Israeli military TikTok has tried to make fresh propaganda New Israel-Palestine Conflict
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A month before the May 11 attacks began death Among more than 250 Palestinians and more than 13 Israelis, the Israeli army released a video of TikTok, where pilot aircraft celebrate Israel’s independence. “Pretty Boy Swag”.
With more than 100,000 followers and nearly 100 videos, from the Israeli army TikTok reflects the content of typical influences. On the official profile, you can find fitness tutorials, food recipes, hide-and-seek games and “soldier training hacks” such as diving techniques and Krav Maga workouts.
The first video was released in September 2020 to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Since then, the Army page has created a substantial audience for its most popular video – promoting the Iron Dome air defense system – which was viewed nearly a million times.
TikTok, the predominant youth platform, has nice relationships with political content. Although some political actors have sparked controversy, users typically manage the policy with great caution or nuance – in part because of the platform’s moderation guidelines and censorship.
However, in the face of serious international crises and national security problems, it is possible to find all and sundry perspectives. At least in the virtual realm, the issue is not disproportionate – many of the messages are in favor of Palestine, but they are also in favor of Israel.
Our birthday party is better than yours ????????7️⃣3️⃣???????? #IDF #Plane #Independence # 73
When you search for “Israel” in TikTok, dozens of related hashtags appear, including “loveisrael” and “boycottisrael”. Messages labeled “Israel” have more than seven billion views collectively. There are more than 30 million videos called “Loveisrael”.
The people featured in the content are doing a variety of things: sharing knowledge, messages of support, and sometimes joking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And the jokes don’t just come from personal profiles. By selecting the popular hashtag #HotGuyShit, the Israeli army “Just a bunch the most powerful women who defend their country ”. In the publication, Israeli women fighters imitate the behavior of macho soldiers.
In another video titled “No Makeup, Only Camouflage,” hiring women to do training activities to the sound of pop music. And these two examples are not isolated. In TikTok Forces, there seems to be an active effort to highlight the presence of women in the Israeli army.
Al Jazeera was contacted by the Israeli army, but no request was made for an interview.
Misogynistic mood
“It’s a way [featuring women soldiers in TikTok posts] diversifying your deadly forces is not only women, but also people of color, and puts plurality in these violent institutions, ”says Yael Berda, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
According to Green, the social media strategy draws parallels with the efforts of the Israeli state to “wash the rose”. Israel has been criticized for using the state’s vivid gay scene as a disguise for progressivity and as a way to denounce the violation of Palestinian human rights.
It seems that the Israeli military’s strategy for feminism also retreats due to inconsistency. While the profile celebrates its female troops, it also builds content with what can be seen as misogynistic humor.
Using the #SuperModel trend and the title “We’ve been serving looks since 1948,” TikTok users watch a panoramic camera on an Israeli tank as they hear a voice recite, “And I tell you, Bob. He has a body like that, a face, and legs like his, Victoria Secret will be a supermodel. ”
We have been serving looks since 1948 #IDF #Fashion #Looks #SuperModel
Social media as a narrative weapon
“Of course it’s a propaganda tool,” says Rebecca L Stein, author and cultural anthropologist at Duke University. “Basically, the ‘militainment’ military apparatus and the arsenal can be seen combined with the entertainment apparatus and the arsenal.”
Stein argues that the Israeli military wants to create an engaging social media narrative with popular language and related content. In other words, they want to humanize their image to win international hearts and minds.
“They [Israeli military] they have lost this online war and are desperate to find a solution, ”says Stein.
The author added that the Israeli army’s social networks believe that the solution is to improve its messages, images and infographics, with more soldier dancers humanizing the military’s face. “They [the Israeli forces] refuse to be seen as a broader political problem … and that is why they are experiencing a deep crisis, a crisis that even the best ‘militants’ cannot solve. “
Stein also noted that the Israeli military has a flexible communication strategy. Their narrative perspective varies depending on the platform and the language spoken. In Hebrew channels, Stein identifies the dominance of the narrative as “soldiers returning home and reuniting with family”. On English channels like TikTok, Stein believes that the Israeli army emphasizes the Israeli narrative as a result of the fire, so it targets victimization and self-defense reasons.
Whatever the approach, the author says “them [the Israeli forces] they are certainly looking to influence their soldiers with viral power ”.
While the TikTok bombs are falling
In the latest attack on Israel’s Gaza, the Israeli military posted 22 videos on TikTok, averaging two a day. In the messages, they talked about military operations, showed rocket videos, and asked TikTok users, “What would you do if it were your home?”
This is the Guardian Operation of the Walls
Communication strategies received criticism. “Every time I think there is a limit to the joy that someone can take in human suffering, the IDF social media manager explodes,” a Twitter user said. he wrote.
No 1. No 2. No 3,400 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel in the last 10 days. We will continue to defend Israel.
Israel strives to outdo Palestinians on social media on a daily basis – people who filmed the extent of Israel’s military attack up close, in real time.
While the Israeli military is creating content for TikTok, Gaza is rebuilding, from the rubble, for the fourth time in 12 years. “We walk on broken glass in broken windows,” he says Palestinian poet Nadine Murtaja in Gaza.
It remains to be seen whether TikTok can serve the world as an “unbreakable” window. However, most experts agree that Israel will continue to lose the narrative war and people know the framework of social media. Or, as the title of the Israeli military says, “Camouflaged or not, our soldiers are masters of disguise.”
Camouflaged or not, our soldiers are masters of disguise. #IDF # Soldier #Hide #Camoflauge
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