Hot Palestinian babes and the hasbarista

We are bombarded by rockets from Gaza in southern Israel, but there is another front where we have no Iron Dome and, it seems, no defense either: the Internet.

In March, Khulood Badawi, a UN media official in Gaza, posted a fake photo on Twitter. I knew instantly that I had seen that photo years ago as the top Google Image search result for “picture of people who smile a lot” with the caption, “Israelis kill a lot of Arab children.” I was horrified at the time, but I had no idea what to do about it.  As a media professional, Badawi should have known it was not a photo of any event in Gaza in 2012. Two weeks ago, it was reported that the UN’s investigation of their employee’s conduct has finally concluded, but the official finding has not been made public and we don’t know whether Badawi is still on the UN payroll or not.

Seeing that photo resurface prompted me to write a blog called 15 Real Photos of Arab Girls. Since it was posted in March, people looking for “arab girls,” “arab crils,” variations of “Arabf… girls” and “hot Palestinian babes” have ended up looking at my modestly clad real Jerusalem Arab girls instead.

I started keeping a list of the less-vulgar sites, such as Boobolicious, perkysluts, kasaerotika, and hugeroundbutts, from where some of the 39,000 views were referred. Thankfully, most of those views are from Google searches and I have not been shut down as a porn site.

The anti-Israel social media war of words, pictures and tweets is a real threat, as there are too many people out there who believe the lies. Did you hear the one about those bored Israeli women sexually assaulting Arab workers?

Muslim women had to dress as men to attend a sporting event in Iran,

but as usual, in Jerusalem, Israeli Arab women and

girls can dress how they want, even in an IDF uniform.

Last month the Times of Israel with Jewlicious and HIP cosponsored Yeiyah Be’seder, an evening for former Birthright participants who recently made aliya.

ToI bloggers Laura Ben-David, Sarah Tuttle-Singer and Zahava Englard spoke, and all were entertaining, interesting and encouraging.

Benji Lovitt’s comedy was also right on target that night. Devora Mason, who spoke so well of her life and journey to Jerusalem, pointed out that in Israel you have the opportunity to do things you would never think of doing anywhere else.

Recently, a blogger called me a “hasbarista“ for another post of mine with photos of Arab women. I am beginning to think that being a  hasbarista is not such a bad thing, as long as messages like  “FAKE -This is NOT an Israeli Soldier photo” still circulate on Facebook. We need more people to serve up positive images of Israel to the world.

Are you ready to join us?