New Media in Israel

This issue covers the period 4-7 October 2017. Israeli online networks were preoccupied with two topics only due to the Succoth holiday.

Firstly, Israeli online networks were concerned with the clowns on the streets, a worrying phenomenon that has recently spread throughout Israel. This week, the Israeli Police announced that they had arrested dozens of young men, some of whom were under 12 years of age, pending further investigation. These were suspected of frightening and setting in panic passers-by in various areas. Disguised in the costume of a “killer clown”, these young men intimidated people on city streets. They imitated a similar attitude on the streets and alleyways of American cities.

Horror on the Israeli streets was reflected in the virtual world, which was intensely preoccupied with this phenomenon. Reported incidents coincided with the Succoth holiday, when most young men and children were outside their homes. Online networks rejected this phenomenon and urged families to control their children. 

Secondly, Channel 20 launched a reckless incitement campaign against Arab dentists. Channel 20 broadcast a racist report, which incited against a large number of Arab dentists as well as the Association of Arab Dentists and its Director General Fakhri Hasan.

Channel 20 initiated the incitement campaign against these Arab dentists because they refused to sing the Israeli national anthem at a conference in Columbia. Instead, they sang the Palestinian national anthem Mawtini (My Homeland). Online networks called on patient funds to take revenge on and deprive Arab dentists of their livelihoods.

The majority of Israelis on online networks joined this incitement campaign, completely discarding the fact that the Israeli national anthem does not represent the Arabs. On the contrary, the Israeli national anthem discards the Arab population, who find it difficult to sign and identity with it.