Amid the heart-wrenching visuals of Palestinian fathers holding their dead children in their arms, of mothers crying and doctors exhausting themselves, another set of visuals have come forth — that of Israelis on TikTok creating and posting videos overtly mocking the Palestinian suffering and deaths.
Many videos have emerged of Israeli settlers, trending on TikTok showing the comfort they are living in, appropriating their attire, mocking Palestinian killings and for being deprived of water, food and electricity.
Screenshot from one of the videos.
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These videos come on the heels of the destruction in Gaza where the killings in Israeli airstrikes have been increasing by the day. On 26 October, the Ministry of Health in Gaza released its first detailed report on the casualties.
The list includes names, ID numbers, ages and gender for Palestinians that have been killed. The total toll is 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 minors, according to the ministry.
Devoid of Empathy?
Meanwhile, there have been reports of many accounts being flagged, videos and posts on Instagram and Snapchat being taken down because they included information on what's happening in Palestine.
A pro-Palestine Instagram account with over 6 million followers (@eye.on.palestine) has been removed by Meta.
There have also been reports of many personalities like writer Fatima Bhutto and many activists and journalists posting about how their accounts have been shadow-banned and the algorithm is making their content on Gaza less visible and restricted on Instagram.
On the other hand, such content and videos by Israelis have stirred a controversy on social media where Bollywood actors like Swara Bhaskar also called out the video stating, "Evil unparalleled lives amongst the most innocuous and 'relatable' seeming people...Beyond disgusting!"
In these videos, two creators were seen filling their water bottles and drinking water from the tap as water has not only been cut off from Palestinians, over 90% of the water in Gaza has been 'undrinkable.'
In fact, in many of these videos, parents have dressed up their children and made them act to make fun of the killings of thousands of Palestinian children in the Israeli airstrikes.
Former British MP George Galloway and Amr Waked, an Egyptian filmmaker also reacted to the videos by Israelis.
George Galloway on X (Formerly Twitter).
(Photo: X)
Amr Waked on X (Formerly Twitter).
(Photo: X)
X users react to the videos.
(Photo: X)
X users react to the videos.
(Photo: X)
On 25 October 2023, The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking to the UN Security Council during a hearing on the Israel-Hamas violence said that ''Hamas attack didn't happen in vacuum," because Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of "suffocating occupation.''
As of 27 October, Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed over 40 people overnight, based on reports from medical sources and the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
At least 15 people were killed in air raids on the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a medical source had told Al Jazeera early on Friday.
Palestinian writer Hala Aylan recently wrote, "A slaughter isn’t a slaughter if those being slaughtered are at fault, if they’ve been quietly and effectively dehumanized — in the media, through policy — for years. If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim."
She talked about how the Palestinians have to "audition for empathy and compassion" and to prove that they deserve it.
Moreover, Abbie Richards, a misinformation researcher posted on X about another trend on TikTok which is how the platform is making profits over Live games based on support for Israel vs Palestine.
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