Dissertation

Sunveer Sandhu – W13839734
1
April 2015
What was the role and function of social media
during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict?
Sunveer Sandhu
JMC: BA (HONS) Journalism
W13839734

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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyse whether social media is able to have a significant
impact on a conflict between two territories which have been at war with one another for an
assessable amount of time. This study aims to investigate how life was for civilians
occupying the conflicting territories of Israel and Gaza before 2014, when social media was
not a major tool for neither sides; and during the 2014 conflict, where social networking sites
were used by both sides for transferring information. This study will then be discussing how
much of a significant impact social media had for both sides.
Previous literature illustrated three common themes regarding recent conflicts in the Middle
East, where civilians have turned to social media instead of violent street protests. The
themes were: the Internet being used as a tool to help build online communities among
protesters; how the Internet being able to magnify the voices of protesters; and that the
Internet has been secondary in protests, assisting revolutionaries in overcoming previously-
impossible hurdles, but stressing the will and determination of protesters as the most
important attributes. However, this study highlighted new themes during the 2014 Israel-
Gaza conflict, notably the differences of motivations and objectives of Palestinians and
Israelis; the positives and the hindrances social media can have on a social movement; and
the different impact citizen journalism can have, opposed to a planned media strategy.
Overall, the results suggest the Arab Spring is seen as a model for future protests, outlining
how activists can raise awareness of their situation using new media. The findings also reveal
how, using English, increases the possibility of building relationships with Westerners online
– therefore creating the opportunity that the mainstream media does not provide in being able
to share information directly to Western citizens.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction …5
2. Review of the Literature …7
2.1. Social Media and the Arab Spring …8
2.2. Social Media and Citizen Journalism …11
3. Methodology …16
3.1. Outlining the Interview Analysis Approach …17
3.2. Framing Analysis …20
3.2.1. Generation of Data …20
3.2.2. Sample Analysis …20
3.2.3. Analysis Technique …20
4. Findings and Discussions …21
4.1. Why Social Media Was Used during the 2014 Conflict …21
4.2. Differences of Social Media Usage by Israelis and Palestinians during the 2014
Conflict …27
4.2.1. Positives and Negatives of Social Media during the Conflict …29
4.2.2. The Impact of Social Media for Palestinians and Israelis …34
5. Conclusion …37
6. References …40
6.1. List of Books …40
6.2. List of Journals and Reports …42
6.3. List of Articles …44
6.4. List of Interviews …48
7. Appendices …49
7.1. Appendix A – Interview Transcript: Elizabeth Tsurkov

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Acknowledgements
This dissertation would not have been possible without the help and support of the people
around me during the writing of this dissertation, to only some of whom it is possible to give
a particular mention on here. Thanks to a large measure of serendipity, and the fortuitous
nature of the Internet, I was able to have the privilege to get in contact with people who have
helped and assisted my dissertation for the better. I would like to thank my 11 interviewees:
Ahmad Sama’an, Andy Carvin, Anuar Majluf, Belal Dabour, Dr. Bassell Abuwarda,
Elizabeth Tsurkov, Farah Baker, Khaled Safi, Mohammed Omer, Paul Hirschson and Waleed
Al Husseini for their time and patience, and allowing me to write this dissertation primarily
on the findings and analysis of their words.
Above all, I owe a special gratitude to Aasiya Lodhi and Heidi Herzogenrath-Amelung for
their help and counsel during 2015. Their guidance, support and grammar-checking proved
invaluable through the course of this project.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Since 1920, Israel and Palestine have battled through 17 wars, amassing 24,969 Israeli deaths
and 91,105 Palestinian deaths (Jewish Virtual Library). While former UK prime minister
Tony Blair was adamant that the only way to achieve world peace was to first find a solution
to the conflict between Israel and Gaza – people around the world, Westerners especially,
were never truly able to gain an insight into what was occurring inside the two territories.
That was until 2014, when social media allowed the world to be able to see inside the day of
an Israeli and a Palestinian during war time. As a result, Marshall McLuhan’s (1964) ‘global
village’ theory became more relevant than ever, as the people of Gaza distributed user-
generated images and videos through social media, which became available for people
around the world to view in real time.
Evidence proposes that social media is having more of an impact for troubled countries
(Shirky, 2011: 7), and the 2011 Arab uprisings suggests that Middle Eastern countries are
now more aware than ever before of the potential of social networks. The Arab Spring is
described as a “stunning revolution in the way breaking news is reported around the world –
and who controls the news” by Andy Carvin (2012), the citizen who became a journalist by
following the Arab Spring thousands of miles away from his computer. There have been
similar questions raised over who controlled the news during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict –
whether it was the citizens or broadcasters. However, one thing that is certain is how the Arab
world have realised the potential of social media during conflicts, instead of thinking of it as
just for social entertainment. This has been exemplified by statistics showing a year-by-year
increase of the usage of social media by Arabs: with there being more than 81 million active
Arab Facebook users, and almost 6 million Twitter users as of May 2014, up 49 per cent from
12 months before. As Farah Baker, the social media activist who was just 16-year-old during
the war explained to me, social media allowed her to show the world for the first time the
reality of her life during war. Through tweets, images and videos, she showed her hometown
being bombarded by Israeli rockets on a daily basis: “many Gazan people started realising
that we had to use social media to show the truth,” she told me. The only way to show the
truth, was through social media.

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Through in-depth interviews with the most influential activists, governmental spokespeople
and journalists during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, this paper explores the reasons why
Palestinians turned to social media instead of mainstream media in order to raise awareness
of their situation, to the rest of the world; and how Israelis used social networks to show how
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas were a severe danger to their people. Moreover, it will look
to see what the disadvantages of social media were during the conflict – and how it impacted
the cause of the Palestinian social movement, both positively and negatively.

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Chapter 2: Review of the Literature
It was necessary to study the literature on the usage of social media in the Arab Spring to
form a basis which allows me to assess the role of social media in the 2014 Israel-Gaza
conflict, and thus transfer ideas and theories. Due to my topic on the role and function of
social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict being a relatively new one, at less than 12
months old, there has been very little academic literature on the issue. In order to gain an
insight into the use of social media in the Arab world, we will examine how social networks
were used as a significant tool to implement social change in Arab countries in 2011, during
the Arab Spring. Further on in this chapter, we will review how social media has impacted
mainstream journalism, and the influence citizen journalism has on conflicts through social
media.
According to the Arab Social Media Report (2011, 2012), where it was discussed whether
social media was influencing societal and cultural change in the Arab world, social media has
now become much more than a tool for entertainment for Arabs around the world.
“From merely being used as a tool for social networking and entertainment, social media now
infiltrates almost every aspect of the daily lives of millions of Arabs, affecting the way they
interact socially, do business, deal with government, or engage in civil society movements.”
(Arab Social Media Report, 2012: 2)
The report documents that Arab citizens are now more aware than ever of the effectiveness of
social media since the Arab Spring, with the number of active Arab Facebook users in the
Middle East at more than 81 million as of May 2014, up from 54 million 12 months before,
with 67 per cent being between the ages of 15 and 29-years-of-age. The number of active
Arab Twitter users, as of May 2014, stands at almost 6 million (Arab Social Media Report,
2014) and the Arabic language is the fast-growing language ever on Twitter, and to
accommodate the growth. Twitter introduced the Arabic language interface (Arab Social
Media Report, 2012).
This has been epitomised by the role social media played during the 2014 Israel-Gaza
conflict, where Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs were used in relaying information
about what was happening on a day-by-day basis. Although there have been 17 conflicts
between the two territories since 1947, the war of 2014, named Operation Protective Edge,
was the first between the two sides that was reported on by citizens from Israel and Palestine,

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showing the Western world the reality on the floor and giving them a first-hand insight that
the world never got before in any of the previous 16 conflicts.
2.1. Social Media and the Arab Spring
The Arab Spring is considered a “revolution in the way breaking news is reported around the
world – and who controls the news” due to the Egyptians and Tunisians onslaught of
unfiltered and instant information through social media (Carvin, 2012, p.1), and it can be
argued it acted as the model for Israelis and Palestinians to follow in order to bring attention
to the events that were occurring in their lands in 2014. Kamalipour explored the reasons in
The U.S. Media and The Middle East why Muslims in the Middle East are often treated
unfairly by Western media:
“Newspeak from the Western media has too often been one-sided and biased, not allowing
for objective interpretations of the conditions of revivalist beliefs or purposes. Through the
media, much of Western society has come to view Muslims, who are assumed to be
extremists, in simple terms: good versus evil, the West versus Islam”
(Kamalipour, 1995: 207)
However, during the Arab Spring, mainstream media had no choice but to report on the
protests, due to social media being dominated by citizen journalist’s tweets and videos of
what was occurring in the Middle East at the time: “The avoidance to report about the
outbursts is blamed on the channel’s fear of losing their credibility. Several weeks into the
uprising, the world’s view changed, every international news agency adapted and began to
report about the incidents (Hill, 2013: 61). There are many similarities between the Arab
Spring and the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, especially demonstrating how mainstream media
were had little choice but to report on the Palestinian situation daily, through popular
demand.
“In so many ways, the story of Bahrain and the Al-Khawaja family is the perfect illustration
of how news dramas play out on Twitter. There is no clear-cut ending to this story. You can’t
tie a bow to it, publish it and call it a day; the Twitter stream is the story. It is an ongoing
narrative – a struggle – where the status of protesters ebbs and flows, with each success and
setback captured live online.”
(Carvin, 2014: 78)

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It has been suggested the Arab uprisings began in Egypt after the Internet assisted activists in
losing their fear against a brutal regime and stand up against the injustices they had faced for
decades (Adi, 2014:16) because social media allowed a tech-savvy generation to be heard
without censorship as protesters’ images and videos are able to stir emotions in people across
the world (How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring, BBC, 2011). This relates to
Manuel Castell’s theory of how “social movements form from fundamental injustice” and if
individuals feel humiliated, exploited, ignored or misrepresented they are ready to turn anger
into action (Castells, 2012: 12). Yang agrees with Castells, writing how important social
networks can be to trigger participation and protests: “Social networks are crucial for
mobilization, but injustices that provoke shared resentment and anger are often necessary to
overcome barriers of fear and trigger actual participation in collective action and social
movements.” (Yang, 2007: 1390).
“A major advantage of social media in the Egyptian revolution was its capacity for swiftly
exchanging and disseminating information to millions of people inside and outside of Egypt.
For instance, as Egyptians were carefully watching events unfold in Tunisia while also
planning their own movement, activists from both countries were exchanging information,
ideas, and words of encouragement online.”
(Eltantawy & Wiest, 2011: 14)
Harb (2011) stresses that social media is not the sole reason why the Arab uprisings occurred,
and many of which were successful. She points to how Al-Jazeera “became a disseminating
tool for user-generated content” during the Arab uprisings, but acknowledges how television
broadcasters can have external influences in their features that they produce, looking at Al-
Jazeera’s coverage during the Bahrain protests.
“Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the Bahraini protests is influenced by Qatari foreign policy and, in
the case of Bahrain, is arguably abiding by Qatar’s commitment to Gulf Cooperation Council
security treaties. All this confirms that there are limits to what satellite channels in the Arab
world can do to be part of a process for democratic political reform.”
(Harb, 2011: 1)
Gene Sharp believed fighting with “social ‘weapons’ rather than military-industrial ones”
(2010: 86) was the most effective approach social movements to have their voices heard
during protests. The Arab Spring demonstrated that they finally believed social media was the

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way to protests against their “longstanding grievances concerning corrupt and oppressive
government, growing inequalities, looming unemployment, and the rising cost of living were
the roots for contention in the region” (Lym, 2011: 234), much like the Palestinian people of
2014. It is why new media is now considered a tool for mass, non-violent protests, instead of
the only reason. As Lindsey (2013) argued, the environment of decades of fear, torture and a
generation of young people who were no longer prepared to suffer in silences were the
primary reason for the revolutions, with social media assisting them along the way.
There are many risks associated with social movements which use social media as their
dominant tool. Fuchs (2013) points to how police and governments had often had knowledge
of information that was only exchanged on private Facebook chats or how Twitter turning
over protesters’ tweets to authorities. She also debates how events that were created on
Facebook are often never organised or followed up on in real life (Fuchs, 2013: 3).
Morozov (2010) defines his term ‘Slacktivism’ as:
“[…] a feel-good online activism that has zero political or social impact. It gives those who
participate in ‘slacktivist’ campaigns an illusion of having a meaningful impact on the world
without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group”
(Morozov, 2010: xiii)
‘Slacktivism’ is often demonstrated in the new media era, where people can consider
retweeting a tweet, liking a Facebook post or writing a short message, being part of the social
movement when really they have had no impact. A 2011 study conducted by
Christopher Wilson & Alexandra Dunn’s Tahrir Dara Project backs up Morozov’s claim.
The survey among Egyptian activists, shows face-to-face interaction was considered “the
most important form of activists’ protest communication” at 93 per cent; phones got 82 per
cent; print media, surprisingly, obtained 57 per cent; text messaging 57 per cent whilst
Facebook (42 per cent), email (27 per cent), radio (22 per cent), Twitter (13 per cent) and
blogs at just 12 per cent lagged behind.
“Interpersonal communication, traditional media and telecommunications were more
important information sources and communication tools in the revolution than social media
and the Internet. Another part of the survey showed that Egyptian revolutionaries perceived
phone communication, followed by face-to-face talk, as most important for their own protest,

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most informative and most motivating for participating in the protests. Facebook, email and
Twitter were considered less important, less informative, less used and less motivating.”
(Fuchs, 2013: 85)
The Arab Spring uprisings, particularly the ones which occurred in Egypt and Tunisia, can be
attributed towards a combination of the youth using new media to fight against decades of
fear of torture and a corrupt regime – much like the Palestinians of Gaza, who have seen
thousands of Gazans murdered from attacks since 1947. It has demonstrated that although
social media was not the only reason for the revolutions, it certainly assisted activists by
gaining support from around the world, and helped fellow activists prepare for protests using
Facebook, Twitter and blogs (Gustin, 2011). The Arab Spring therefore proved that new
media is a tool which has helped mass, non-violent protest campaigns (Stepanova, 2011: 6)
able to have their voices heard once again. However, as El Difraoui states, “[…] there is no
revolution without revolutionaries” (2011: 73, cited in Adi, 2014).
2.2. Social Media and Citizen Journalism
The Internet has enabled us to build social networks with people all around the world without
the concern for geography and without the restrictions of governments (Tranter and Willis,
2002: 22), so social media has provides platforms for Palestinians and Israelis to
communicate with those that they never had access to previously. Castells defines the new
methods of communication through the Internet as:
“[…] a new form of interactive communication has emerged, characterized by the capacity of
sending messages from many to many, in real time or chosen time, and with the possibility of
using point-to-point communication, narrowcasting or broadcasting, depending on the
purpose and characteristics of the intended communication practice. I call this historically
new form of communication mass self-communication.”
(Manuel Castells, 2013: 55)
Although Castells argues mass self-communication allows subjects to “watch the powerful”,
he admits those in power “have made it their priority to harness the potential of mass self-
communication in the service of their specific interests” and reminds us that the actual power
of corporations in Web 2.0 is much larger than the actual political counter-power of citizens”
(Castells, 2009 cited in Fuchs, 2013: 77). As Carvin explained (2014), social media and the
Internet can be a powerful tool for governments too, perhaps more than it can be for

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protesters – citing Syria an example of how the powerful elites learnt of the effectiveness of
social media to use it against social movements and ensure they do not enjoy the successes
Egyptians and Tunisians had.
It can thus be argued the conflicts in the Arab Spring, and the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict was a
global network society. The term ‘network society’ came from Manuel Castells in
Communication Power where he defined the term as “a society whose social structure is
made around networks activated by microelectronics-based, digitally processed information
and communication technologies” (2013:24).
The Arab Spring and the usage of social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict has
showed how much an impact citizen journalism is having on mainstream journalism in the
Arab world. Social media is referred to as the ‘Fifth Estate’ (Nimmo and Combs, 1992: 171)
who argue that citizen journalism will never replace mainstream journalism, but just
complement it. The theory is elaborated on by Newman (2009) who believes the Fifth Estate
now providing a range of expression that didn’t exist before and can discuss stories that news
organisations have traditionally found hard to cover.” An example of is how tweets, images
and videos being published on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube often being used in video
packages by broadcasters to complement the news feature and to back up their point that they
make. This theory can also be related to the increase in media attention to the 2014 Israel-
Gaza conflict, where social media was the catalyst in bringing attention to the occurrences,
forcing mainstream media to cover the story due to popular demand.
Palestinian and Israeli bloggers were prominent during the 2014 conflict, but used Twitter as
their predominant platform to source information. Jenkins (2008) explains how blogs are a
“means for their participants to express their distrust of the news media and their discontent
with politics as usual” but points to how bloggers will receive far less attention than
mainstream news websites - epitomised by the fact that political blogs do not rank under the
top 1,000 political websites (Jenkins, 2008: 227).
In an improvement over the broadcast media system, participants in what Benkler has called
the “networked public sphere” would not only educate themselves about the news of the day,
but find a space to question mainstream media accounts, see themselves as contributors to
political action, and organize for participation without waiting to be told to do so by elites
(Benkler, 2006: 24). Shirky says social media and citizen journalism has now allowed the less
powerful to protest: “As a result, larger, looser groups can now take on some kinds of

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coordinated action, such as protest movements and public media campaigns, that were
previously reserved for formal organizations” (Shirky 2011: 35).
Creativity must be used to build networks and contacts by social movements without the
funds to pay professionals to convey messages through mainstream media and target intended
audiences, argues Fominaya (2014). Gauntlett (2011) defines creativity as:
“[…] a process which brings together at least one active human mind, and the material or
digital world, in the activity of making something. The activity has not been done in this way
by this before. The process may arouse various emotions, such as excitement and frustration,
but most especially a feeling of joy.”
(Gauntlett, 2011: 76)
This was demonstrated by the Palestinians during the 2014 conflict, as social media sharing
of images and videos brought out the feelings of emotion – especially joy, as we will find out
in an interview later on in this chapter, as Palestinians saw them receive more support than
ever from around the world.
Fominaya goes on to explain how social movements can no longer rely on mainstream media
for sufficient coverage and attention towards their movement due to the ownership of state
television, and the political interests of the owners – and it is why less energy has been
focused on gaining the attention of mainstream media by social movements.
“Corporate ownership of global media and the concentration of media in very few hands,
coupled with the fact that often ‘public’ media such as state TV are subject to government
control and oversight, means that despite the ideal of an independent press, in reality the
decks are firmly stacked against social movement messages that are critical of political and
economic elites.”
(Fominaya, 2014: 116)
It is not irrational to think that social movements of today will study the Arab Spring for
inspiration as they attempt to gain the attention and interest of people around the world. Andy
Carvin followed, and then became an integral online member of the community, of the Arab
Spring in 2011. His book Distant Witness: Social Media, The Arab Spring and a Journalism
Revolution guides us through a step-by-step examination of how he followed the events in
Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen primarily through Twitter and YouTube with

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first-person accounts and getting the information immediately through activists themselves.
“It was the first successful popular uprising in the modern Arab world. And we had witnessed
it online, from start to finish, not through the lens of mainstream media, but through the
protesters themselves (Carvin, 2013: 14). Carvin explained how English-speaking Twitter
users were able to receive updates and translations through Twitter and hashtags, just like he
did, as he built connections with people in the Middle East as he sat in his home in America.
“The people I got to know online became my editor, my translator, my rabbi, my muse,”
(Carvin, 2013: 257), citing a story of how Twitter followers across the world helped
authenticate whether Libya leader Colonel Gadaffi’s speech was live or not, breaking down
clues by studying the placements of the clouds and wind levels. This is a prime example of
Charlie Beckett’s theory of network journalism – where he illustrates how the public can “be
involved in every aspect of journalism production through crowd-sourcing, interactivity,
hyperlinking, user-generated content and forums” (Beckett, 2010: 1).
However, much like El Difraou (2011), Carvin agrees that social media was only a tool in the
uprising, and will never be the cause of any future revolution. “In all uprisings, it’s the people
on the ground making sacrifices, whether they succeed or fail. No revolution has ever been
won through the Internet alone” (Carvin, 2013: 171).
Gutmann (2005) explores the problems mainstream media can give social movements. She
argues that media often creates characters out of wars to make them more relatable to viewers
– creating a soap opera-type feeling, claiming that there is a “massive difference between
reality and media creation on the world stage” and that there has been a recurring theme in
Western media since the first Gulf War, where television producers discovered world conflict
as a “riveting form of reality programming.” (Gutmann, 2005:1). Globalization and
unification of communication has had a big impact on making was a spectacle for those not
involved, writes Gutmann:
“This globalization and unification of communication have had a big impact on war. For
those not involved in some material way, war has become mostly global spectacle. In
practical terms, for combatants there is a new front that is almost as important as the old one
on the ground. If you can dominate world media and enlist world opinion, you can defeat
your enemy by letting global levers like trade sanctions, deceased tourism, and United
Nations troops constrain them.”
(Gutmann, 2005: 2)

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Due to a lack of literature on the usage of social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza, the
viewpoints of academics, with those of journalists have proved particularly insightful. With
academics like McLuhan in Understanding Media (1964) explained, the concept of a ‘global
village’, with any one person around the world able to view images sent by somebody on the
other side of the planet instantaneously, it allows us to understand how significant social
media can be in conflicts – and how it is able to make people not in the conflicting territories
feel involved in the conflict and have an emotional attachment to people who they have never
met before. Subsequently, the conflict becomes more important for people in different
countries, and with more people interested around the globe, the conflict becomes globally
important.

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Chapter 3: Methodology
Methodology
The most effective research method in order to determine and analyse the role and function of
social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict was to interview the most influential users
of social media during the conflict – both Israeli and Palestinian – by using a qualitative
research interview method. Kvale defined the qualitative research interview approach as: “An
interview, whose purpose is to gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee with
respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena” (Kvale, 1983:174). Key
approaches of a qualitative research interview is to see the interviewee as the research
‘subject’ (Cassell and Symon, 2004: 11) and to have a low degree of structure, where the
focus of the questions are on “specific situations and action sequences in the world of the
interviewee” (Kvale, 1983:176). To gain an insight into the actions of my interviewees with
their use of social media during the 2014 conflict, seeing them as the ‘subject’ proved
advantageous in gaining key insights. Another reason why I used a qualitative research
approach was because it enabled me to use a flexible questioning approach, where a planned
set of questions is initially established to begin the interview – however, questions can
change in accordance to how the interview runs, where follow-up questions are often asked
(Wimmer & Dominick, 2011: 111). The main aims were to get the perspectives of the Israelis
and Palestinians who turned to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Vine and blogs to give the
world a first-person insight into the consequences the conflict has had on their lives – as they
subsequently became ‘social media activists.’
Although a focus group would have been beneficial for my study as it allows the interviewer
to “find out what each member of the group thinks about the topic under discussion” and
discover “how people think and act” when they were using social media during the conflict
(Berger, 1998: 89), I was unable to use this method due to my interviewees being from
different countries, and to conduct a focus group through Skype would have proved difficult
to control the interview.
Whilst previous studies on the usage of social media during an event or conflict often
incorporate quantitative content analysis within their study, there were three standout reasons
why I did not use this technique as the main research method for my study: Firstly, much of
the data was not accessible due to legal constraints within Facebook and Google, therefore I
could not obtain the statistics I needed; secondly, due to the conflict having occurred less than

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12 months ago, certain statistics have not even been collected for of 2014 – i.e. the number of
mobile-cellular subscribers from Israel and Palestine; and thirdly, the views of the people
who actually used social media during the conflict would be a much more effective way to
understand why social media was used than numbers ever could. To achieve the aims of this
study within the time allocated and information accessible, interview analysis was
predominantly used, with quantitative content analysis a secondary method to support my
findings. The generation of statistics were also used to support my findings for my interview
analysis. Having contacts among senior directors at Twitter Headquarters, I was able to
access the amount of times the four most prominent hashtags related to the Israel-Gaza
conflict were used from April-November. Other statistics, like the Internet traffic by
Palestinians and Israelis during the conflict and the number of Israeli Internet users were
found online to also assist my results.
3.1. Outlining the Interview Analysis Approach
Interviews were conducted with a range of people who were involved in the 2014 Israel-Gaza
conflict through social media. It was crucial for my study to gain expert opinions without
bias. To do this, many of my interviews were involved with the conflict through social media,
but not living in either Israel or Palestine at the time. So for an expert and neutral voice for
my study, I interviewed journalist Andy Carvin, who studied and followed the entirety of the
Arab Spring via Twitter, blogs, YouTube and live-streaming. He also followed the events that
were occurring in Israel and Gaza in 2014 through social media, so was aware of the social
media tactics deployed by both sides. Waleed Al Hoseini, a Palestinian blogger who was
kicked out Palestine for his religious views was my next interviewee. The interview was
insightful due to his knowledge of Palestinian usage of social media – and he was less bias
than Palestinians who were living in Gaza during the conflict. He would also be less inclined
to be pro-Palestine because he was previously jailed and tortured in a Palestinian jail for his
religious beliefs. I also wanted to explore the motives and effectiveness social media played
in forming opinions and awareness outside of Israel and Palestine. By interviewing Anuar
Majluf – Executive Director of the Palestinian Federation – I was able to see how and why he
formed his Chile-based website, and the influence it had on people around the world.
It has been acknowledged Israel and the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) have invested heavily
in social media over the past decade in “budgetary and manpower allocations,” (Stein, 2014).

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After heavy research into Israeli use of social networking sites during the 2014 conflict, I
decided to target interviews with senior Israeli officials and IDF spokespeople. The
limitations to my study were the fact IDF spokespeople were unwilling to speak to me;
however, I was able to interview Israeli diplomat and spokesperson at the Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Paul Hirschson – one of the 100 individuals followed by the IDF’s official
Twitter account – and his inside knowledge into the way the IDF use social media proved
insightful.
The usage of social media during the conflict was dominated by civilians from both sides, as
they shared new stories, links, pictures and videos and refuted false stories created by
mainstream media and governments. Civilian use of social media during the conflict was the
reason why the conflict gained so much Western attention. The civilians who became citizen
journalists, were in fact, my ‘subject, so they were my most important interviewees. That is
why I interviewed the most influential civilian voices on social media during the conflict.
From a schoolgirl who ended up on Sky News due to her uploading pictures and Vines on
Twitter in Farah Baker; to doctors who shared images of their injured neighbours who they
were treating in Belal Dabour and Dr. Bassel AbuWarda; to award-winning journalists who
used Twitter as their main platform in Mohammed Omer; to bloggers and citizen journalists
who turned to social networks to have their voices heard, it was why I chose to interview the
‘social activists’ who became leading voices and faces for their people – and the reason why I
chose to write this study.
Data acquired from the interviews were analysed using coding to identify the main themes
and objectives of the usage of social media. Through coding, I was able to gain a deeper
insight and obtain more information of my interviews (Saldaña, 2012: 66) and arrange them
into two main categories, with two subcategories. The two categories were:
 Why social media was used during the conflict
 Differences in usage of social media by Israelis and by Palestinians during the 2014
conflict
- Positives and Negatives of Social Media during the Conflict
- The Impact of Social Media for Palestinians and Israelis
The interviewees will now be referred to by their acronyms for brevity. Due to my
interviewees being from Israel and Palestine, I was unable to conduct any of the interviews
face-to-face. The interviews with ET, FB, MO, KS, AM, WAH, DBA and PH were

19
conducted via Skype and phone call to keep the interviews in real time (Daymon and
Holloway, 2011: 226). The interviews with AC, BD and AS were conducted through email
due to work commitments of the three.
 Elizabeth Tsurkov (ET) – Tel Aviv-based Israeli human rights activist. Blogger and
Twitter-user.
 Farah Baker (FB) – Palestinian Twitter-user who became the face of the Gaza
protests.
 Waleed Al Hoseini (WAH) – Paris-situated Palestinian and social media activist.
 Mohammed Omer (MO) – Palestinian award-winning journalist and social media
activist.
 Andy Carvin (AC) – author of Distant Witness, and journalist who sat through Arab
Spring online.
 Belal Dabour (BD) – Palestinian doctor living in Gaza and social media activist.
Blogger.
 Dr. Bassel AbuWarda (DBA) – Palestinian doctor living in Gaza and social media
activist.
 Paul Hirschson (PH) – Israeli diplomat and spokesperson at Israeli Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and pro-Israeli blogger.
 Ahmad Sama’an interview (AS) – 20-year-old student journalist and social media
activist from Gaza.
 Khaled Safi (KS) – Palestinian blogger and social media activist.
 Anuar Majluf (AM) – Chile-based Executive Director of the Palestinian Federation –
federacionpalestina.cl.
The example of one interview can be found in the appendices. Due to the length and
number of the interviews, it was decided not to include all of them. All interviews are
available upon request.

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3.2. Framing analysis
3.2.1. Generation of Data
To find evidence supporting/falsifying what the majority of my interviewees had said
regarding media bias, I obtained BBC and CNN news articles through web.archive.org and
Google to analyse coverage from the BBC and CNN towards the Israel-Gaza conflict on a
day-by-day basis. I analysed how the articles were framed - "Selecting and highlighting some
facets of events or issues, and making interpretation, evaluation, and/or solution" (Entman,
2004: 5) – to dissect how it was written and whose side the article had taken during two
Israel-Gaza conflicts. This was a secondary method to support my interview analysis. BBC
and CNN were chosen as they are the two most-viewed news websites from England and
USA (The eBusiness Guide). The news articles selected were based on what were seen as the
most-read article through web.archive.org, and what article was at the top of the Google
search results once I searched ‘Israel Gaza CNN’ or ‘Israel Gaza BBC’ on the specific day
using Google search tools which enabled me to get results from the day I was looking for.
3.2.2. Sample Analysis
I obtained BCC and CNN articles from December 27th, 2008-January 18th, 2009 and July 8th,
2014-August 26h, 2014. The 2008/2009 Israel-Gaza conflict was a 23-day conflict; whereas
the 2014 conflict was 50 days. By seeing who the news coverage from BBC and CNN
favoured in 2008/2009 when there was a lack of social media usage by the two sides,
compared to 2014 conflict where social media played a major part in the conflict, I was able
to realise whether Palestinians were successful in their usage of social media in getting
Western news media to favour Israel less than they have in the past.
3.2.3. Analysis Technique
Throughout the Israel and Gaza conflict, this study analysed the patterns in online coverage
from the BBC and CNN by using a number of techniques to determine master themes. The
techniques were analysis of the headlines, the selection of specific wording and sentences,
facts included in the article, the pictures and captions.

21
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion
This study will analyse, present and discuss the findings of the research conducted. Some of
the themes were covered in the Review of the Literature, for example, the impact the social
media usage during the Arab Spring has had in the Arab world, therefore impacting the usage
of social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict (Harb, 2011), the impact social media
and citizen journalism has had on mainstream media (Newman, 2009) and the positives and
limitations social media can have during conflicts (Carvin, 2013). However, due to the
conflict occurring less than 12 months ago, analysis of the interviews with the most
influential social media activists during the war, with quantitative content analysis and the
analysis of existing data has proved the best way to discover the role and function of social
media during the conflict.
4.1. Why Social Media Was Usedduring the 2014 Conflict
Amongst the 10 Israelis and Palestinians interviewed, there was a common consensus that
social media allowed both sides to show the world how the conflict was impacting their lives
on a day-to-day basis, faster than ever possible before. As a result, most agreed that the 2014
war had received more attention than any previous conflicts between the two territories.
AC (2015) observed how, for one of the first times, the world was able to “observe two sides
in a conflict” as a result of social media. AC pointed to how the uncensored content put
online by social media activists became instantly accessible to international media and the
public, which helped raise awareness of the situation Gaza.
Another reason why social media was so dominant throughout the 2014 conflict, was because
Palestinians finally realised they were losing the media war as they had arrived too late on
social media, and as a result, Westerners were now siding with the Israelis. KS explained:
“Palestinians came late on social media, on media – the media, in America and Europe now

22
totally agree with the Israeli scenario,” referring to when Israel
introduced social media into war during the 2008/2009 war,
named Operation Cast Lead, which was hailed as a “decisive
public relations victory in the area of social media” for the Israeli
military (Stein, 2014). The IDF created a Twitter account to
spread information regarding the conflict, published infographics
showing Hamas’ hidden weapons (look right), and uploaded
videos onto YouTube, where some videos have been viewed more
than 2m times during the 2008/2009 23-day war. KS and FB
(2015) observed how Palestinians arrived late on social media
compared the Israelis, and had catching up to do to educate those
who had little knowledge of the conflict the truth. FB highlighted
the Israeli initiative to use social media during war in 2008 and
2009 had saw Israel succeed in gaining them more support around
the world, and because of this “Gazan people started realising that we had to use social media
to show the truth.”
As discussed in the literature review, social movements without the funds to pay
professionals to convey their messages through mainstream media to their target audiences,
have to rely on their individual creativity to strengthen their voice
(Fominaya, 2014: 117). An example of Palestinians creative usage of
social media was to relate to parents and children through their
images online. One image which was retweeted all around the world
on Twitter, as a picture depicting Israeli leaders killing Disney
characters, holding the Palestinian flag (right). In contrast, Israel’s
more sophisticated approach was to use their IDF Twitter account to
show infographics of Hamas’ hiding spots for their weapons (above).
FB used her creativity and discovered the most effective way to gain
public attention was through short vines, photos and using the
hashtag in every tweet to create a sense of continuity. Facbeook, would be too long to send a
message, so using photos and incorporating Vine through Twitter, FB describes how she
wanted the world, through social media, to feel as if they were in the war too.
“Actually I noticed that Facebook isn’t, and wouldn’t, be very useful because it would be
very hard to show the world what exactly happens [in Gaza] because it would too long to take

23
an idea to reach others. But Twitter only takes a few seconds to reach anything, to all the
world. And also I tried to show the world what exactly happens by taking videos of the
bombs I see and I hear. So I tried to make people feel like they are during the war with us so
they know who are the victims.”
(FB, 2015)
MO, AM, EZ, FB, DBA, KS and FB explained they used social media to bypass bias
mainstream media. Strategies used to deal with the difficulties social movements encounter
with mass media have been defined as ‘quadruple A’ – abstention, attack, adaption and
alternatives (Rucht, Donk, Loader, & Nixon, 2005: 31), this research found the Palestinians
decided to abstain from attempting to gain the attention of mass media, instead bypassing it
and communicating with Western citizens directly through social media, and primarily
Twitter. The research highlighted how, even with the causalities hugely one-sided with 2,131
deaths from Gaza, 69 per cent of those being civilians; compared to 71 Israeli deaths (United
Nations report, 2014). FB, perhaps the most influential social media activist to come out of
the conflict with her follower list jumping from less than 1,000 to 210,000, said she “used
social media to show the world the truth and that Israel are not the victims, and that
Palestinians are” and felt that major broadcasters BBC, CNN and Sky News “used to say
wrong news,” during past wars between the two, so she stopped targeting broadcasters and
started “following you [Western civilians] because we feel like you write the truth.” She said
Gazans realised Israel were winning the social media ‘battle’ and eventually “started
understanding that we had to use social media, not only for fun, but also using it for
Palestinians and for their Palestinian cause.” PH (2015) also conceded technology-savvy
Israelis have been for decades:
“The Israeli foreign ministry is the first foreign ministry in the world to have a website. The
Israeli foreign ministry and the Consulate of New York is the first anything in the world to
have a press conference on Twitter. The Israeli foreign ministry has got more likes on their
Arabic language Facebook than the American state department has got on their Arabic
language Facebook page. The Israelis are basically turned on by technology, and it is part of
the DNA of who the Israeli is. We have been into social media longer than the Arab Spring
has been around.”
(PH, 2015)

24
PH’s quotation above demonstrates how in-touch Israel are with technology, and their more
sophisticated approach was evident during the conflict. MO, EZ, KS, AM, AC and BD
explained how Israeli government paid students and employed full-time social media staff
within the government and IDF to leave negative comments to Palestinians on social media,
and show support towards Israeli tweets. The Jerusalem Post claimed that students opened up
a ‘Hasbara room’ with the purposes of spreading factual information of the conflict on social
media, and counteracting false information (The Jerusalem Post, 2014).
Having analysed and compared BBC’s and CNN’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza 2008/2009
conflict to the coverage for the 2014 conflict by examining headlines, picture placement,
specific wording and facts included within the article, I noticed differences of who the reports
favoured.
Data on the day-by-day news reports during the 2008/2009 Israel-Palestine conflict from BBC News and CNN*
FAVOURED ISRAEL FAVOURED PALESTINE FAVOURED NEITHER
BBC
NEWS
43% 39% 17%
CNN* 44% 12% 44%
Source: Own illustration *CNN website was not updated on the 1st January, 2009 and no evidence of
reporting could be obtained on 2nd, 13th,14th, 16th, 17th January, 2009.
The illustrations demonstrates that the Palestinian social media activists felt the coverage they
were receiving through BBC News and CNN was unfair, especially considering there were
1,300 Palestinian deaths compared to 13 Israeli deaths during the 2008/2009 war – and as a
result, Palestinians decided to abstain from interacting with mainstream media, instead
focusing their attention on social media with non-journalists, and to normal Western citizens.
The reporting during the 2014 conflict was much more neutral, and MO (2015) explained
how he wanted to “pressure some journalists” to report on the issues in Gaza.

25
Day-by-day reporting during the 2014 Israel-Palestine conflict from BBC News and CNN*
FAVOURED ISRAEL FAVOURED PALESTINE FAVOURED NEITHER
BBC
NEWS
22% 24% 53%
CNN* 31% 18% 51%
Source: Own illustration *Unable to obtain evidence of reporting on Israel-Palestine conflict on 19th, 25th,
27th July and 10th, 16th, 25th August, 2014.
Asiem El Difraoui explained how activists were able to bypass the control and censorship
mechanisms of governments by publishing footage online of violence against protesters to
gain support of the people (2012: 14). EZ (2015) and other Israeli peace protesters had to
endure similar hurdles as she admitted Israeli mainstream media was very bias towards the
Israeli side, and felt it was necessary to communicate and inform Israelis of the Palestinian
wreckage using social media. She tweeted and posted YouTube videos of events that were
not being broadcasted on Israeli television, where anti-war protests she attended were ended
with violence, by hooligans and police. She noted how it was a “watershed moment”, when
she got this footage and information out there on social media, and it changed many Western
people and Israeli opinion as it hinted that the freedom of speech of Israelis could be under
threat.
The majority of the interviewees believed the Arab Spring had a significant impact on why
social media was so prevalent during the 2014 conflict. AC (2015) claimed “both sides
learned the lessons of the Arab Spring, in terms of encouraging their supporters to rally others
to their cause.”
“I think both sides learned the lesson that social media can be a powerful tool for influence.
In that sense, they were capable of being more social media savvy in both their own posts and
how they dealt with the other side.”
(AC, 2015)
EZ (2015) said the Arab Spring made social media a “much more attractive platform for
governments and corporations” and the Arab Spring was “very, very influential in getting
Arabs online,” a statistic backed up by a 2014 Arab Social Media Report which found that
there are more than 81 million Arab Facebook users as of May 2014, compared to 54 million
Arab Facebook users in May 2013. The number of active Twitter users in the Arab world

26
reached 5,797,500 users as of March 2014, with an average of 17 million tweets a day from
the Arab world – demonstrating how effective the Arab Spring was in raising awareness of
the power of social media. BD (2015) said the “Arab Spring brought social media under
attention” and that “the Arab revolutionary youth set the precedents which we observed and
acted upon.” 67 per cent of Arab Facebook users were aged between 15 and 29-years of age
(Arab Social Media Report, May 2014), indicating the majority of social media activists in
Palestine were the Arab youth.
Social media was used to let people all around the world be able to express their opinions,
and have their opinions be heard. Marshall McLuhan’s (1964) ‘global village’ is a term
which can describe how people on different continents were impacting the conflict. AM
(2015) set up the Chile-based Palestinian Federation by creating a website which provided
information through articles, where he also voiced his opinion on the situation in Gaza. AM
believes through his Chile-based website he is able to change public opinion and “raise
awareness of the situation” and the conflict which has been going on since 1947, similar to
what KS did through blogging and Twitter. AM said he realised not many people in Chile
were aware of the conflict and its history, so through spreading awareness, he set up
campaigns against Israel to prevent free trade with Israel. He argued that this was hugely
effective, and as his Facebook friends increased from 6,000 to 10,000 in two months. Even
though AM was not in the conflicting territories at the time of the conflict, he argued that
being able incorporate pictures and videos being published on social media onto his website,
the people who started to gain an interest in the situation became a lot more opinionated and
informed due to “the visibility of the Palestinian cause.” McLuhan wrote in Understanding
Media (1964) how the world is able to access the same information and images immediately
through technology – even quicker than they would be able to view something occurring in
their own village. Through social media, AM explained how he was able to be directly
involved in the conflict and influence opinion through social media as mainstream media
provided snippets of information for Chileans, but through social media he was able to give
his audience a deeper insight into the conflict.

27
4.2. Differences of Social Media Usage by Israelis and Palestinians during the 2014
Conflict
This research finds that the Gazans who participated in the social media activism became, as
Manuel Castells defines, a global network society because of their social structure made
around social networks, with their common goal of raising awareness to the world of their
situation (2009: 24). Castells believed that social movements in the Internet age are formed
through fundamental injustice, when individuals “who have been humiliated, exploited,
ignored and misrepresented are ready to turn their anger into fear” once the fear has gone
(2009:12). The hashtags ability to source the information into one place on Twitter also
allowed a network society to be created among the Palestinian people.
Palestinians and Israelis had two different approaches to social media. Whilst Israelis
believes social media was secondary to conventional media – television especially – the
Palestinians believed it was the only way to be able to be in contact with the world to show
the reality of what was happening.
Research highlighted Palestinian civilians around the world used Twitter in English to speak
to the Western world, and were able to build relationships with people on the other side of the
world, creating a ‘global village’; whilst Israelis tweeted primarily in Hebrew, which PH
(2015) admitted, was detrimental in their aims of winning the media war:
“The Arab world engages with Twitter in Arabic and in English. Israelis are engaged with
Twitter in Hebrew, so others are not part of the conversation.”
(PH, 2015)
The recurring themes of differences in usage of social media were that the Israeli government
and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had a clear social media strategy, whilst Palestinian social
media usage came from citizen journalists who tweeted whatever they saw on the ground
without a clear, well-thought approach (MO, 2015; EZ, 2015; KS, 2015; FB. 2015; AC,
2015, DBA, 2015). Marwan Bishara’s article supports this claim, as he wrote that the Israeli
media strategy was focused on pleasing the American public, so by giving them an indication
the war was coming to an imminent conclusion, Americans would feel a sense of justification
that their government should remain involved in the conflict (Bishara, 2014). Bishara said he
recognised the Israeli spokespeople had a five-step media guide, focused primarily on
speaking to broadcasters through interviews. The guide was: Admission, where Israeli

28
spokespeople would accept Israel were also at fault in the war; Effor, where they would speak
of their determination to bring the war to a conclusion; Examples, where they would talk of
Israeli deaths caused by Palestinian militants, Hamas; and then the Turning of the Tables,
where they would blame Hamas for the reason the war is still going on.
EZ (2015) indicated the reason why Israelis were less aggressive in their usage of Twitter
was due them being “satisfied with the coverage they are getting which is focused on the
Israeli trauma, and the Israeli suffering.” BD (2015) with EZ, feeling the Israelis were “better
equipped but less motivated” with their social media usage. New York magazine writer Ben
Wallace-Wells said in an interview on CNN (2014) that Palestinians were happy in losing the
military fight, as long as they were winning the media argument, and Israelis were the
opposite. MO (2015) agreed with Wallace-Wells, and said that the “Israelis are able to
scream with their guns, [whilst] Palestinians are able to scream with their keyboards.” MO,
KS and FB said Palestinians acknowledged that the social media usage online “doesn’t affect
at all the situation on the ground when it comes to the intensity of the fight,” but argued the
next best objective was to educate the world on the history of the conflict, as they felt
Western civilians were not aware that the battle had been going on since 1947 – and by
revealing the history of the conflict, they could gain more support.
PH (2015) maintained that conventional media was more important to the Israelis during the
2014 conflict, corroborating what was alluded to in the Review of the Literature by Newman
(2009) on how citizen journalism will not, and has not, replaced mainstream media, but is
only complementary to it.
“I think that social media is an incredible channel to bypass bias media. You cannot be absent
of conventional media. With all due respect to Twitter and all – I did an interview with CNN,
Al Jazeera, or BBC reaches millions – and my Twitter account reached a million people.
There is no comparison. On Twitter I am a small voice and the reach is very significant, but
you can’t undermine conventional media. Social media – I am a great believer social media –
it compliments more than bypasses conventional media.
“There are different audiences in the sense that young adults up to 30 are far more social
media and less conventional media. Older people, 50 upwards, are far more conventional
media and far less social media. So you are not bypassing media by going through social
media – you are instead going to people that you wouldn’t get to through conventional media.
When you go to the social media, there is a group in the middle from 25-50 – but for the most

29
part, they are not going on social media. Social media complements conventional media –
you are reaching different audiences.”
(PH, 2015)
PH (2015) and EZ (2015) admitted Israeli civilians were more active on Facebook than they
were on Twitter, and this may have had a detrimental effect on Israel’s international
reputation due to the one-sided nature on Twitter – the most effective social media platform.
“Traditional media is having difficulty covering the conflict, so most of the raw coverage we
see comes from bloggers in the region, many of whom are Israeli or Palestinian. As a result,
the coverage is extremely partisan.”
(Eli Wolfe, 2014)
4.2.1. Positives and Negatives of Social Media during the Conflict
The research highlighted a number of factors that interviewees felt prohibited the Palestinians
with their social media usage. The biggest negative that social media allowed users to do was
the ability to spread false information and fake images on social media (KS, 2015; MO, 2015;
DBA, 2015; PH, 2015; EZ, 2015).
“Negatives: maybe some people here in Gaza or other part of the world who are supporting
Palestine were like very sympathetic about what was happening here in Gaza but are
spreading incorrect facts about Palestine to get more sympathy. They are overdramatizing the
truth and add some ‘facts’ to make support for Gaza – trying to manipulate things. They do it
in a good intention, but it’s wrong. That’s the most negative part. Nobody is watching what
you are tweeting or verifying – you can’t retweet whatever you want and you can’t separate
[the truth from fiction] and it gives you a bad image from other people.”
(DBA, 2015)
PH (2015) argued this proved detrimental for the Palestinians and their cause, as it alienated
the public. He believes that the Internet provides you with a platform to research what you
see, and once it became clear that the Palestinians were spreading fake images, it alienated
some of their supporters around the world:
“People are a lot more intelligent than people tend to believe. In the long-run fake images
doesn’t help their cause. In the short-term I saw what they achieved. They got their pictures
out there and – in the world of citizen journalism – there are no restraints. You can put stuff

30
out there that would never be put out there in the conventional media. There is a lack of fact-
checking that does exists still. The desire to be first in social media – and of course the
participation society. We are not media professionals – it has lowered the standard of
journalism. There are advantages – it is quicker, everybody can participate, it has broadened
the field of conversation. There are disadvantages which is a lack of fact-checking, lack of
accountability and the worst is these fake pictures.”
(PH, 2015)
As noted in the literature review, information could now be published immediately in
conflicts, through the eyes of the protesters instead of through the mainstream media. MO
(2015) argued this was a major positive during the conflict, as Twitter allowed civilians to
become the newsmakers, publishing news from neighbourhoods that were not accessible for
journalists, which allows for a “good and healthy community and it doesn’t just go to an
ideology or organisation that is run by a few individuals who decide what should be in or
not” (MO, 2014). AC (2015) said that people who noticed the lack of information being
provided by mainstream media during the 2014 conflict, went to look at social media for a
first-person insight.
All of the bloggers interviewed agreed that blogs, like Facebook, were used as a platform for
activists to reflect deeper into issues, and were primarily read by those deeply interested in
the conflict (PH, 2015; BD, 2015; KS, 2015; MO, 2015; EZ, 2015). Jenkins believes blogs
are a way of allowing people “to express their distrust of the news media and their discontent
with politics as usual” (Jenkins, 2008:227) and KS supported that statement:
“I use this blog to write my thoughts, my opinion what is happening around me in Gaza and
there are some solution about the political and social issues. Sometimes I use my blog to talk
about strategies that Palestinians should use to spread their word.”
(KS, 2015)
However, the most effective social media platform for activists was Twitter. MO (2015) said
he was able to “reach out, with one tweet, more than with a blog as far as time-consumption
is concerned.” Research found that Twitters ability to incorporate images and YouTube
videos in tweets was why it was used so much by Palestinians, as it allowed them to spread
the information that no broadcaster or journalist was able to publish. PH (2015) said he found

31
Twitter the most effective platform for information – but also to strengthen other people’s
voices:
“I wanted to strengthen other people’s voices – by retweeting people, and they get retweets
from people following me. There was an Italian journalist who tweeted that he had left Gaza
and was safe from the retribution of Hamas and it was actually Hamas who bombed the
school in Gaza - something along those lines. A colleague of mine shared the tweets in
Italian. At the time the journalist had six retweets – for one of the most dramatic tweets of the
entire summer. I retweeted it, as did my friend, and other people picked it up – nobody knew
the journalist. In an hour, he had a thousand retweets, and within 24 hours he had 10,000
retweets. He was invited by broadcasters for interviews, and his followers went from 300 to
10,000 in two days.”
(PH, 2015)
My interviewees suggested both sides were now quicker and more professional in their usage
of social media, citing Twitter was “the place where the conversation is happening” (PH,
2015) as it is the only platform which is open and welcomes conversation with those who are
not your friends (EZ, 2015; KS, 2015).
“Twitter is the most effective one, because it is open. It is an open source where anyone can
measure the tweets and where the geography and where people are viewing from, where
people are from and are retweeting. You can interact and engage with these people.
“You don’t have sponsors or any censors. Any time you want to tweet, you can. Anytime you
want to post, you just write. You can use online to capture and photo or video around you.
Everyone will believe your story because it is from your mobile, from your area, from your
environment.”
(KS, 2015)
Much like the Arab Spring, the hashtag was used by Palestinian protesters for them to update
and inform the world about their situation. The hashtag is way for people across the wold to
gain information and see people’s tweets about a particular subject (How Facebook Changed
the World: The Arab Spring, 2011). KS (2015) explained how there was a “war between the
hashtag” during the 50-day conflict. The four most prominent hashtags were

32
Source: Twitter
#GazaUnderAttack, #FreePalestine, #IsraelUnderFire and #FreeIsrael (Al Jazeera, 2014) and
the majority of the Palestinians interviewed spoke of the importance of the hashtag to keep
people interested in the conflict, and enabling them to have access to information
immediately through the hashtags. As the Arab Social Media Report (2011) suggested, social
networks can enhance citizen engagement – and this created the Palestinians to communicate
through mass self-communication (Castells, 2009: 55) as they were able to reach a bigger
audience with the hashtag through the Internet in real time. As demonstrated by the
illustration below, Palestinians were able to get their hashtag retweeted more times than the
Israeli hashtags, which subsequently would provide more pro-Palestinian information on
people’s timelines.
FB described how she was able to relate to the world:
“I used to use the hashtag of #GazaUnderAttack – I used it when I wrote every tweet. And I
used to focus on the humanity side that we didn’t focus on politics or anything like that
because I hate politics and I believe that politics and politicians are liars. And I used
humanity side to make people feel like they are living with me, they are experiencing the war
so they know that we are the victims.
(FB, 2015)
In contrast, PH (2015) and EZ (2015) acknowledged the Israelis were more active through
Facebook during the conflict. EZ argued that Facebook’s inability to allow those who are not
friends to communicate created an “ideological enclave where people don’t really interact
and learn from another.” Following on from this, WAH (2015) insisted that Israelis and
Palestinians were not interacting through Facebook, or through Twitter – as Facebook doesn’t
allow you to interact with non-friends and Israelis were tweeting primarily in Hebrew, which
wouldn’t allow others to participate in the conversation – social media was “used to spread
hate.” Because of the lack of interacting, the information being published by both sides
became one-sided with the purposes to spread propaganda (EZ, 2015; AC, 2015; WAH,
2015).

33
“So, the purposes were really to spread propaganda – and they did this by posting, either
completely false, or partial information. For example, they said Hamas dig tunnels that were
very close to Israeli kindergartens and things like that. When, in fact, there were very far
from them, and the tunnels were very clearly aimed at going to military targets. And all of the
attacks that Hamas carried through tunnels were against military targets – military targets – it
is legitimate to target them as part of a war. On the other hand, the Al-Qassam brigade, they
kept reporting that number of dead people, they kept saying the heroic resistance – ‘we’ll
keep fighting’ etc. So, it was both were a mirror image of the other – just spreading
propaganda.
“I personally was attacked by numerous people who just opened their accounts – you could
really tell they had just opened their account for the purpose of following the war and
disseminating propaganda.”
(EZ, 2015)
A negative of social media during the conflict was the malicious tweets that activists
received, FB (2015) and EZ (2015) explained. They received death threats by Israelis and
Palestinians, but FB noted this is part of social media, and the advantages of having so many
followers from across the world was she was able to retweet the death threats, and her
followers would respond for her.
However, WAH (2015) noted that “people who believe in humanity, can meet, because it is
difficult for them [Israelis and Palestinians] to meet.” EZ corroborated what WAH said,
recounting how she was able to change people’s minds during the war.
I had a significant influence on the sense that people were so focused on the war, and, first of
all, the fact that I’m an Israeli and I opposed the war, changed a lot of people’s minds. People
say, ‘kill all the Jews!’ or ‘Kill Israelis!’, and then I would see people pay attention. They
think: ‘There is this girl who opposes the war, not all Israelis are bad!’
(EZ, 2015)

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4.2.2.2. The Impact of Social Media for Palestinians and Israelis
Although the Palestinian interviewees accepted social media did not have an impact on the
number of barrages and rockets fired into Gaza by Israel, research highlighted several
positive impacts it had for both sides.
Social media provided boosts of morale to the Palestinians, according to KS (2015) and FB
(2015). They explained that before their usage of social media, the world were not aware of
how Palestinians live their day-to-day lives, so FB communicated with the Western world in
her eyes, how a 17-year-old should do:
“Actually, in the beginning of the war, many people from outside Gaza – Western people –
thought that we had in Gaza don’t have Internet, don’t go to school and we just live like the
Ancient people. I tried to show them that we go to school, we have friends, we hang out we
use Internet. We live like all the people all around the world.
“Most of the social media users talk about politics and things like this. I wrote what is my age
– I am 17-years-old – so I said that I am still 17, and I lived through three wars and an
intifada and I wrote my dreams – the difference between my life now and before the war:
how did the war change me. And all of the things made the people feel like ‘How can you
live through this war?’ and ‘You are very strong!’ and things like that.”
(FB, 2015)
KS (2015) told how he and other Palestinians struggled without the support of the world, and
with them being able to show the reality of the situation using social media, the support of the
world provided boosts for himself and others:
“We had no Palestinians support. We had Latin, Brazilian, Argentina – outside the Arab
world – their support was amazing. We felt like the humanity is still alive in the world. There
are some people who care. In London where they protested and gathered around the fields
and the squares, it was very, very supportive and we felt that there is people in this world.
“All the time we scream without any help, without anyone give us a hand. Of course, people
will be active will support, will assist but we didn’t know. Before this war, we didn’t have
people support us and that people didn’t care about Palestinians. But during the war, and
after, we changed our perspective. Of course there are people and humanity in this world and
we saw them that there are posters written – these posters come from Twitter and Facebook.”

35
(KS, 2015)
(EZ, 2015; AS, 2015; MO, 2015; KS, 2015; AC, 2015; DBA, 2015; FB, 2015; WAH, 2015,
2015, 2015; BD, 2015, 2015; AM, 2015) pointed to the social media support Palestinians
received from Western civilians to argue that social media changed the Western perception of
Israel and Palestine. Marwan Bishara (2014) claimed that the Western citizens no longer see
Israelis and Jewish people as the persecuted, as a result of the reality shown through social
media – and they now look as Israelis as the persecutors. KS argued the support and blog
views he received during the conflict indicates the world – not just the United Kingdom and
the US – but also the Latin world have now been convinced, and have changed from being
“see-er to involver” through their retweets and online support.
“All the time all these massacres happened for Palestinians without any shift in media,
without any change in the Western thinking – the American and other countries didn’t
change, they didn’t try to change because they didn’t know what was happening. All the time
they think that there are two sides between countries – like India and Pakistan – have
problems, conflicting over area.
“In 2008/2009 there was an aggravation in Gaza strip and continued for 23 days, more than
1,400 people from Gaza were killed during that war. Palestinians didn’t use social media very
well during that time – they were knew [the potential]. The, social media, especially
Facebook and Twitter just three years ago they were not so popular in Palestinian
community. 2014 – the Palestinians are good enough, the Palestinians have many accounts on
Facebook and Twitter, have so many friends and followers all over the world so they tried
hard to publish directly [to them]. That happened to change, and this is the shift happening. I
am sure – if another country on the Israeli side tried to continue its foolishness and tried to
start a new aggravation on Gaza, I am sure Palestinians will defeat them online.”
(KS, 2015)
However, PH (2015) disagreed with the notion social media has significantly changed the
Western perception towards Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, he argues the US and Israel
“share common values so we’re are the same thing,” so as a result, the “greatest critics
around the world of Israel are usually people in the West.” EZ (2015) took this further, and
said because the US and Israel share similar values “at the same time [they] want Israel to be,
kind of, represent their values in a better way.”

36
Zahera Harb speculated whether this is the age of “new media” where the “Internet be a free
space for Arab citizens to express their opinion and fulfil their democratic aspirations in
bringing about freedom of speech and political freedom generally” (Harb, 2011). For the
Arab Palestinians, this research discovered the Arabs believed social media gave them a
magnified voice, where they were able to express their opinions on the issues that have
plagued their lives for so long. By Palestinians abstaining from mass media by using Twitter,
Vine and YouTube, their magnified voices were able to educate he world and raise awareness
– even if the battle did not stop on the ground. Furthermore, many social movements have
drifted from their objectives due to mass media giving a certain leader the role of ‘celebrity’
(Fominaya, 2014: 118) – but because social media allowed the Gazan activists to become a
‘network society’, no individual was given the title as the leader – so the extended and fairer
coverage given through mainstream media – evident through BBC News and CNN – the
topic was solely based on what was occurring in Gaza. This study focused primarily on the
Palestinian usage of social media due to the fact they were more prominent through social
media, as indicated by the Twitter hashtag statistics. Finally, this study demonstrates that the
role and function of social media during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict was to magnify the
voices that have been left unheard for years before so they were able to raise awareness of the
situation and to gain support around the world.

37
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5. Conclusion
Having examined the views of the most prominent and influential online figures during the
2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, this study concludes that social media was a major reason why the
Israel-Gaza conflict became the sixth most Googled topic of 2014, (Google Trends) therefore
becoming one of the most talked about topics of the year. The study focused primarily on the
Palestinian usage as it discovered early on during the research how social media was a
primary tool for Arabs and pro-Palestine supporters across the world; whereas Israelis relied
on mainstream media to receive their information, and used Facebook to voice their opinion.
However, the research found that this was a major disadvantage for Israelis, as they were
unable to allow others to view and respond to their comments as Facebook is only for close
friends and family, not allowing the Israelis to build connections with the Western world.
Furthermore, the research found that the Arab Spring allowed Palestinians to see how
effective of a tool social media can be – as the Egyptian and Tunisian activists in 2011
achieved their goal of forcing out their leaders with the help of social media. As (EZ)
suggests, social media was seen as a much more attractive platform for citizens as a result of
the Arab Spring, bring many advantages, but also a number of disadvantages.
Research showed the role of social media being the platform where the less privileged were
able to convey their voices and be heard. They did this by building connections with people
around the world, forcing mainstream media, who Palestinians consider heavily bias, to
report on the situation fairly. As the research demonstrated, the most prevalent Palestinian
hashtags were used more than 11 times than the most-used Israeli hashtags were, showing the
majority of support were for Palestinians. Through this, the research demonstrated that social
media subsequently had an impact on newspaper reporting, showing how online news
coverage from BBC News and CNN favoured Palestinians more than they have done in
previous years.
The IDF has, as the study shows, been an avid user of social media in previous wars. With
their own YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter page, the IDF and Israeli government
have been aware of the impact social media can have when used correctly. The study shows
how they used a well-though-of, media strategy, as opposed to Palestinians using citizen

38
journalism and reporting whatever they saw on the day. With the Al-Qassam brigade too
using social media, but having their online accounts deleted by Twitter, it did not have a
significant effect on the world – as the information coming from the people – the subjects
who the world wanted to gain an insight into – proved to be more valuable for Westerners
and Asians.
The key findings were how Palestinians decided to abstain from directly attempting to gain
the attention of mainstream Western media, and decided to target Western citizens directly
online, as they felt this was their best chance to show their side, and what they believe to be
the reality of the situation. FB showed how Palestinians were quicker, and more professional
in their usage before in terms of getting information out instantly, and on a day-to-day basis.
Another example of how professional Palestinian usage was during the conflict, was that they
did not allow one individual to be seen as the ‘leader’ of the protests – therefore deflecting
attention away from the movement itself. Instead, the Palestinian created an online
community, where all were as important online as each other.
Using the three most dominant social networks in Twitter, YouTube and Vine, it allowed
them to use the power of imagery in order to shock Internet users around the world, and fulfil
their ambitions – which the study found were vastly different to the objectives of Egyptians
and Tunisians during the Arab Spring who aimed to force their prime ministers out of power.
The key findings were how Palestinians targeted younger people, who they believed watch
less television, and are more active online than anywhere else. Palestinians aims were to
educate the world and let them decide who to support, with a fair basis of information as the
research highlighted they were fully aware that they would be unable to win the physical
battle on the ground, so their next best hope was to win the online war. As a result, the study
found how Palestinians were more motivated as a result of the support they were receiving
online from people around the world, and the support from the Western world especially
decreased for Israel.
Blogs were used as a secondary tool, and the research discovered that blogging will not be
significant in attracting attention of those who have little knowledge of the conflicts history,
and blogs will primarily be read by those already convinced by the messages sent out by the
writer.
However, this study has found that social media does pose significant problems for social
media activists during conflicts. Due to the uncensored nature of social media, where

39
anybody around the world is able to publish anything they want to, they can damage the
cause of the movement by publishing incorrect and false information. Research found how
fake images and false information proved a major disadvantage to the cause of Palestinians,
as those who wanted to help the Palestinian cause did not check if what they were posting
online was actually correct. It has led to the annoyance of social media activist and journalist
MO, who believes that, for social media to be even more influential in the future, there needs
to be media training for those who want to be activists online. PH also suggested whether
citizen journalism and lack of fact-checking has lowered the standard of journalism.
Still there was one more disadvantage that this study found. The research highlighted how
propaganda was spread online, with one-sided views from both Palestinians and Israelis
which only would spew hatred between the two, and as a result, make conflict resolution
even more difficult because every death was documented online, so emotion could dictate
important decisions by citizens and governmental figures in the future. Although social media
was an open platform encouraging conversation, the study shows how Israelis and
Palestinians often did not communicate when having the opportunity to do so – asking the
question: do the two sides even want peace?

40
Chapter 6: References
6. References
6.1. List of Books:
Adi, M. –M., 2014. The usage of social media in the Arab Spring: the potential of media to
change political landscapes throughout the Middle East and Africa, United States: Lit
Verlag.
Beckett, Charlie. The Value of Networked Journalism. [London]: The London School of
Economics and Political Science, 2010. Print.
Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2006.
Print.
Carvin, A. (2012) Distant Witness: social media, the Arab Spring and a journalism
revolution. United States: City University of New York.
Castells, Manuel. Communication Power. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Castells, Manuel. Networks of Outrage and Hope. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2012. Print.
Fominaya, C. F. 2014. Social Movements and Globalization: How Protests, Occupations and
Uprisings are changing the World. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fuchs, C., 2013. Social media: a critical introduction, United Kingdom: SAGE Publications
Ltd.
Gauntlett, David (2011), Making is Connecting: The social meaning of creativity, from DIY
and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0, Cambridge: Polity, p.76.
Gutmann, S., 2005. The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media
Supremacy, United States: Encounter Books, USA.
Hill, S. (2013). Digital Revolutions. Activism in the Internet Age. Oxford: New International
Publications Ltd.
Kamalipour, Yahya R. The U.S. Media and the Middle East. Westport, Conn. Greenwood
Press, 1995. Print.

41
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media. 1964. Print.
Morozov, E. (2009). The Brave New World of Slacktivism. Foreign Policy (19 May).
Rucht, Dieter et al. Cyberprotest: New Media, Citizens and Social Movements. London and
New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Toppert, K. with Barnsby, M. R., U.S Army Command and General Staff College (2012)
Social Media and the Arab Spring: How Facebook, Twitter and Camera Phones Changed the
Egyptian Army’s Response to Revolution. Master of Military art and Science.
Yang, G. (2007). Emotions and social movements. In G. Ritzer (Ed.). Encyclopaedia of
sociology (Vol. 3, pp. 1389–1392). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Press.

42
6.2. List of Journals and Reports
B. Tranter and S. Willis. Beyond the Digital Divide: Socio-Economic Dimensions of Internet
Diffusion in Australia. 2002 Conference on the Digital Divide: Technology and Politics in the
Information Age, 2002.
Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program, (2011). Civil
Movements: The Impact of Facebook and Twitter. Arab Social Media Report. [online] Dubai:
DUBAI SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT. Available at:
http://www.arabsocialmediareport.com/UserManagement/PDF/ASMR%20Report%202.pdf
[Accessed 18 Mar. 2015].
Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program, (2012). Social Media in
the Arab World: Influencing Societal and Cultural Change?. Arab Social Media Report.
[online] Dubai: DUBAI SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT. Available at:
http://www.arabsocialmediareport.com/UserManagement/PDF/ASMR%204%20updated%20
29%2008%2012.pdf [Accessed 18 Mar. 2015].
Dubai School of Government’s Governance and Innovation Program,, (2011). Facebook
Usage: Factors and Analysis. Arab Social Media Report. [online] Dubai: DUBAI SCHOOL
OF GOVERNMENT. Available at:
http://www.arabsocialmediareport.com/UserManagement/PDF/ASMR%20Report%201.pdf
[Accessed 18 Mar. 2015].
El Difraoui, A. (2011) Die Rolle der neuen Medien im Arabischen Früchling [The Role of
New Media in the Arab Spring]
Eltantawy, Nahed, and Julie B. Wiest. 'Social Media in The Egyptian Revolution:
Reconsidering Resource Mobilization Theory'. International Journal of Communication
(2011): Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
Harb, Zahera. 'Arab Revolutions and the Social Media Effect'. 14.2 (2011): Web. 8 Apr.
2015.
Jenkins, H., and M. Deuze. 'Editorial: Convergence Culture'. Convergence: The International
Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14.1 (2008): 5-12. Web.
Lindsey, Richard A. 'What The Arab Spring Tells Us About The Future Of Social Media In
Revolutionary Movements'. Small Wars Journal (2013): Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

43
Nimmo, Dan D., and James E. Combs. 1992. The Political Pundits. Westport, CT:
Greenwood.
Sharp, Gene. 2010. From dictatorship to democracy: A conceptual framework for liberation.
East Boston: The Albert Einstein Institution.
Shirky, Clay. 'The Political Power of Social Media'. Council of Foreign Affairs. 2011. Web.
16 Dec. 2014.
Stepanova, Ekaterina. 'The Role of Information Communication Technologies In The “Arab
Spring”'. PONARS Euroasia (2011): Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
Wilson, Christopher, and Alexandra Dunn. 'The Arab Spring| Digital Media in The Egyptian
Revolution: Descriptive Analysis From The Tahrir Data Set'. International Journal of
Communication (2011): Web. 2 Apr. 2015.

44
6.3. List of Articles and Websites
‘’Stray mortar’ hit UN Gaza school’, BBC NEWS, 11th January [online] Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7823204.stm
‘Bush blames Hamas for Gaza conflict’, CNN, 2nd January, [online] Available from:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090121085014/http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/0
2/bush.gaza/index.html
‘Doctor in Gaza: Patients ‘lying everywhere’, CNN, 4th January, [online] Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/08/israel.gaza/
‘Eyewitness: BBC reporter from Rafah’, BBC NEWS, 16th January [online] Available from:
‘Gaza ‘human shields’ criticised’, BBC NEWS, 8th January [online] Available from:
‘Gaza conflict enters third week’, BBC NEWS, 10th January [online] Available from:
‘Gaza facing ‘critical emergency’’, BBC NEWS, 2nd January [online] Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7808825.stm
‘Gaza horror sow seeds for future violence’, CNN, 5th January, [online] Available from:
5/gaza.children/index.html
‘Hamas agrees to one-week ceasefire’, CNN, 18th January, [online] Available from:
8/israel.gaza/index.html
‘Hamas announces ceasefire in Gaza’, BBC NEWS, 18th January [online] Available from:
‘Hamas ready for bitter urban battle’, BBC NEWS, 4th January [online] Available from:
‘Hundreds dead, injured in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continue’, CNN, 28th December, [online]
Available from:

45
‘In pictures: Gaza conflict’, BBC NEWS, 17th January [online] Available from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7835088.stm
‘In pictures: Israeli advance continues’, BBC NEWS, 12th January [online] Available from:
‘Israel ‘expands’ Gaza offensive’, BBC NEWS, 6th January [online] Available from:
‘Israel breaks off attacks to allow relief supplies into Gaza’, CNN, 12th January, [online]
Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/10/israel.gaza.uk.protests/index.html?eref=ed
ition_europe
‘Israel briefly halts Gaza attacks’, BBC NEWS, 7th January [online] Available from:
‘Israel considers truce amid airstrikes’, CNN, 30th December, [online] Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.israel.airstrikes/
‘Israel maintains strikes on Gaza’, BBC NEWS, 28th December [online] Available from:
https://web.archive.org/web/20081228065651/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/780166
2.stm
‘Israel offers short respite from strikes’, CNN, 7th January, [online] Available from:
‘Israel ponders ceasefire calls’, BBC NEWS, 31st December [online] Available from:
8.stm
‘Israel says map shows Hamas put Gaza civilians at risk’, CNN, 9th January, [online]
Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/09/hamas.sketch/

46
‘Israel vows lasting Gaza campaign’, BBC NEWS, 30th December [online] Available from:
8.stm
‘Israel: Hamas mortars prompted attack near U.N. school’, CNN, 6th January, [online]
Available from:
2/bush.gaza/index.html
‘Israeli strike kills at least 1aid worker, U.N.says’, CNN, 8th January, [online] Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/08/israel.gaza/
‘Israeli voices: when to stop’, BBC NEWS, 9th January [online] Available from:
‘Israelis push on into Gaza City’, BBC NEWS, 13th January [online] Available from:
‘Israelis reopen Gaza crossing’, BBC News, December 26th 2008 [online] Available from:
5.stm
‘Israelis shot at fleeing Gazans’, BBC NEWS, 14th January [online] Available from:
‘Key Hamas leader killed in Gaza’, BBC NEWS, 15th January [online] Available from:
‘Olmert: No peace in Gaza till Hamas rockets stop’, CNN, 31st December, [online] Available
from: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.israel.airstrikes/
‘Protesters across Europe call for end to Gaza conflict’, CNN, 11th January, [online]
Available from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/10/israel.gaza.uk.protests/index.html?eref=ed
ition_europe
‘Security Council calls for ceasefire in Gaza’, CNN, January 8th, [online] Available from:
5/gaza.children/index.html

47
‘Third-ranking’ Hamas leader in Gaza killed’, CNN, 15th January, [online] Available from:
5/gaza.aid.plea/index.html
Bishara, M. (2014). Israel's media strategy: What lies beneath. [online] Aljazeera.com.
Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/israel-media-strategy-
2014716114935957662.html?utm=from_old_mobile [Accessed 27 Mar. 2015].
Gustin, Sam. 'Social Media Sparked, Accelerated Egypt's Revolutionary Fire | WIRED'.
WIRED. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.
Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. 'Total Casualties, Arab-Israeli Conflict’ | Jewish Virtual Library.
2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.
Newman, N. (2009). The rise of social media and its impact on mainstream journalism: A
study of how newspapers and broadcasters in the UK and US are responding to a wave of
participatory social media, and a historic shift in control towards individual consumers:.
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. [online] Available at:
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/The%20rise%20of%20social%20m
edia%20and%20its%20impact%20on%20mainstream%20journalism.pdf [Accessed 12 Mar.
2015].
Stein, R. (2014). How Israel militarized social media. [online] Mondoweiss. Available at:
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/israel-militarized-social [Accessed 27 Mar. 2015].
The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com,. 'IDC Fights War on Another Front'. 2014. Web. 6 Apr.
2015.

48
6.4. List of documentaries
How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring 2011, television programme, BBC
Two, 5 September.
6.5. List of Interviews
AbuWarda, Bassel DBA) (2015) Palestinian social media activist, phone interview.
Al Hoseini, Waleed (WAH) (2015) Palestinian blogger, phone interview.
Baker, Farah (FB) (2015) Palestinian social media activist, Skype interview.
Carvin, Andy (AC) (2015) Journalist and author of Distant Witness, email interview.
Dabour, Belal (BD) (2015) Palestinian social media activist, email interview.
Hirschson, Paul (PH) (2015) Israeli diplomat and spokesperson at Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, phone interview.
Majluf, Anuar (AM) (2015) Executive director of the Chile-based Palestinian Federation,
Skype interview.
Omer, Mohammed (MO) (2015) Palestinian journalist, Skype interview.
Safi, Khaled (KS) (2015) Palestinian blogger, Skype interview.
Sama’an, Ahmad (AS) (2015) Palestinian student-journalist, email interview.
Tsurkov, Elizabeth (ET) (2015) Israeli social media activist, Skype interview.

49
Chapter 7: Appendices
Appendices
7.1. APPENDIX A: Transcript: Interview with Elizabeth Tsurkov
25.03.15
Sunveer Sandhu: Whilst I was conducting my research, I went through your top tweets – the
all-time most retweeted and favorited tweets of yours – and they were very neutral, honest
and understanding towards the people of Gaza. You tweeted for peace, am I right?
Elizabeth Tsurkov: To be honest, I don’t know. I haven’t checked it myself, so I wouldn’t
know which ones are the most retweeted. I haven’t checked.
Sunveer Sandhu: Which social media outlets did you use during the 2014 Israel-Gaza
conflict? I know you used Twitter and you contributed towards GlobalVoicesOnline.org –
why did you use these two outlets?
Elizabeth Tsurkov: So, during the war, in terms of getting information about what’s
happening, I relied on Twitter, Facebook and out Haaretz – which is an Israeli liberal
newspaper – and they have a website that is constantly updated. In Hebrew, the site is
updated much more often, so these are basically the ways I got information. I used mostly, in
English, I used mostly Twitter; in Hebrew I posted mostly on Facebook. And on my blog,
maybe I posted a couple of things. I also posted on 972 magazine, which is a shared blog. But
I was mostly active on Twitter because I was also following the news there, so it was always
open anyway – so I also used to express what I feel about the situation, to report on what is
happening in Israel because there was a war between Israel and Hamas, and Gaza – but at the
same time things were happening inside Israel that was very important [for me to share.]
Sunveer Sandhu: Did Israelis and Palestinians overcome any media bias with Twitter, blogs,
the uploading of vines and YouTube videos?
Elizabeth Tsurkov: Well, generally, and I think several studies have shown that, is that
people on social media, they tend to cluster together – according to their political views. So, I
don’t think at all that people were…In Israel, the media is very, very biased – except outlets,
basically. There was no report on what was happening on the Palestinian side – but to seek
out information on what was happening on the Palestinian side, you either had to go to

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