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Chana Pinto
ביחד ננצח

Very sad reactions

Antisemites broadcast on social media - that's not news. What alarmed me was the ease with which they infiltrated Jewish and Israeli pages and mocked our pain
Three Jews murdered by Palestinian terrorist this week.
Screenshot
Three Israelis murdered by a Palestinian terrorist this week. (Screenshot)

This week, three more Israeli Jews were brutally murdered by a Palestinian terrorist. Three men with families and full lives. On Facebook, on Wednesday, Netanyahu’s official profile posted three separate condolence announcements for Moti Ashkenazi HY”D, Michael Leidigin HY”D, and Tamir Avichai HY”D. On one of the posts, some 3900+ people responded with a sad-face reaction, another 3900+ “liked” his message, 227 posted a caring emoji, and 1,200 people posted a laughing emoji. That’s correct: a LAUGHING emoji. In response to a post describing a terror attack, the murder of Jews.

Facebook screenshot

When you click on this list of “laugh” reactions, you can see that nearly every single one of these people have Arabic names, written in Arabic or English. What’s worse, these haters cannot limit themselves to trolling Netanyahu’s profile and giddily celebrating the murders of our people. They take it one step further. When you scroll down and read the comments, both in Hebrew and in English, you see that these haters have actually responded to each condolence comment with yet another laughing-face emoji. Every comment! I was disgusted.

There are many antisemites on social media. Everyone knows that, and every once in awhile I will follow a heated exchange between a Jew and a Jew-hater, and wonder how long it will take until the posts get reported and removed. But this hits a bit closer to home.

Sadly, these terrorists are not just following (stalking) public figures like Bibi. I decided to click on one of these profiles, and what I saw gave me chills. Every profile that I clicked on, at least those that were public, was virulently anti-Jewish and extremely threatening. Many of them have the Palestinian flag as their profile picture, and post pictures and headlines with the already worn-out theme of “Palestine will be free, from the river… etc.”  They get thousands of likes on their profile pages and continually advocate for the killing of Jews worldwide.

What alarmed me was the ease at which these men — and many women — infiltrate themselves into the social media pages of Jews and Israelis and seem to “take over.”  They are attacking all things Jewish and Israeli, even news outlets such as this one, on The Times of Israel’s Facebook page.

Aside from the very real physical threat that these Jew-haters pose, I can’t help but feel the pain of the families who have just tragically and senselessly lost their loved ones to terrorists such as these. They have barely returned from burying their family members, only to see a pathetic laughing-face emoji staring back at them as they read a seemingly innocent condolence message, from the likely future prime minister no less.

How terribly sad and very foreboding.

About the Author
Chana Resnick Pinto made aliya in 2005 and lives in the Sharon area of Central Israel. She has a BA in English from Yeshiva University and an MSEd from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Chana works at Eric Cohen Books in Ra'anana and loves living in Israel. She encourages everyone to stop and smell the flowers and always appreciate the small things.
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