How a handful of videos became evidence for millions of people

I spent some time opening the links in a recent essay by Dutch blogger Chris Klomp.

There were quite a few of them. Amnesty International was there, as were genocide scholars, newspaper articles, legal experts, human rights organisations and reports from Dutch media. One link led to an article about a Hamas commander involved in the planning of 7 October. Another led to an interview with genocide scholar Omer Bartov. Then came Amnesty, NOS, NRC and a growing collection of reports, experts and legal arguments. By the time I reached the end, the article looked less like a column and more like a plate of spaghetti, with sources and hyperlinks piled on top of one another in every direction.

What struck me was not the number of sources. Most of them were perfectly respectable and many addressed serious questions about Gaza, international law and the conduct of the war. What caught my attention was something far simpler.

The article contains links to Amnesty, NOS, NRC, genocide scholars, legal experts and human rights organisations. The one source I kept looking for was the one source I never found.

Klomp introduces him in the opening paragraphs as a Palestinian TikToker whose videos have apparently left a profound impression on him. According to the article, Hamza regularly speaks to Israelis online and receives an endless stream of hatred in return. Children allegedly tell him that Palestinians should die. Adults celebrate the deaths of Palestinian babies.  Soldiers reportedly admit to killing children and appear proud rather than ashamed. Klomp watches these videos and arrives at a conclusion that grows larger with every paragraph until it eventually becomes a statement not merely about the individuals appearing on the screen, but about Israeli society itself.

“Virtually everyone reacts this way.

“Virtually everyone reacts this way.

That is quite a claim.

Not because hatred does not exist. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes on social media knows that hatred exists. The internet has made it remarkably easy for humanity to display its worst instincts in public and every conflict produces people capable of saying dreadful things. Israelis are not immune to that reality. Palestinians are not immune to it either. Neither are Europeans, Americans or, for that matter, my fellow Dutch citizens.

The question is not whether........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)