An image with the text “All eyes on Rafah” appears on every other Instagram story, dominating social media discourse about Israel’s war on Gaza.
Here’s more on the trend and image, which has been reshared on more than 40 million Instagram Stories since Monday, a day after Israel’s deadly offensive on Rafah in Gaza.
What does “All eyes are on Rafah” mean?
- “All eyes are on Rafah” is an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated image with a slogan drawing attention to the situation in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt.
- After the war on Gaza began, Israel began bombarding it from the north and moved downward, driving Palestinians from their homes as they fled south to seek refuge.
- In February, about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents had been pushed back toward Rafah when Israel announced plans to launch a ground operation on Rafah, saying four brigades from Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the strip , were there.
- This announcement was condemned around the world. In February, Richard “Rik” Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said “all eyes” were on the impending Rafah offensive. Ameera Kawash, a UK-based Palestinian-Iraqi-American artist and researcher whose work explores the effect of AI on Palestinian lives and narratives, told Tel Aviv Tribune that “all eyes are on towards Rafah” probably came from his statement.
- The slogan has since appeared on protest posters and other social media posts.
What is happening in Rafah?
On Sunday, two days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to end its offensive on Rafah, Israeli shelling killed at least 45 people in al-Mawasi in western Rafah, which had been declared a security zone.
Another Israeli attack killed 21 people on Tuesday in a displaced persons camp west of Rafah, at least 12 of whom were women. Air attacks were reported on Wednesday morning.
Israel has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza since October 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
What does the image “All eyes on Rafah” look like?
- The AI-generated image shows an aerial view of a camp arranged in neat rows of tents, nestled between what appear to be snow-capped peaks. In the middle, a few lighter colored tents are arranged to write “All eyes on Rafah”. A clear blue sky with cotton clouds is in the background.
All eyes on #Rafah 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/bg3bAtl3dQ
– The Palestinian (@InsiderWorld_1) May 27, 2024
- Rafah is nothing like this: its skies are gray with smoke from Israeli bombs and there are no neat rows of tents – many are smoldering after being bombed with their occupants still inside, and debris is scattered among them.
- Rafah is also much more populated – with around 1.4 million people seeking shelter there to escape Israeli bombs in February, according to the United Nations.
- Tel Aviv Tribune’s Sanad fact-checking agency confirmed that the image was generated using an artificial intelligence (AI) tool.
- There are telltale signs of AI, including repetition, symmetrical alignment of tents, lack of detail, and absence of shadows. You can learn more about how to spot AI-generated images here.
This is what Rafah looked like on Monday:
Here is an image of Rafah taken on Tuesday:
Who shared the AI-generated image “All eyes are on Rafah”?
The image is reposted on Instagram stories by users around the world.
As of 11:30 GMT on Wednesday, it had been reposted to 40.4 million Instagram Stories. These include the accounts of:
- American model Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian.
- Irish actress Nicola Coughlan from the Netflix series Bridgerton.
- American comedian and writer Hasan Minhaj, as well as American actor Aaron Paul.
- British actor and activist Jameela Jameel and British singer Dua Lipa.
- Famous Indian actors including Varun Dhawan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Alia Bhatt and Kareena Kapoor Khan.
The first Instagram story using it was posted on Monday by user @shahv4012. Tel Aviv Tribune could not confirm whether this user created the image. But the user commented on his Instagram Stories “apologizing if many people were not ‘happy’ with the photo and continuing to spread the message to urgently put an end to what is happening in Rafah said Kawash.
In addition to Instagram, the image was also re-shared on X.
Why is “All Eyes on Rafah” so viral?
The image received more attention than many photos from Rafah or Gaza.
This could be because the image is shared using Instagram’s “Add your own” feature, which allows users to repost it in seconds without having to search for images.
It is precisely because the image is generated by AI that it appears to have escaped any keyword-based censorship, thus contributing to its explosive spread. “The AI-generated model appears to have succeeded in keyword detection or text-based censorship,” Kawash said.
It’s also an easy way for celebrities and influencers to talk about a war that many of them have never talked about before, she said.
But there could be another reason, some experts say: The AI image might be more acceptable to some viewers than the real photos from Gaza, which are graphic and often show blood, corpses and violence.
“I think the virality of this image is largely due to its stark contrast to the predominant visual imagery of the war… To humanize the victims of Gaza and Rafah, social media users often share vivid images of victims and members of their grieving families”, Eddy Borges. -Rey, associate professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“This could explain why the algorithms of platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram), designed to filter graphic violence, did not flag this image. Unlike real, graphic images of war, which could be restricted or removed due to content policies, this AI-generated image could spread more freely, contributing to its rapid virality,” Borges-Rey said.
How did people react to “All Eyes on Rafah”?
While several social media users celebrated the virality of the image, many others were irritated.
Critics of the post view its sharing as performative activism that distracts from Rafah’s real footage and important updates.
“The image undermines the testimony and lived experience of Palestinians. It depicts an AI-generated scene with digital tents arranged in readable text over a vast expanse with snow-capped mountains in the background – a far cry from Gaza,” Kawash said.
“This AI-generated image has sparked controversy because Palestinians have been asking the world to see and believe them for decades. Palestinian lived experiences and testimonies have been systematically undermined and fueled by Israeli hasbara,” she said, referring to Israel’s public diplomacy efforts that use carefully crafted propaganda narratives. “With so many Palestinian citizen journalists in Gaza risking their lives to document their realities on the ground, the AI-generated image may seem like another form of digital erasure. »
Palestinian journalists have been risking their lives for months to document every massacre and instead people are reposting AI-generated “art” that says “all eyes are on Rafah” and tells us nothing about what is actually happening on the ground or does not give us any information. action items
– Maryam مريم🇵🇸🍁 (@bluepashminas) May 28, 2024
All eyes are on Rafah on your story and it’s posted by someone who hasn’t spoken about the genocide since October
– haaniyah angus (@_haaniyah_) May 28, 2024
Some suggested what else to post instead of re-sharing the AI-generated image.
Here is a real image to use to raise awareness ALL EYES ON RAFAH and the ongoing genocide in Gaza and throughout Palestine. pic.twitter.com/XZ0ZloFAGt
— 𝓵𝓫🍉 (@indiespicee) May 28, 2024
People are starting to speak out by reposting this image saying “ALL EYES ON RAFAH”. I hope people know that this is a long-term movement, not just reposting a single AI image without context and saying it’s over.
PLEASE ALSO SHARE BACKGROUND ON RAFAH. you can start by reposting useful infographics🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/TCISebaJ7T
— Ida 🗝️ commissions open! (@sulkycatz) May 29, 2024
What’s next after “All eyes are on Rafah”?
This, according to Kawash, is the big question as Israeli attacks on Rafah intensify. On the one hand, she said, the virality of the AI image helps highlight the crisis in the southern Gaza city.
“However, this message falls short – as many Palestinians and advocates have noted: ‘All eyes are on Rafah – now what?’ “, she said. “The message should include calls for an immediate ceasefire, but that hasn’t worked so far, so it should also include demands for governments to sanction Israel now. »
More broadly, she added, the explosive spread of the image shows both how AI can help spread the Palestinian narrative – avoiding some censorship efforts – and its limits.
“I would encourage users and consumers of AI-generated images to think about how these AI-generated images aestheticize and normalize scenes of horrific violence against Palestinians, and make them more digestible and safe said Kawash.