It is a slap that has become world famous. On April 15, a video posted on TikTok shows a young Palestinian slap two Orthodox Jews in the Jerusalem tram. The footage is going viral, so much so that Israeli media are worried that the gesture will become a new fad on social media. Some even speak of “TikTok Intifada”.
These very short videos are shared without verification and are accompanied by very little context.
Video of the slap has exacerbated new tensions in Jerusalem. On the pretext of several attacks of the same kind, filmed on TikTok, the Jewish supremacist group Lehava organized a march on April 22 to “Restore Jewish dignity”. Social networks were then inundated with images of these protesters shouting “Death to the Arabs! “. Screenshots of conversations between ultra-nationalist Jews wanting to “Breaking the Arab” were featured on Instagram groups shared by the Palestinian population.
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At the same time, videos of lynchings of Jews have multiplied on the platforms. “All of this fuels a feeling of anger and insecurity, analysis Amélie Férey, researcher at Sciences Po’s International Research Center (CERI) and former teacher at the French high school in Holon, Israel. I was struck by the number of videos circulating among Palestinians and the violence of them. It seemed like every moment there were lynchings on both sides all over the country. ”
A war of images
These very short videos are shared without verification and are accompanied by very little context. A footage from May 10 which shows Israelis celebrating in front of the al-Aqsa mosque fire was reported worldwide. In fact, only a tree next to the religious building had caught fire following the violence at the scene, and Israeli celebrations were originally held for Jerusalem Day, commemorating the conquest of the city, in 1967.
The two camps are therefore waging a war of images to defend their cause. An online conflict played out with hashtags, stories and photographs of crying children. Several Instagram accounts thus become references to follow. This is the case of Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd (respectively 387,000 and 900,000 subscribers on their Instagram account). These Palestinians, particularly active in recent days, share their daily lives in East Jerusalem and become a substitute for the traditional media, which are not sufficiently representative according to the Palestinian population.
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