The Gaza war 2014 : the Israeli twitter psyops war -

Abstract

As the Gaza War erupted in July 2014, another war of words images and videos was taking place on social media platforms. Dubbed “The Twitter War,” this war of words pitted the Israeli Military (IM) and their social media campaign against Hamas. Both sides have grown increasingly more aware of the advantages of cyberspace to manage their images. Scholars have demonstrated how non-state actors have been using social media as an important alternative medium to mobilize social and political movements, and also to disseminate propaganda and conduct psychological operations (PSYOPs) in order to influence a target audience. Considering the new context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict social media has created, the present research examined how Israel used social media, in particular Twitter, to conduct PSYOPs, promote its image, and garner international support at a time of war. The study employed qualitative content analysis to explore and assess the main themes, persuasion appeals, techniques and tactics used by the IM to conduct their Twitter PSYOPs during the Gaza War 2014.