Posted by
Ahmad
Posted on:
1/7/2009
As I skimmed through the internet these past 11 days, I have noticed unprecedented coverage of a conflict, as old in age as the countries at war (literally), the coverage took a new turn this time, it has gone from our traditional TV and Newspaper sources (aka Old/Legacy Media ) to a new and more dynamic form, the Social Networking platform.
The Palestinian Issue has been the main topic during almost every conflict and event in the modren history of the Middle East. It is for this reason, every young person and elder, has a story to tell, and an opinion on the Why's and How's it came to be, but one thing almost all Arabs will agree on, is that the Palestinian people, have been done an injustice that will only be corrected by an act of God.
The recent events that led to me writing this post have been Israel's latest crime against humanity, starting with the bombing of the Gaza Strip on the evening on the 27th of December 2008, leading up to the Ground Operation they launched on the evening of 3, Jan 2009 which continues till the time this post was written.
For those of you who haven't heard of Twitter it is a micro-blogging network, it essentially allows multiple users of the network to communicate with each other in 140 characters or less in a semi-real time fashion. This network has grown wildly over the past two years to engulf a whopping 1,000,000 users according to twitdir.com.
Over the past two years Twitter has made its footprint as a reliable news source from actual people, as appose to News Networks with political affiliations with this country, or that policy.
And with its growth comes the power of those who can make their voice reach the most followers, and the Arab Nation has tapped into that power which became obvious with the recent Israeli massacre in Gaza. As the bombs began to fall on Gaza, a whirlpool of Arab (and non Arab eg @gazanewsfrench)twitterers began to post tweets on the status of Gazans inside the Gaza Strip, users such as the following:
Some of these twitterers are living in the hell that is now Gaza Under Attack, others are simply people angry and sympathetic twitter users all over the Arab World and beyond.
The online war took a serious turn when Israeli contractors began using Twitter and Facebook as a PR tool for the Israeli Army as well.
I would like to make this article a place where others can find more news on the Gaza coverage online, you may also want to check out this FriendFeed Room for feeds from multiple sources amongst which are the aforementioned Twitter users. Also I list a number of resources I gathered from twittering during the crisis you may find informative on this topic below:
As I write this article, I can't help but mention the Israeli Army's latest crime against humanity embodied in the bombing of two UN schools in Gaza. 40 Palestinians the majority of whom were women and children using the schools as shelters, assuming a building recognized by the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) would be safe from the Israeli tanks and bombs, they were deadly mistaken. The incident brought back memories from Amiriya Shelter back in 1991. I remember being took to pay my respects to the fallen martyrs of Amiriya, that day seeing the dark walls, the gaping hole in the enforced concrete roof was more than a jolt to the soul. I pray for the souls of those who left us in Gaza, and for those who they left behind, for them only patience, to survive the sorrow.
For those of you who would like to help the victims of Israeli aggression visit one of the following links:
- ADC Develops Online Crisis Resource Center on Gaza Attacks www.adc.org
- Donate to Palestine Red Crescent for #Gaza Victims http://tinyurl.com/7qxwfx
- http://twitpic.com/zkcd - Map of #Gaza so people can see where #Israel is committing genocide
- List of #Gaza massacre protests @ http://is.gd/dMT9 and http://is.gd/dTtc
- Souktel is running a Palestinian "SMS Blood Bank" service for the Red Crescent in Gaza. http://snurl.com/9a31l
- Please donate to the International Red Cross to aid the casualties of the current massacre in #Gaza. http://is.gd/egkk
Thanks for stopping by,
Salam