IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 26

politicians gave speeches and government officials hoped for some coverage on TV and radio. But now, thanks
to social media, governments can go
around the mainstream media filter,
and get their message out to millions
of supporters instantly.
In their new book Digital Militarism: Israel's Occupation in the
Social Media Age, Adi Kuntsman
and Rebecca L. Stein analyze how
social media have been used to reinforce the militaristic policies of the
Israeli government; they also examine social media usage by individual members of the Israeli military,
and by supporters of Israel, within
the country and internationally.
Focusing their analysis on the years
2008-2014, a time when "...digital
militarism moved from the margins
of Israeli society to its center," the
authors provide numerous examples
of how social media have been utilized to promote a dominant discourse that was pro-militarism, while
presenting the occupation as both
normal and necessary. Using numerous postings found on Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram,
Kuntsman and Stein demonstrate how
social media in Israel are an essential
tool in the ongoing war against the
Palestinians. As a spokesperson for
the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) once
acknowledged, "Computers and keyboards are the weapons, Facebook
and Twitter are the battlefields. It is
there we fight, each and every day."
The authors show how social
media serve a number of purposes
in this cyber-battle. For one, social
media have fulfilled a humanizing
function, transforming members
of the Israeli military into ordinary
young men and women who are just
keeping in touch with their friends.
For example, many Israel soldiers
have posted selfies on social media;
although they were wearing uniforms, they were shown smiling or
mugging for the camera, as if they

were just friendly and photogenic
young adults at some kind of camp,
rather than members of an occupying military force. Another use for
social media was to create a virtual
gathering place, where supporters
of Israel could exchange comments
as they reacted to the news of the
day. Pro-Israel Facebook pages, for
example, enabled participants to
post patriotic messages and reaffirm their support for the military.
On the other hand, as the IDF
spokesperson had stated, there were
also many occasions when pro-Israel voices ended up in social media
clashes with anti-Israel voices. For
example, a Twitter message from
the Israeli government that a certain
major figure in Hamas had been
"eliminated" was met with a tweet
from Hamas warning that Israeli soldiers would soon be killed in retaliation. The IDF also put a colorized
poster of that now-deceased Hamas
leader on the official IDF Facebook
page. The poster, which looked like
an image taken from a video game,
had the word "eliminated" in bold
letters, along with reasons why he
had deserved his fate. Such postings were part of the Israeli government's social media strategy: military
leaders could choose the topics they
wanted everyone to discuss, and
the various social media platforms
provided many opportunities to discuss them. Thus, Israeli social media
users "... [became] conscripts... within the state's occupation project."
Occasionally, there has been
some skepticism or even outright disapproval of certain social media messages. The authors discuss one set
of Facebook photos from 2010 that
caused a brief scandal. They were
posted by an Israeli female ex-soldier,
who was shown in poses with Palestinian detainees. She seemed to be
degrading and humiliating them, as
she joked about them on her Facebook page in a vulgar manner. The
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

photos, and her comments, struck
a nerve, both with the Israeli public
and with international viewers, nearly all of whom found her Facebook
page appalling; there may also have
been some sexism involved, since
war photos and comments posted by
male soldiers did not seem to evoke
a similar response. But the authors
suggest the real problem was neither
sexism nor a sudden sympathy for
Palestinians prisoners. Rather, these
photos and postings were so upsetting because they violated the Israeli
government's insistence that it always
conducted its conflicts ethically and
did not abuse detainees. But while
this incident provoked heated debate
about the treatment of the Palestinians, all too often, the majority in the
pro-Israel community seemed willing to accept the point of view presented by military leaders and their
surrogates. With rare exceptions, the
Israeli public confined themselves to
the conversations (and perspectives)
the government encouraged.
Kuntsman and Stein look at
each of the conflicts that occurred
between 2008 and 2014, and they
show how Israel's use of social
media became increasingly more
sophisticated. They also delve into
the common themes the government promoted, including a constant
drumbeat of messages about how
Israel was always under threat and
had to be ready to defend itself at
all times; how Palestinians and their
leaders were untrustworthy and had
malevolent intentions; and most of
all, how Palestinians lied about the
number of casualties they suffered
during each Israeli incursion. Israelis who were deeply suspicious of
Palestinians were given numerous
examples of why they were right to
feel that way; in fact, "digital suspicion" was frequently utilized by
the Israeli government - if Palestinians posted photographs of children being injured or killed, Israeli
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june 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016