In 2019, one violent post against Arabs and Palestinians was published on Israeli social networks every 64 seconds. New research from the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh) examines how Israeli elections contributed to the rise in violent discourse.
This statement was originally published on 7amleh.org on 27 February 2020.
The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, published the results of its annual Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli Social Media in 2019. The research revealed that the peak of incitement against Palestinians and Arabs in 2019 was correlated with the two rounds of the Israeli election. It also shows that there was a 14% rise in violent discourse towards Arabs and Palestinians, with one violent post every 64 seconds, and at least one out of every 11 posts about Arabs using inciting language.
In 2019, there was also a rise in the number and percentage of inciting posts in 2019. Nearly 495,000 out of 5.4 million posts about Arabs were violent posts, including racist and inciting slurs and biased language against the Arab and Palestinian community. These statistics indicate a 5% rise in inciting posts in comparison to the statistics for 2018 which showed that 464,000 out of 4.7 million posts about Arabs included violent statements.
The 2019 Index of Racism shows that the two rounds of the Israeli election caused an 8% rise in violent discourse against the Arab community concerning politics. It also shows that the violent discourse against the Joint List emerged from the violent posts against bodies and individuals, as members of the Israeli Knesset Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi received the second and third most violent and racist comments.
We analysed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and several platforms for the Index of Racism. Facebook remains the most prominent network that hosts violent discourse as 41% of this discourse was published on this platform, which reveals a 15% decline in the violent discourse in comparison to 2018. On the other hand, Twitter hosts 30% of the violent discourse against Arabs, which conveys a 14% rise compared to 2018.
The Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli Social Media is an annual report published by 7amleh Center in cooperation with Vigo Company that monitors the intersection of racist and violent labels and words against Arabs and Palestinians throughout the year.
