How Instagram Spreads Libels About Israel

The re-escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past week has once again brought the issue into the public eye, with plenty of celebrities sharing posts and infographics about it. But  their one-sided activism (along with a lack of understanding of the entire issue) has made myself, an (almost) seventeen-year-old Jewish-Israeli student feel nothing short of threatened.

It’s incredibly difficult to see a well-known influencer whom you look up to (and who often has more followers than there are Jews in the entire world) suddenly upload a hastily written infographic that effectively denies your right to exist.

There are plenty of reasons for these celebrities’ involvement: First of all, posting about the conflict is an easy way to gain political points, and the outcome doesn’t affect them at all — they have no stake in the Middle East.

Second, it grants them the ability to project all their insecurities onto the Jews. Giving the racial reawakening of the past year, chances are these white celebrities are feeling guilty about belonging to countries that are certainly responsible for white colonialism. For example, when celebrities post the popular Refinery29 infographic that reads “this is not a ‘complicated issue’; this is colonization and ethnic-cleansing,” it allows them to reject the ongoing perks of white colonialism that they experience on a daily basis.

However, while scrolling through all Instagram stories and sniffing out people to unfollow, one thing is apparent: These “anti-colonialist” activists and infographics are themselves the true colonialists — at least of the cultural variety — attempting to frame an issue that has been going on for over seventy-three years in an entirely different region of the world through an American racial lens. Viewing complicated conflicts that are deeply personal for everyone involved as just another case of racism promotes a false black-and-white narrative, when even common sense should be able to tell you the conflict is so much more complicated — and rooted in different categories and tensions — than that.

And yet, it appears common sense is lacking among these brave, noble armchair warriors. They continue to frame the issue as one of skin color, which only proves their own ignorance — both Israelis and Palestinians come in all colors. Celebrities such as Halsey lament the Black and Brown lives lost, showing that they apparently can’t see the tragedy that is the death of a child, regardless of who they are or where they come from, and can only see the political gain from mentioning (or not mentioning) these tragic outcomes.

Along with this utter denial of reality comes a complete and total denial of history. To anyone who has any knowledge of this conflict, it is clear that both Israelis and Palestinians have a deep historical connection to the land (a big part of what makes the issue, and a potential solution, so complicated). However, political correctness now seems to demand the erasure of Jewish history, especially that of Diaspora Jews in Arab countries. Bella Hadid (who, to be fair, does have a familial connection to the conflict) posted an infographic to her tens of millions of followers in which she not only claims that Israel in not a real country, but also invokes a common misconception of how Jews and Arabs lived happily and peacefully side-by-side until those pesky Zionists came along.

Political correctness now seems to demand the erasure of Jewish history.

 One need only to zoom out of Israel on a world map to realize this is not true — there are hardly any Jewish communities left in the Middle East where they once existed. Perhaps Bella should have known that, if she considers herself to be such an expert on ethnic cleansing. This erasure of Jews of Middle Eastern descent is crucial to the way these outsiders view the conflict. If they can prove all Jews are “white,” then that must make their entire racial understanding true. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t, of course. With all the unproven information they’re posting, it seems that Trump-era “alternative facts” still reign supreme, even on the left.

All this adds up to make it an incredibly scary time to be a Jew. I’m incredibly lucky in that I’m relatively safe here in Israel — I live in the Negev, in an area where the last time we used our bomb shelters was in 2014. But even though I hardly have to worry about what awaits me within the country, I find myself terrified of what awaits me outside of it.

Scarcely a year ago I was so thrilled about the brave, young leaders we had on the left, among them Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now I can hardly contain my anger thinking about her. She fights against Israel’s right to defend itself (leaving Israel defenseless would wipe it off the map completely) yet doesn’t lift a finger to make her congressional district a safer place for Jews, even when hate crimes against us are skyrocketing. This commitment to peace also led her to drop out of a Yitzhak Rabin memorial organized by Americans for Peace Now just last November. This situation benefits her — a quick comment on Israel-Palestine offers “progressive” leaders, celebs and politicians alike easily-attainable political points.

All this leaves young Jews like myself completely politically homeless — we’re hated on all sides, often simply for existing. According to the narrative pushed in the West, you must only pick one side: Are you pro-Israel, or pro-Palestine? Ultimately, however, peace and coexistence can be the only solution — the only question is whether they are still attainable.

In Theodor Herzl’s Zionist utopia, “Altneuland,” he describes at length a Passover seder that features Jewish, Christian and Muslim guests. Let’s hope that someday such harmonious coexistence may be possible. Maybe not next year in Jerusalem, but perhaps the year after that one or the year after that one.

Hallel Saposnik is a high-school junior at the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Art.