valley’s prevailing liberal bias and the suppression of conservative views.

In truth, the prevailing ideology for these companies is capitalism: making money is their primary driver. But tech firms do fear government intervention in their marketplace, which is why their corporate chieftains have been traipsing to Washington to reassure legislators that they are honest brokers who take seriously their mission to be an open forum for all Americans.

Israel’s leadership sees social media as the cutting edge of world communication, where its own reputation will be made or broken

One other major political force squeezing social media sites is the Israeli government and its US lobby. Israel has become aware of the immense power of social media to shape brands and impact public perception.

Its far-right government has designated the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, created in 2006 for Avigdor Lieberman, the spear-carrier for an international campaign to combat “delegitimisation”, an awkward term connoting anyone who criticises Israel. Public enemy number one in this effort is the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, its leaders and those who support it worldwide.

A piece of graffiti depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on the Israeli separation barrier separating the West Bank town of Bethlehem from Jerusalem, on October 15, 2017 (Thomas Coex / AFP)

Israel’s leadership sees social media as the cutting edge of world communication, where its own reputation will be made or broken. It has undertaken a massive lobbying campaign targeting the major sites and their corporate leaderships.

Israeli ministers have met Google and Facebook executives, warning that if they did not police “anti-Israel” discourse on their platforms, the Israeli government would step in to do so. Facebook and other sites have acceded to many of these censorship demands.

Since this campaign began, the Israeli government has filed a litany of complaints about anti-Israel hate speech, succeeding in the vast majority of cases to have the content removed. Israeli ministers have, in turn, boasted about their effectiveness in essentially stifling political speech.

Palestinian pages shut down

However, kowtowing to the Israel lobby has brought with it some embarrassment. Scores of Facebook pages belonging to Palestinian media outlets have been shut down, while others have been suspended, spurring protests. Facebook did not issue a statement explaining its rationale for targeting these pages.

Social media companies are also cracking down on critical speech about Israel by American users. My own Twitter account was recently suspended after I tweeted that foreign and Israeli media were misleading readers in coverage of the murder of an Israeli-American settler by a Palestinian attacker.

“A Palestinian Has Fatally Stabbed an American-Israeli Activist in the West Bank.” Wrong again. A militant, armed, messianic settler is NO activist. He is timebomb. https://t.co/ezrFdjgfs1

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) September 17, 2018

Several media outlets called the man a pro-Israel “activist,” a term usually reserved for human rights advocates, while in reality he was a heavily armed militant settler who rejected the claim that Palestinians even existed.

Two pro-Israel social media provocateurs organised a massive attack on my account, and scores of pro-Israel users reported it for “promoting hate and violence”. They also posted death threats, suggested I commit suicide, warned me of a “beat-down”, and wished that an Islamic State terrorist would stab me to death. None of these messages were flagged or censored.

Low threshold

The claim that my tweets incited violence was false, but no amount of protest from my Twitter followers moved the company to review its decision. Eventually, Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada inquired with the Twitter media team about the status of my account; almost immediately afterwards, my access was restored.

On the Israeli domestic front, the Shin Bet uses software to review much of the social media content published by Palestinians, scanning for trigger words and phrases that might indicate intent to harm Israel. Yet, how the spy agency determines a threat is central to this process – and the threshold appears astoundingly low.

Dareen Tatour sits in a courtroom in Nazareth, Israel (AP)

In one case, a Palestinian day labourer posted in Arabic: “Good Morning”, next to a picture of his bulldozer. Relying on a faulty Facebook translation that read: “Hurt them”, police arrested the man. He was later released after the error came to light.

In another case, famed Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour published a poem advocating Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. Though nothing in her poem threatened violence, she was arrested and imprisoned. Tatour was released only last month, after three years of jail and house arrest.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested because of content they posted on social media, despite a lack of legal standards to distinguish genuine threats from political speech. Israeli judges uniformly bow to the evidence presented by security forces and the state prosecutor.

Intolerant of dissent

The spy agency boasts publicly about how many terror plots it has foiled, but the Israeli public has no way of judging the credibility of these claims, lacking any concrete evidence. It is expected to trust that the Shin Bet is telling the truth, when there is little reason to do so.

How can an algorithm predict someone’s future behaviour based on words published on a social media account? The whole process reeks of exaggeration and self-congratulation; what better way to justify a huge increase in next year’s budget?