The title might be loaded, but so is everything regarding this issue is. On the 8th of July 2015, Snapchat launched a feature on life in Tel Aviv. For those of you unaware of the application, Snapchat allows its users to send ‘snaps’ which do not save on your phone and disappear after a few seconds. It uses a geofilter to group snaps from a certain location together which then runs for 24 hours and is available for viewing all over the world.
‘It hurt. It really did. Seeing them live a first class life on a land which does not belong to them.’ Says Mohammad Zeyara through his Facebook page. His post so far has attracted 50,000+ responses of all sorts.
While some agree with him and pass their condolences, there are some teaching history and holding on to their stance of how this land is their ‘inheritance’.
The feature went live exactly on the one year anniversary of the Operation Protective Edge, which left about 70 Israelis and over 2000 Palestinians dead, most of which were civilians and children. This is exclusive of all the damage they have cause, physically and emotionally. Oh, and the injured, let’s not forget the injured. If you still do not understand what the fuss is about, then just type in #GazaAttack to re-live the year old horror.
Where most of the ‘muslim’ world is facing a crisis on their religion, the very same tactic is how the Israeli ‘Jews’ are holding onto ‘their’ land. Where the word of God and the holy book is breaching all extremist limits in the Arab world, the Jewish scriptures are freeing lives and licensing a billion dollar weapon industry, or most of the world’s industries for that matter.
Twitter reacted fiercely against this feature and hurled suggestions as to what really should have been featured. 'Let’s see a feature on the lives in Gaza' they said. The company should not be too worried about crossing any boundaries (lots of pun intended).
Evan Spiegel, CEO Snapchat and one of the youngest billionaires in the world is not only a Jew, but also very quiet on the matter. Although the company policy very clearly states that it partakes in no issues and is only there to provide a platform, the Tel Aviv feature has clearly sent mixed signals. But let’s be fair, this just happens to be his rightful medium of expression. Not his fault he has 30 million active users.
For those who still think the social media is not an effective platform and that these issues should not be taken too seriously will be happy to find out that the West Bank went live on the 10th of July to show the Israeli occupied Palestine and what their lives are like.
To view the entire story, CLICK HERE!
The following snaps summarize the bitter sweet story that was alive for 24 hours. While some parts of it showed the powerful culture and their delicacies, the other side focused on the check points and the everyday hurdles a citizen has to face in their own land.
Picture courtesy: @WeTeachLifeSir_ (Twitter)
Where using the social media is a great idea to spark interest amongst the ‘youth’, it is also bound to promote a one sided debate. After all we are the future and the official pawns for a lot of international investment. Stay positive, a lot of development is under way.
Social media thrives on positive outlook, which is why you never receive a notification on being unfriended, but this is real life, real incidents and real people and a matter of stolen sovereignty. Keyboard warriors will of course fail to win or lose anything concrete, but are surprisingly very instrumental in steering unanswered emotions.
While some vent out in paranoid sentences, the rest are crippled as their lives flash past them. Or well, what could have been their lives.