anti-Zionism on the web

ZOA plans response to
anti-Zionist attacks
on the Internet
By Toby Tabachnick
Staff Writer for the Jewish Chronicle

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is developing a strategy to combat the rampant anti-Semitism, thinly veiled as legitimate political discourse, which is spreading like a virus on the Internet.
The crux of the plan is to increase the Jewish presence, and Jewish perspectives, on social and cyber community Web sites.

Starting in Pittsburgh, the ZOA is training high school and college students on how to respond to the "most insidious lies about Israel," said Pittsburgh-ZOA President Deborah Fidel. "We're talking to them and teaching them how to answer on these groups."

Because some of these sites, such as Facebook, have their own terms and issues of use that prohibit hate speech, the ZOA is encouraging individuals to look into the anti-Zionist groups posted on these sites, then report them to Fidel. She will then report those hate groups to the provider in an attempt to shut them down.

"If that doesn't work," she said, "we'll turn to the advertisers. Does company A, B or C really want to appear on the same Facebook page calling for the violent destruction of Israel?"

The ZOA will also work with young student interns to document "every [Palestinian] violation of every peace accord. Every bombing. ... We'll have a link to the 1929 massacre in Hebron," said Fidel.

Once that information is collected, it will be uploaded to Google Earth, which currently contains a wealth of false and slanted information as to how Israel purportedly has stolen land and water from Arabs.

"It's time for us to get our history on there, too," said Fidel.

The proposed effort is a response to anti-Zionistic messages prevalent on popular Internet sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, and Google Earth.

Anyone seeking to learn about Israel or Zionism, coming to the computer with no initial bias, will be bombarded with misinformation about the Jewish state, according to Fidel.

This is not an issue of free speech, she said.

"You're always going to have anti-Semites in any medium, she said. "Free country, free speech; there's nothing you can do about that, but we're trying to make it so people who are not already in one camp or the other, trying to learn about Israel or Zionism, don't come up with the other side over and over again as a normative view."

Anyone typing in "Zionism" on a Google or Google Earth search, or looking for videos about Zionism on YouTube, for example, will find an overwhelming number of sites hostile to Jews on the very first page of responses to that search.

"Because it's Google," said Fidel, "it has a certain veneer of respectability."

The problem is compounded by the fact that anti-Semites can freely upload hateful and false information onto many of these sites, and can reach millions of uninformed people, in a vastly more profound way than print media.

And with this relatively new generation of Web technology, allowing users to upload and share information on these common sites, the problem grows exponentially. Facebook, for example, hosts literally hundreds of anti-Zionist groups, including one called "Israel is not a country. ... De-list it from Facebook as a country." This group, according to Fidel, has about 40,000 members thus far, and "makes an argument convincingly that Israel is a racist apartheid state that has no right to exist."

It's the prevalence of the anti-Zionist message that's the problem, says Fidel. Because each one of these groups has conversations, wallboards, videos and links to other similar sites, "the message is spreading in a viral fashion. Young people communicate by Facebook and YouTube."

The Jewish community needs to mobilize to defend itself against the widespread slander, Fidel said.

And some of this slander is particularly stomach turning, such as a discussion group on a "Yahoo Ask" page. The topic is "Are modern Jews more genocidal than their predecessors?" A whole discussion then follows as to whether Jews are genocidal.

The ZOA is also planning to host a meeting to inform community members about what they can do to help the "good sites share more prominence on the Web," Fidel said.

Fidel is hoping that those attending the meeting will take the information back to their organizations, and then spread the word to other branches of their organizations throughout the country.

"If we all do it," said Fidel, "we can succeed."

(Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittchron.com.)