I’ve been more active on social media in the last 2.5 weeks than in the previous 2.5 years. My energy levels are constantly fluctuating while living through this nightmare. I’m lucky to be working, so I’m trying to find the tiniest ways to defend myself and my people.
I’ve seen so much content posted by influencers who know nothing about the Middle East yet feel the need to take a stance despite being educated by Hamas propaganda-fueled social media content. I’m not going to use my energy to argue with someone who has already chosen to be anti-Israel. Still, I try to educate (or call out) the misinformed “well-intentioned” people who have no idea that what they share is truly dangerous.
When a Gaza hospital was bombed last week, within an hour, I saw a story shared by an artisanal pie influencer (yes, that exists, but we won’t get into it) with almost half a million followers. She reshared that 500 Gazans were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital. I immediately messaged her (I assume she never read it), telling her that by the time the press publishes the truth (which took far too long), she will have already spread a lie to thousands of people and that she bears responsibility in the terror against Jews worldwide.
We all saw what unfolded after the hospital bombing. It disgusts me to see how easily Hamas and its supporters can manipulate the general public, and I’m angered at how easily people share information about something they know nothing about.
Today I think I found a way to make a small difference in this ocean of garbage. I saw a reel showing people how to “avoid performative activism” (meaning that instead of just posting support of Gaza like my dear pie influencer, they should act on it). It told them to go to an app called 5 Calls, which helps people reach out to Congress and “get their voices heard” on 17 issues. The reel told them to choose the issue at the top of the list: “Call for de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and Occupied Palestine.”
I looked into it. This supports the H.Res 786 bill. This bill calls for a ceasefire while ignoring the Israeli hostages and does not provide any sort of solution for the safety of Israelis. For people who are unfamiliar with the situation, it sounds great, I mean, you can help stop a war! But at this point in time, a ceasefire favors only Hamas, and this bill is biased against Israel.
While researching this I found a bill called H.Res 793, which calls on Hamas to release the hostages immediately.
If 5 Calls is going to promote the ceasefire bill, then I think it should also be promoting the hostage bill. People who claim to care about human rights should care about all human rights. I want whoever downloads the app to be faced with the hostage nightmare when deciding how to “be an activist.” Innocent Israeli hostages should be at the top of their minds, too.
Please help me by contacting this app and demand that they add H.Res 793 to their list of issues. On Instagram, they are @5calls, on X former known as Twitter @nickoneill @syntheticmethod, or email [email protected], or [email protected].
Out of the 16 cosponsors of the ceasefire bill, there are three that did not cosponsor the hostage bill (Rashida Tliab, Maxwell Frost, Pramila Jayapal). I guess that everyone deserves human rights except for human Israelis, hostages, or otherwise.
Emails and Instagram message, Done!
Done