Update (Adam Horowitz): 11/16/12
Screenshot of Josh Block’s Twitter feed.
A reader sends along that it wasn’t only IDF spokespeople and random Israel supporters who were pushing the #HamasBumperStickers hashtag. Former AIPAC spokesman, and current Israel Project CEO & President, Josh Block was also promoting the Twitter feed. Here Block retweets rightwing commentator Michelle Malkin pushing the hashtag and linking to a post titled “Supporters of Israel mock jihadists with #HamasBumperStickers, libs outraged.” The Israel Project, the organization Block now leads and which describes itself as “a one-stop source for detailed and accurate information about Israel and the Middle East”, also promoted the hashtag over its Twitter account.
Original Post (Rania Khalek)
It’s raining Israeli bombs in Gaza yet again and as the death toll mounts some people are having themselves a laugh at the expense of the dead. I’m talking about #HamasBumperStickers, a twitter hashtag that caught on like wildfire yesterday mostly among people who despise Palestinians (and Arabs in general) and think it’s funny when Israel kills them. While I’m not usually one to amplify the trolling rhetoric of heartless bigots, I feel it’s important that these particular individuals be shamed and ostracized for their sick jokes, especially since the hashtag they are using has apparently been trending worldwide. Here are just a few:
#HamasBumperStickers “Ask Me About My Exploding Grandchildren”
— An American Patriot (@Onelifetogive) November 15, 2012
#HamasBumperStickers Future Suicide Bomber on Board
— Snarky Basterd (@Snarky_Basterd) November 15, 2012
#HamasBumperStickers Baby Suicide bomber on board #tcot
— The People’s Cube (@ThePeoplesCube) November 15, 2012
Proud parent of an honor roll suicide bomber #HamasBumperStickers
— ♛ The Ryan King ♛ (@The_Ryan_Kingg) November 15, 2012
This one has been retweeted the most, with 1298 retweets as of this post:
#HamasBumperStickers Honk If You’re About to be Taken Out by an Israeli Air to Surface Missile
— Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) November 15, 2012
Okay, so you might be thinking, “Come on, Rania, these are insignificant creeps on the internet with too much time on their hands.” Actually, Israeli defense officials have been participating as well, like this IDF spokesperson:
#HamasBumperStickers I fired ten rockets and all I got was this lousy bumper sticker
— Captain Barak Raz (@CaptainBarakRaz) November 15, 2012
@CaptainBarakRaz’s colleague, also an IDF spokesperson, was so amused by his tweet that he retweeted it, adding an LOL to show his chuckling approval:
LOL RT @captainbarakraz: #HamasBumperStickers I fired ten rockets and all I got was this lousy bumper sticker
— Peter Lerner (@MajPeterLerner) November 15, 2012
That same IDF official even came up with some of his own:
#HamasBumperStickers My car is a stairway to heaven, with a little help from #Israel #IsraelUnderFire
— Peter Lerner (@MajPeterLerner) November 15, 2012
#HamasBumperStickers oops did I say “Gates of hell”? I took the wrong turn at the lights.
— Peter Lerner (@MajPeterLerner) November 15, 2012
People who took offense tried to counter the insanity by using the hashtag to tweet important though often ignored facts about Hamas and Gaza:
#HamasBumperStickers We won a democratic election that was endorsed by the Bush administration.
— Charles Davis (@charlesdavis84) November 15, 2012
But it didn’t catch on. Neither did the hashtag #IDFBumperStickers, which some used to criticize Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. #HamasBumperStickers remains as strong as ever, with right-wing Arab hater Michelle Malkin joining in the fun every so often while criticizing those who dare to be offended by jokes that dehumanize dead Palestinians.
As for the person(s) who started the hashtag, The People’s Cube—described by Wikipedia as “a U.S. based satirical conservative website”—proudly took full responsibility in a blog post that detailed the success of their bigotry:
Last night on Twitter, at 10pm, @ThePeoplesCube started a #HamasBumperStickers trend, which was picked up by tens of thousands people and quickly rose to the #2 trend not just in the United States but also worldwide – the fact promptly picked up by Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy Team.
Meanwhile, the residents of Gaza continue to endure endless airstrikes on top of a nearly 6 year long illegal blockade that has left over 1.5 million people cutoff from a world that has abandoned them. Only a sociopath would find that funny.
Just to give you an idea of what they’re laughing at, here are photos of children that Israel has killed or wounded in the last two days:
Omar Misharawi, 11-months-old:
This picture of 11-month-old Omar Masharawi was published by the Washington Post. Omar was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza yesterday.
Omar’s father, Jihad Masharawi, is a BBC Arabic journalist in Gaza. This picture of Jihad sobbing while holding his dead has become the face of this offensive to many arabs around the world:
BBC journalist Jihad Masharawi carries his son’s body at a Gaza hospital. (Photo: AP)
As the assault on Gaza continues, the pictures of dead and wounded children are piling up.
The brother of Palestinian boy Walid al-Abadlah, who hospital officials
said was killed in an Israeli air strike, kisses his body during his funeral
in Khan Younis, Nov. 15, 2012. (Photo: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
While the children of Gaza bear the brunt of the bloodshed, Israeli children aren’t safe either.
An injured Israeli baby is held by a security officer inside an ambulance at the scene where a rocket, fired from Gaza, landed in the southern city of Kiryat Malachi November 15, 2012.
(Photo: Reuters)
Yesterday, Ahram English posted the following video showing an emotional Palestinian official holding the charred body of baby killed in Gaza by an Israeli airstrike. (Warning: It’s very graphic!)
A version of this post originally appeared on Rania Khalek’s website Dispatches from the Underclass.
Rania:
Thanks for posting this!! I’m curious to see how Chris Hayes addresses it this weekend. I tweeted that one of his panelists should be Anna Lekas Miller. We’ll see.
Just so we are clear on who Peter Lerner is – from his Linked In Profile:
“Since April 2009 I have been the Spokesman for the IDF Central Command dealing with all media relations foreign and domestic, concerning the military activities within the AOR. I am responsible for building a media strategy, initiating media events and coordinating with other spokespersons within the AOR. I am a specialist in crisis communications dealing on a daily basis with the media strategy and response with regard to issues concerning counter terrorist activities the security coordination with the Palestinians and issues concerning settlers .I have also been the senior field liaison officer for coordinating and facilitating international humanitarian aid operations and economic development programs in the Palestinian territories: UN agencies, International Committee of the Red Cross, USAID, the Task Force for Project Implementation, European Union, international NGO’s as well as embassies and consulates. I have held positions both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and have also been posted as the Spokesman for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, subordinate to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.”
If you have worked with an NGO in Palestine you or your office have dealt with him.
Israel manages to find friends in very ‘nice’ places, from the British EDL/BNP to white supremacists in Scandinavia.
I’m surprised a neo-Nazi KKK racist wasn’t brought in by Israel’s supporters in the U.S. to add a few ‘charming’ comments.
Anyway, it’s quite telling when Israel’s defenders are unhinged internet goofs. Imagine what would happen if their mothers kicked them out of their basements and they had to get real jobs and lead normal lives.
here’s the same little baby girl in the video in this article, filmed obviously just minutes earlier than the above video since she’s still alive in this video.
WARNING: this is VERY graphic, shocking and extremely disturbing to see!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebt2iWsyGY
personally, i’m deeply traumatized, i’ll never be the same again after watching this. i’ve already contacted multiple human rights orgs, including B’Tselem and Amnesty…and i also contacted a well-known muslim international human rights lawyer in Washington DC to pursue prosecuting izrael for this horrific war crime.
Imagine if support for the heinous al Qaeda was not considered controversial … Some forms of violent tribalisms and ethnic-nationalisms are tolerated and others are not. This is the sum of the moral world. Drop me a line, Richard Dawkins, oh so liberal mainstream. Yet anti-tribalists are condemned as far left. Even the person with the littlest morality is a prude. Really, how daft is the mainstream. Does it have a moral compass or is it a moral chameleon? Enlightenment values? Or just a few clear-thinking decent people? As Chris Hedges wrote: “The bullies in the forms above me, the sadistic masters on our dormitory floors, the deans and the headmaster would morph in later life into bishops, newspaper editors, college presidents, politicians, heads of state, business titans and generals.” You can either have a moral compass or be a moral chameleon.