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Young Americans have more access to the reality of Israeli violence in Gaza than ever before, and generally more than older Americans. Many have virtually witnessed multiple deaths every day.
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While the mainstream media filters and frames the war, young people are following Gaza citizen journalists and peers.
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Forty years ago, Israeli politics were inscrutable to English speakers, with Noam Chomsky as one of the few sources for direct quotes from Israeli newspapers. Today we can Google Translate the press and share subtitled video.
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The catalog of genocidal incitement laid out in the South African brief to the ICJ would be familiar to any American activist on social media.
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Thousands of demonstrations of and confessions to war crimes have been shared by (often gleeful) Israeli soldiers. Vetting and embedding reporters has been totally bypassed by unfiltered media.
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The civilians killed in Iraq were abstractions, occasionally described in Western newspaper reports. Civilians in Gaza are on video, remembered with photo montages, and often have their own accounts and histories.
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The shift from Twitter to Instagram and TikTok, despite its detractors, is actually a move from brief witty arguments to 2-3 minute explainers. There's a lot MORE content circulating.
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Meanwhile authoritative knowledge producers, above all in the UN human rights, medical, and relief sectors have systematically documented the genocide.
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There is a flood of information out there. One of the few weaknesses of the movement in defense of Palestinian rights is failure to remember this huge information gap and to work to share news and analysis and tragedy with wider audiences.