MENA: Rage after Israel Attacks Gaza-bound Flotilla
Emotions are running high across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), after Israel attacked a peaceful flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to besieged Gaza – and the Twittersphere is ablaze.
According to Reuters:
The violent end to a Turkish-backed attempt to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip by six ships carrying some 600 people and 10,000 tonnes of supplies raised an outcry across the Middle East and far
beyond.
And no where is this rage more obvious than on Twitter - where thousands of tweets with the hashtag #flotilla, #Freedomflotilla, #Israel, #Gaza and the Turkish word for Israel #Israil – many of which have now been disabled – mushroomed in a few hours.
Reactions across MENA included sarcasm, anger and shame.
From Dubai, UAE, Mariam writes:
Bahraini Esra’a Al Shafei sarcastically notes:
Israel has just announced the world’s most dangerous weapons: Wheelchairs and elderly people. #Flotilla #FreedomFlotilla
Rami Boraie, who tweets as Ramsville, follows the same stream of thought, saying:
Nothing will happen because it will be called “self-defense” because water purifiers are just bombs waiting to be made.
Lebanese Jamal Ghosn tweets:
If you let someone get away with murder every time, you can’t act surprised when it kills again. #flotillamassacre #flotilla
Bahraini Yacoub Slaise adds:
Israelis have never respected borders, they’ve existed for 60 years on that basis, never expect them to respect intl waters #freedomflotilla
Again from Ramsville:
It’s obvious the
flotilla was a peaceful operation. To see israeli soldiers board with machine guns should show the ridiculousness of it all
And there was also action on the ground:
From Egypt, Bothania Kamel reports:
Palfest posts a photograph from the demonstration here:
A scene from the Cairo demonstration by PalFest
Ali Dahmash, from Jordan, also tweets:
The only demonstration I managed to see now was at the Prime Ministry and it’s building up #flotilla http://tweetphoto.com/24880069
And here‘s Dahmash’s photograph:
Activists gather in Jordan in protest against the flotilla attack
Meanwhile, after a few celebratory tweets that #flotilla is becoming a trending topic on Twitter, accusations surfaced that Twitter is ‘censoring’ the entry.
Dowza tries an explanation here:
There isn’t much available as to what happened but it’s not really surprising. Israel showed its distaste for international law once again and attacked an aid vessel outside of their jurisdiction. This was in international waters and the equivalent of piracy. There are reports