Judith Manassen Ramon, Israeli Documentary film-maker, Producer of "Dolphin Boy" and Media Psychology PhD candidate at Fielding Graduate University, filed this report about social media's role in recent Israeli political events.
Photo by Associated Press
Saturday night, the 6th of August, saw the largest demonstration in the history of the state of Israel, yet the western mainstream media is ignoring it. While every sentence the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, says regarding Iran and the bomb gets front page worldwide, the biggest demonstration in the history of the nation, directed against the very same man, is ignored. It makes you wonder.
A few reasons come to mind. Israel is the conservative's sweetheart. The agenda of this demonstration does not fit, to say the least, with that of the conservatives. Liberals might want to maintain their opinion about Israel regarding the on-going conflict between Palestine and Israel. The reality that is taking place does not feed any clear-cut pre-determined opinion about what is going on in that part of the world. The only broadcasters fully covering the events are "Al Jazeera" and "Russia today" but none of the mainstream international media sources.
Manjoo, in his book "True Enough: Learning to live in a Post-fact Society", explains what he calls "selective exposure". He says people choose what to be exposed to in the media according to what suits their opinions. A second term Manjoo uses is "selective perception". If people with opposing ideologies do end up watching the same thing, each will understand what they see according to their opinions. This current picture of Israel fits no one's frame. The networks sense that and therefore choose to ignore.
So what happened? It all started with a young woman, Dafni Leef, who posted an invitation on her Facebook page. She said she would be putting up a tent and will sleep outside as a protest against the high cost of living in the country. Who ever wants to join her is invited. Since then, Rothschild Boulevard, one of the most affluent streets in the city of Tel-Aviv, ironically named after an extremely wealthy Jewish family has filled up with hundreds of tents. Try to imagine Rodeo drive and Madison avenue, filling up with tents. These tents are a symbol of the educated middle class who cannot make a living in the country. Despite the fact that, at this point in history, the country is considered somewhat of an economic miracle and has a low unemployment rate, the middle class feels quite the opposite. It feels its talent and hard work is being exploited as the rich get richer and the middle class gets eroded. A certain line has been crossed and the little financial 'oxygen' the middle class had in the past has now been taken away. Suffocation has brought the masses out to the streets. A decade ago, you could live well with a middle class salary. Today, a family with two educated working parents must resort to breaking their savings account in order to contend with the high cost of living
In 2011, the middle class is making the revolution happen - the doctors' union representative went on a hunger strike; interns resigned. Parents put their babies in strollers and marched across the country. The young, savvy Facebook generation went to sleep in Woodstock-like tent communities (with their cell phones and laptops). Tents flooded the country from north to south. Tents in which all differences in religion, race and gender find representation. Colorful Gay and Lesbian flags are raised alongside Palestinian flags. Jews are standing side by side with Arabs while marching in the streets for this cause. Lately, even a yellow tent of Holocaust survivors has been built up in the Boulevard. It is a manifestation of humanity at its best and acceptance of the other. Israel is a very diverse society with a lot of tension between its different subgroups. It is therefore even more notable.
Curiously, many of the young people leading this demonstration are filmmakers. Daphni Leef is a graduate of the film school at the Tel Aviv University. Many of the professors in that film department went to study the 'new wave' during the 60's in the Sorbonne and ended up participating in the student uprising of 1968.
Filmmakers also deeply understand visual symbols and know how to create a reality from nothing - believing that a powerful symbol may come out of nowhere and create a major change. Without televisions in the tents and plenty of free time, a lot of creative activity is taking place. The tents are filled with on-going fringe theater shows, reading times of children stories and chefs coming to cook outdoors for the community of protesters.
350,000 people demonstrating in demand for social change in Israel is the equivalent of 15,000,000 Americans demonstrating (about 5% of the population) rushing out onto the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Minneapolis. These demonstrations make the demand from the government that all the population of the country are entitled to good education, affordable housing and a good health system. The health system in Israel has been undergoing privatization, during which it's quality has deteriorated immensely.
More and more people around the world, led by the young Twitter generation, are rising up against their governments. The common thread linking all of them is the reminder (on various levels) to their government that they work for the people and not the other way around. It began in the 2007 Burma uprising. The people communicated to the world through cell phone images (as presented in the Oscar-nominated documentary "Burma VJ"). Like a snow ball - people in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Greece and now Israel, each from their own reasons, took to the streets. The democratization of the media (twitter and Facebook) has created a powerful tool for the people, one that might just bring real democratic power to the people.
Media have an important role in these demonstrations. Dictatorships have full control over their media channels, using it as a means for controlling public opinion. Apparently, democracies have some of that as well. As Chomsky suggested in his propaganda model, there is a strong relationship between the economic elites, power centers and the media.
These demonstrations are surprisingly positive and non violent. The protesters sing to the police officer.-"You too, Mr. Officer, are worth more". Such peaceful demonstrations of hundreds of thousands are boring for a media in search for the next action item to put on the screen.
Israeli media are, on a daily basis, spreading fear and provocation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the people of the country. They know that fear and action are the best platform-makers for good commercial time. It was interesting to watch the Israeli networks reporting during the beginning of the tent phenomena. They mostly focused on 'Sushi eaters' and Rasta-haired anarchists who occupy the tents. The media was trying to break this uncontrollable body of people's power by presenting them as Ludicrous and alienated from the mainstream Israeli. Well, the people just left their TV-sets while moving to the tents, led by the "lunatic on the grass."
These demonstrations come as a reminder that fear-spreading through the media does not make people really forget what they are entitled to, no matter what religion, race or gender they are. It is also a very political demonstration but in order to keep its united power for now it focuses on the social side.
They come to remind of one more thing-For the past few years, the Israeli parliament has been systematically passing laws that aim to decrease freedom of speech, corresponding with whatever they need silenced. This is what happens when you do just that.It gives me great hope in humanity.
