By Shoshi Indech, Hasbara Canada High School Intern
I love going on social media and seeing my favourite Jewish and Israeli creators making content about Israel, Jewish values, and things I can relate to. Seeing this sense of community really makes my heart happy and I can truly see that there are many different types of Jews, some like me, some more religious, and some less. But what truly unites us is our love for the Jewish state. I love looking in the comment section of their posts and seeing how others also genuinely love their heritage and their county.
But then, I see a comment, the comment that is unfortunately on almost every single social media post that mentions the words “Israel” or “Jew”: “Free Palestine”. This is one of the many hateful comments Jews and Israelis often see on their social media posts. I see this comment and I get upset. Why does one’s expression of their culture and heritage warrant so much hate? Why is a Jewish person living in the diaspora blamed for Israel’s policies? Why can’t Jews just love their country freely without judgment? It’s not fair.
I think about this a lot. On social media, there is a lot of negativity toward the Jewish people. There are celebrities like Gigi and Bella Hadid posting inaccurate information about what is going on in Israel, portraying Jews and Israelis as bad people. Overall, there is a lot of propaganda and hatred towards Jews and Israelis online. What can we do about it? How can we change the narrative and help people see that Jewish people are just a group of people like any other religion or ethnicity (because the Jewish people are an ethno-religion: meaning we are an ethnicity and a religion).
The first thing we can do is learn about our roots and history, both biblical and modern. We can learn about how Israel was taken away from us many times throughout the years and how hard we fought in order to return to our homeland. We can learn about both the facts and myths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as our Jewish culture and what makes us unique as a people. By learning about our history, we can accurately stand up to the hatred, teach people why we have the right to self-determine in our indigenous homeland and educate others about our history and culture.
The next thing we can do after learning about how to properly stand up to Jewish hatred is learn how to properly address it on social media. An effective method of responding to antisemitic content is using Hasbara Fellowships Canada’s ABC Method. The ABC method is a useful way of responding to anti-Israel claims.
What does ABC stand for? A stands for: Answer, acknowledge and address. By doing this first, you are acknowledging their perspective and making them feel heard. By doing this, you start the engagement in a respectful and calm way, instead of attacking them.
B stands for: bridge, broaden, and build. In this step, you will gently pivot towards the message you want to convey, which leads to C.
C stands for: communicate your message. In this step, you bring in facts and proof in order to bolster your message.
Through education and proper employment of the ABC Method, we as a community can stand up to antisemitism and anti-Zionism. We can teach the world about the Jewish people’s inextricable connection to their homeland.
