Arab bloggers mobilize for Gaza

Israel’s war on Gaza has been the main news story for three weeks, and it had generated significant activity in the ‘blogosphere’ with Arabs and Israeli’s posting their views on blogs, commenting on blogs and news sites, creating Facebook groups to support Gaza or Israel and even intensive Twitter-ing!

There has also been a lengthy discussion of other, sub-topics, such as a critique of the response of Arab countries- with some defending their leaders and other attacking them- and a discussion of how to best help the people of Gaza.

This all proves that the Internet is another frontier in the ‘public opinion war’ being waged by all sides of a conflict. Israeli propaganda organizations have been hiring bloggers and a regular Internet users to defend Israels’ position, and to counter the tidal wave of anti-Israeli content on the Internet.

Clearly, Israel realizes it’s at a disadvantage in cyberspace, when the sheer numbers of active Arab and Muslim users are considered.

To monitor these ‘blog wars’, go to Technorati.com, and see the ‘hottest topics’ or just conduct a search for the word ‘Gaza’ and you’ll get an idea on how many posts there have been worldwide on this issue in the last day, week and son on.

Another, more analytical and less numerical, source to check is Global Voices (globalvoicesonline) which delivers the most controversial or active discussions on the Middle East, and Gaza tops the agenda this month.

Jordanian bloggers are playing a major role in the conversation, and it’s not possible to mention each one and what they’ve done, but let’s point out the best local effort for mobilization led by 7iber.com- an independent citizen-media news outlet from Jordan. 7iber has generated a ‘blog-buzz’ to gather volunteers to help Aramex in the handling of all the aid that arrives in Jordan, from across the world, which needs to be sorted and packed then sent to Gaza. The updates and blog posts featuring pictures and videos of the response from local youth is truly inspiring, and still continues. Check it out and lend a hand!

In general, news, images and videos from this human tradgedy are circulating the globe, ensuring that the war crimes being committed are fully documented and not forgotten.

In a new world were individuals are empowered through the Internet to communicate, Israeli propaganda in cyberspace cannot win.

If only our numbers accounted for more influence in the offline world!

zanasser@gmail.com