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by eoin_murphy 4963 days ago
It may be for domestic consumption but there are plenty of Palestinians who do speak English and I'm pretty sure at least some of them are on Twitter. After all, if a Danish cartoon in a newspaper can set off riots in countries where it is not published then I'm sure public posts on a very popular website will get some coverage.

Regardless of how the Palestinians react to it, it does just seem a very dehumanized way of approaching a conflict where actual real people are dying.
2 comments
cema 4963 days ago 

  if a Danish cartoon in a newspaper can set off riots 
  in countries where it is not published
...and several months after it has been published. What does it tell us? There are people who trigger the riots and decide when and how to influence the crowds. They, or their adjutants, are interested in using the "Danish newspapers"; not the people on the street.

  it does just seem a very dehumanized way of approaching a conflict 
  where actual real people are dying
There are people who need to be stopped, and getting them dead is sometimes the only way.
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eoin_murphy 4963 days ago
I agree absolutely. There are individuals and groups out there drumming up controversy whenever they can, whatever their motives are.

I didn't mean to compare the two in terms of which was ok, I was just pointing out that saying " Most Palestinians probably don't read english anyways." doesn't mean they won't be aware of it regardless of whether or not they are the "intended" audience

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xenophanes 4963 days ago
What dehumanizing? You give no examples. I go to the twitter feed and see tweets like this:

> Over 50 rockets fired from #Gaza hit Israel since yesterday -- more than 800 rockets in 2012 alone. RT this. #Hamas

> 1 million citizens in #Israel slept in bomb shelters tonight, barraged by dozens of rockets from #Gaza. pic.twitter.com/LqPfjaTj

Seems like they are explaining things in simple terms so more humans can understand what's happening. I don't get how communicating so more humans will understand is dehumanizing.

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eoin_murphy 4963 days ago
It's dehumanizing because the targets are painted as one-dimensional figures to be "eliminated" not a people who have been killed. See paragraph 3 in the linked post

I'm not saying they're not justified in doing what they're doing (that's a whole other 70+ year conversation) but this is the same as any other propaganda to 'other' the enemy.

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