|
When Greta Thunberg and other activists set sail to Gaza with a shipment of aid, Israelis online did their best to ignore the impending situation.
But once the Israeli Navy intercepted the Madleen, the vessel carrying Thunberg and other notables (including a Game of Thrones actor and a French member of Parliament), they could ignore it no longer. FilterLabs analysis of online discourse from Israel found a few intriguing nuggets alongside a fairly predictable online response.
Here is what we learned:
- Not to be ignored. As the Israeli Navy approached the vessel, Israeli internet kicked into high gear, laser-focused on “Greta”—despite the fact that she was not the organizer of the “Freedom Flotilla” and was only one among a dozen activists on board. And even critics of the activism had to admit that she had put them in a bind: “They want to embarrass Israel, and by stopping them, in a way, we’re playing into their narrative, but we do need to make sure weapons don’t get through to the strip, which is a high probability.”
- Derided as a stunt. Many critics derided it as a “selfie yacht,” with Israeli government officials calling it a “media provocation by activists who were seeking publicity.” Both mainstream news outlets and social media reported that once they were diverted to shore, the activists were shown videos about Hamas’ October 7th attacks. “When they saw what it was about,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz, “they refused to continue watching. The anti-Semitic flotilla members are closing their eyes to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered.”
- But might she have a point? The center-left outlet Haaretz harshly criticized the Israeli government’s response. “The fact that Israel mocks symbolic efforts to identify with the starving indicates that it is disconnected not only from what it is doing in Gaza, but also from how the humanitarian disaster it is inflicting on them is perceived in the world.” Overall, Israeli commentary on Thunberg was negative but showed awareness of how the flotilla was being perceived overseas. On social media and in the mainstream press, Israelis seemed to be keenly aware that the situation in Gaza was tarnishing their reputation abroad.
Thunberg was sent back to Sweden, along with her fellow voyagers to their respective countries, their collective voyage and symbolic protest over. With the war in Gaza having no end in sight, one can only assume it won’t be the last.
Explore the Data in Talisman
Have questions of your own? Want more hyper-local insights into hard-to-reach places around the world? Check out the live data on our analytics platform, Talisman! All subscribers can check out live versions of the chart above, as well as a bonus sentiment and volume scatterplot; those with full-access subscriptions can also investigate the individual artifacts underlying the graphs, and so much more.
If you don’t have a Talisman account yet, sign up now—a basic subscription is free!
|