Israel, Palestine and Indian Social Media

Image: X (formerly Twitter)

The 75-year-old Israel-Palestine dispute is once again on the boil, but this time the war hysteria is being felt almost across the globe, thanks to social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

In India, in the 1970’s this conflict used to be confined to the ‘World’ pages of the English newspapers and was non-existent in most vernacular dailies. Later with the advent of satellite television in 1990s, we got to see footage of buildings getting reduced to rubbles on BBC World News, accompanied by a fast-paced narration by Lyse Doucet - each word going off like a bullet from a machine gun.

Those days the Indian government used to throw its weight behind the Palestinians in tune with its policy of non-alignment, while Israel was considered a pariah state. Gradually around 1980s, a section of intelligentsia and political class began to feel that it was high time we explored ties with the Jewish nation, as they argued we shared many common interests. India then formally established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, but after ensuring that ties with the Palestine Liberation Organisation were not upset. 

For the general public, discussing politics in drawing rooms, tea shops, and paan shops – the brick-and-mortar predecessors of social media platforms, the Israel-Palestine conflict only evoked yawns and the initiator of the topic used to be dubbed as a ‘big showoff’. Many had no idea where this region was on the world map and used to dismiss this ignorance with a ‘kya-farak-padta-hai’ shrug.

Even when social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook became household names in the first decade of this millennium, the Israel-Palestine wars didn’t evoke much traction among Indian users. 

However, Israel was fondly remembered by a section of the Indian commentariat whenever Delhi, Mumbai, or Kashmir used to get rocked by terror attacks. Israel's success in freeing passengers and crew from a hijacked Air France aircraft at Entebbe airport in Uganda in 1976 had won them legendary status. These analysts looked upon the Jewish nation as a role model and wanted India to show the same ruthlessness while dealing with Pakistan-trained terrorists. The worldwide rise in Islamophobia after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US also added heft to this school of thought.

On the other hand, in New India secularism has become a dirty word and the Indian Muslim is increasingly being seen as the other. Frequent lynching, hate speeches, and other hate crimes against Muslims for nearly a decade have helped bolster this narrative. Using this corollary, anyone attacking Muslims across the globe gets instant support from Hindutva zealots. Hence, the current Israel-Palestinian war is evoking a very strident reaction, and the world is getting a taste of the toxic polarization India is currently afflicted with.

On October 7, the moment the Palestinian extremist group Hamas breached the heavily guarded Israeli border to carry out attacks on residences and military installations, and rained missiles on some Israeli towns, #IStandWithIsrael began trending on Indian Twitter. Soon there was a rash of similar-sounding hashtags and in some cases, even Israel was misspelled as ‘Isreal’. 

A number of resident welfare uncles, who bombard us with ‘good morning’ messages, turned into ‘military experts’ overnight. They expressed their choicest outrage against Hamas but were salivating over the prospects of massive air raids Israelis were planning to carry out on Gaza in retaliation. Borrowing a cricket analogy, a Twitter user said Hamas had done with its batting and now see what Israel does. Memes showing Hamas in poor light were widely circulated.

As the frenzy spread, we had random guys from Rajkot to Rae Bareli offering themselves to fight for Israel. This reached such a feverish pitch that the Israeli ambassador in India, Naor Gilon, had to issue a statement, “Israel never asked anyone to come and fight for us. We fight our own fights.”

All the prominent influencers of the right-wing social media ecosystem in India began rooting for Israel and wanted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to wipe out Hamas by flattening Gaza. All this vociferous posturing was emanating from the bedrock of rabid hatred towards fellow Muslims.

There is an old adage (though who actually said it is disputed), “The first casualty of war is the truth.” This war too helped rumour mills work overtime with social media proving to be a force multiplier. 

One of them was that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies in a hospital after entering Israel. The report was based on hearsay and travelled across the globe. It gained so much credence that US President Joe Biden issued a statement condemning the act. Later it turned out that the report had no basis, and the White House had to ‘walk back’ on its earlier statement.

The trouble is that by the time these lies and half-baked reports get exposed, they have already travelled too far. It gets shared by thousands of social media users, and many don’t even get to know about the clarification that comes much later. 

Hamas has been attacking Israeli positions in the past but never attained a success of this scale. For the dominant Western media, Hamas action became the casus belli, as if this was the first stone cast in this dispute, while they conveniently overlooked Israel’s atrocities on Palestinians that date back many decades. Every anchor in prominent TV channels across the Western world wanted the panelists to first condemn the October 7 Hamas attack and then get on with Israeli atrocities.

No Western leader issues a statement on this issue without including the line, “Israel has the right to defend itself.” Hence, the oppressor gets a blank cheque, while the oppressed need to be the epitome of poise and grace or be dubbed as a terrorist.

Coming to Indian mainstream media, a major chunk of which has been reduced to government mouthpieces over the last decade, the Hamas attack provided a golden opportunity to divert attention from a civil war-like situation prevailing in Manipur state. 

For Indian TV news channels, many of whom fit Arundhati Roy’s description of ‘Fox News on steroids’, this war provided fresh ammunition for its daily edition of notoriously toxic debates. Talking heads with very extreme views were invited and they all still continue to call for the annihilation of Gaza to teach Hamas a lesson. 

Interestingly, some of these channels have flown in their top correspondents to Tel Aviv, and they are reporting from the relatively safe confines of Israeli towns with none venturing into Gaza. They are also unable to see the widespread protests on Israeli streets calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ouster. Amid all this turmoil, ANI even managed to find an Indian woman residing in Israel, who was willing to sing paeans of Narendra Modi!

It may be recalled that none of these channels ever bothered to send even a single reporter to Manipur where the ethnic conflict rages on even to this day.

While most of the Israeli media is pulling no punches and asking the Netanyahu government tough questions regarding Israeli security failure on October 7, for Indian reporters and Twitter users he continues to be a hero. The same template is expected to continue as Israeli forces get ready for ground assaults on Gaza.

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1984: More Relevant Than Ever

 

There are many books which we may like to read, but somehow fall through the cracks of our 'sick hurry and divided aims' (my apology to Matthew Arnold). For me George Orwell's 1984 was one such book. Though I have read his Animal Farm and a couple of his short stories, but this dystopian classic has languished in my reading list for long. Recently I decided that it was high time I laid my hands on it.

Since we are in the middle of a pandemic, I decided not to take a chance of visiting my favourite second-hand bookshops, but order them online. In a way I feel picking up 1984 at this juncture was pertinent - as some of the worst prophecies in the book are coming true only now. Big data surveillance is the new buzzword for both governments and technology giants and our lives are getting mapped, overtly and covertly, by them.

The first chapter of 1984 sets the stage for the futuristic world where surveillance is all pervasive. The 'big brother' watches you through a telescreen which can be dimmed but not shut off. Written in 1949, Orwell had foreseen how television will become a major propaganda tool.

The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a citizen of Oceania which is ruled with an iron fist by one Big Brother of Ingsoc (English Socialism) party, who off an on keeps appearing on the telescreen. Then there is Emmanuel Goldstein the erstwhile comrade of Big Brother, but now branded as enemy of the people.

Smith works for a department known as office of truth, but is torn between his fear for Big Brother and a sneaking admiration for Goldstein. He writes a diary knowing fully well the perils of such an exercise. He risks being charged with thoughtcrime - harbouring unorthodox thoughts, such as unspoken beliefs and doubts that contradict the tenets of Ingsoc.

At times he also wonders about the pointlessness of writing a diary. If caught by the thought police, he would not just face death but total annihilation - the diary will be reduced to ashes and he will be 'vaporized' from the records. For rest of the citizenry such a person never existed.

Oceania is constantly at war with one country or another and its friends and foes keep changing like musical chairs. Smith's department is constantly updating the records as the party wants its citizens to forget and remove from their consciousness that today's friend was actually a foe a couple of years ago and vice versa.

The party believes who controls the past, controls the future and who controls the present, controls the past. With constantly shifting enemies it is forever on a 'manufacturing consent' mode.

Another major project in progress is the compilation of a dictionary in Newspeak - the language of Oceania, as opposed to Oldspeak. The aim is to reduce the number of words by weeding out synonyms and thereby narrow down the range of consciousness of the people. Winston's colleague and philologist Syme believes it will bring down thoughtcrime as there will be no words to express it!

When 1984 was published the reviewers were quick to interpret it as a critique of Communist societies that had sprouted in Europe after World War II, backed by Soviet Union. The overarching presence of the party machinery and the curtailment of liberties for common citizens led to this conclusion.

However, in the current post-Soviet era it is becoming clear that even democratically elected leaders are no less ambitious about exercising greater control over citizens. This trend has been on the rise since the tragic 9/11 attacks and quite often these overreaches are couched in reasons such as safety and security to make it more acceptable to the people.

But what is more closer to the Orwellian nightmare is the rise of tech companies, especially in the social media space such as Facebook, Twitter and Google and the repository of information they maintain about their users. And sadly, unlike governments, they cannot be voted out.

Yet another unsettling byproduct is the dark web - an amoral underbelly attracting amateur and professionals out to make a fast buck by conning users, stealing data and carry out malware attacks. No amount of safety infrastructure is proving enough of a deterrent to firewall data from these criminals.

The Timeless Appeal of Shawshank Redemption

This Facebook image of full-salt-no-pepper Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman together and the realisation that the cult movie they starred - Shawshank Redemption - was going to celebrate 20th anniversary left me astonished. Let me admit I was one of those who watched the movie only a couple of years ago using a USB, though the movie was released in an era when terms like internet were known only to the geeky class.
 
The film had a low profile release, at least in India, as it got overshadowed by the fading hype of Jurassic Park and at the Oscars Shawshank Redemption got eclipsed by the likes of Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, which ensured that this movie drew a blank, despite seven nominations. I vaguely remember it being screened in some theatres and it soon faded away without much ado. The title itself sounded very intriguing and with words like 'redemption' thrown in it sounded more like a morality play.
 
Moreover the main actor Tim Robbins was quite an unknown commodity and so was Frank Darabont, who was making his debut as director. Though Morgan Freeman did ring a bell, having acted in successful movies such as Robinhood The Prince of Thieves and Unforgiven, he was not a household name like say Eddie Murphy.
 
So for me the movie got lost somewhere in the back of my mind until a couple of years ago when I came across a friend who had downloaded the movie in his computer. Using a USB I copied it to my system and began watching it. Within 15-20 minutes I realised that I was not watching some run of the mill stuff but a classic.

Tim Robbins plays a high street banker who lands in prison due to quirk of fate and learns to cope with life behind bars. While Freeman plays the long time jailbird, who keeps getting denied parole. The two develop a rare bond of friendship and later Robbins carries out a riveting escape from the prison. After a slow start the movie grows upon you. It does not have any science fiction special effects or slickly edited fight sequences or any gizmos - just plain straight forward story telling, often with voice over by Freeman in his  deep baritone, with a good eye for detail.  
 
By the time I had finished watching the riveting 142-minute long movie I realised it was one of the best films I had seen in my life and rued why I didn't see it on a 70 mm screen earlier. 

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Charge of The Selfie Brigade

Narcissism used to be a private affair (very mirror centric) or had a very limited reach until the troika of internet, smartphone and social media came along. Now if you go to a restaurant, pizza joint or take a stroll in a park, a beach you will come across someone taking selfies or a video on his or her longish smartphone or tab, all vital fodder for social networking sites, who in turn seem to rule our lives. Meanwhile 'selfie' has mutated to terms like 'groupfie' and 'belfie', but the strong underpinnings of narcissism remain.

The tyranny of film rolls had restricted photography for special occasions like marriage or a visit to a tourist spot. But memory chips changed the rules of the game as it eliminated the frequent need to shop for film rolls. So all you need is flip the view on your phone, put the best smile forward, position your thumb over the button and click. Whether it is a new dress, a tattoo, shoes or newly-acquired six pack ... everything is kosher for camera and it follows you like a shadow. It has also caught the fancy of our netas.

Even those who are sick or had met with accidents post their pictures in full medical regalia of fracture cast and bandages to evoke a flurry of 'likes' and 'get well soon' messages. In short it has now supplanted diary, minus  its privacy, in recording one's life in kilo, mega and terra bytes with tools like Photoshop to create a picture perfect world. The more intrepid ones even go for cosmetic surgery to enhance their looks.

One notable fallout is that it has become cool to attend school/college alumni meeting and it no longer evokes thin attendance it used to. Earlier only 'teachers' pets' and those living close to the institution cared to attend and it used to happen only in upscale public schools or high profile colleges. But now it has trickled down even to schools and colleges with pedestrian pedigree.

During their student days they may have loathed attending classes and writing copious notes, but now they try to squeeze in their portly frames on those ancient school benches to be 'framed' for posterity. Some even make peace with teachers with whom they never saw eye to eye during student days - all for the sake of Facebook or Instagram.

For many the obsession with online life has now eclipsed the offline ones. Even the day-to-day mood swings depend upon comments their posts and selfies draw on Facebook or Instagram. Cyber bullying has become more potent as online reputations have become more important than the offline ones. And so is flattery with the most common remark being, "Oh you look the same, not changed a wee bit", which make lie detectors gasp in disbelief.

Picture courtesy: Reddit (George Harrison selfie)

Also Read: Bangalore Beat

Lament of The Yellow Metal

Times are bad for me. I am being seen as a temptress who goads all and sundry to part with their hard earned savings. The Finance Minister has declared an open war on me. He has asked the people to avoid or cut down on buying me. The RBI economists look down on me, through their thick nerdy spectacles, as a big drain on what they call 'record current account deficit' - a fancy term that simply means the country is importing way too much than what it exports.

Though it has happened due to a combination of factors, I am being seen as the sole villain. Nobody is asking why the fuel bill is so bloated and why the diesel component within it is swelling like the midriff of some of our netas. Or for that matter why the exports have fallen, what are our brick and mortar and software companies doing. Why our software companies despite enjoying so many tax holidays and other sops have not created a single world-class product like Facebook or Twitter. Why our bright youngsters who join software companies, after topping in their engineering exams, do nothing worthwhile other than make power point presentations, attend mind numbing conference calls and while away the rest of time near coffee machines discussing IPL and Karan Johar movies.

They often call me a dead investment. Really, what happened in 1991. It was me who saved the nation's honour. And I do that on a daily basis for Indian families, whether it is for daughter's marriage or son's foreign education. Chalo chhoddo, I don't want to go on like the wronged women of saas bahu serials.

I wish I had remained holed up in the humble pit in South Africa cocooned in dirt and dross. But then do we have a choice? The rapacious march of 'civilization' and technology will never let us be.

Once we get processed and enter the market, most of us end up in India. Its appetite for yellow metal defies all logic and cuts across all strata of society. I find it quite ironic that this country, with shocking poverty and malnutrition statistics, has acquired such a distinction.

After coming here I came to know that in this country the fascination for yellow metal even transcends all eras. During the Medieval period the tales about India's riches spread far a wide. For marauding raider kings such as Genghis Khan and Nadir Shah India was an El Dorado to be ransacked, whatever it takes.

For ordinary people I was seen as an instrument to be acquired as a hedge against rainy days and had to be zealously guarded against robbers and dacoits. There were no bank vaults then, hence when it came to safekeeping me, the ingenuity of Indian households was mind boggling.

During the licence permit raj days, when even toothpaste was considered a luxury, I became the darling of the underworld, as nobody could trade me legitimately, thanks to the prevailing laws. Everything happened in hush-hush manner and I used to be shipped in dhows mainly from Gulf countries and land in some shady godforsaken place; sometimes encounter hot chase from the police. People returning from Gulf countries used to smuggle me in by using the most hideously ingenious techniques. I often used to end up having a glimpse of the insides of their digestive and (hold your breath) excretory systems, while travelling to India. 

The liberalisation of the 1990s came as a whiff of fresh air and I could arrive in the country through legitimate channels and was traded in a far more straight forward way. But alas the so called liberalisation actually turned out to be crony capitalism and the nation seems to be paying the price for it now with floundering economy and falling rupee. On a personal note going by the Government's new found hostility towards me, I dread the day when the only route available for me to enter this country will be through smuggling.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat