Faisal Abbas 
During a solidarity demonstration with Gaza in London, November 4, 2023 (Carl Corty)
The year 2024 witnessed a significant increase in digital violence and inflammatory content against the Palestinians by the Israelis, as the number of inflammatory publications against them in the Hebrew language reached 12 million and 482 thousand, in a reflection and nourishment of material violence that accompanied the Israeli genocide, which lasted for more than 15 months against the Gaza Strip.
The report of the index of racism and the annual incitement issued by the Arab Center for Social Media Development (Campaign), last Tuesday, showed the close link between the escalation of digital hate speech and political and military developments, as the publications calling for the killing of the Palestinians in Gaza formed a large part of the electronic incitement, in addition to the photos and clips that the occupation soldiers raised on the platforms and document their practices against civilians.
But he pointed out at the same time that hate speech against the Palestinians is not new, as the number of inflammatory publications against them reached seven million publications between January and September 2023, that is, before the Al -Aqsa Flood operation.
He focused on the “Campaign” on the X and Facebook platforms, and through its linguistic model he succeeded in monitoring 12 million and 4,82041 informative publications in the Hebrew language, at a rate of 23.6 publications per minute, and the total interactions with it reached 187 million and 226176, between admiration, suspension and republishing.
X was a source of the largest part of incitement and hatred publications in the Hebrew language, as it numbered more than nine million and 800 thousand publications, or 79%, compared to about two million and 600 thousand posts on Facebook (21%). Knowing that only 37% of Israeli users are active on “X”, while the percentage of those who have Facebook accounts between them reaches 87%.
According to a campaign center, these numbers reflected the lack of fully control over the Hebrew content on the platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk. At the same time, the report warned of the seriousness of the amendments made by Mita, the owner of “Facebook”, on the policies of overseeing content, including limiting censorship with violent content “very dangerous” only, which means that hate speech against the Palestinians will continue to spread.
The report pointed out that the political motives were the main driver of hate speech in the Hebrew language against the Palestinians on digital platforms by nearly 70%, followed by ethnic and racist motives by 28%, while the remaining percentage was distributed on gender and religious motives.
He also warned the “campaign” that part of the Israeli digital violence is specifically directed at the Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, where 8484 publications were monitored and analyzed, including 7,480 posts on “X”, compared to 1004 posts on “Facebook”. He considered that this targeting of the Jerusalemites “reflects the dynamics of power in the occupied city since 1967”, as “digital hostility becomes a tool for marginalization”, “imposing control” and “removing the human capacity from the population.”
The matter was repeated in the Israeli glory publications in the Palestinians of the interior of those who were killed or injured as a result of missiles fired from Gaza and Lebanon during the annihilation war, with 9289 publications documented by Israeli users on Facebook and X expressed their joy at the killing of Palestinians as a result of the bombing. The opposite, according to the report of the report, the prevailing state of normalization in Israel with digital violence against the Palestinians, pointing out that this is a model on how to convert digital platforms into a “tool for the demonization of Palestinian victims, deepening societal rift and legitimizing violence against them.”
At the conclusion of its report, a campaign center pointed out that the results indicate “the urgent need to interfere by governments, civil society and major technology companies,” noting that the lack of decisive and radical measures will lead to the continued spread of digital hatred and the funeral of violence.
He called on social media platforms to enhance their systems to oversee content and address the phenomenon of violent content in Hebrew. Mita and X also demanded, in particular, to conduct independent and public assessments of the influence of these publications on human rights, as well as to allocate sufficient resources to enhance control mechanisms in Hebrew. He also invited them to a systematic and regular dialogue with Palestinian civil society to assess and reduce damage.
