Juan P. Villazmil, an editorial fellow at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, noted that polls, hashtags, Instagram Stories and university demonstrations show that post-millennials, Generation Z to which they belong, are more suspicious of Israel. Of older Americans.
He stated that the TikTok platform, where half of the users are under 30 years old, is topped by the hashtag “Freedom for Palestine” with 31 billion posts, compared to 590 million posts for “Support Israel”, that is, more than 50 times more.
Villazmil implied that most of these small videos were filmed by young men who had as little knowledge of the conflict as he did. However, what they lack in information, they eagerly search for and learn.
The writer believes that it is time for older Americans, who may still view TikTok as an app in which young people participate in silly dances, to start seeing it as a media source that shapes their children’s view of the world. This is what some politicians already realize, hence the calls to ban it completely.
He stressed that any application that convinces young Americans that they have suddenly become experts in the history and politics of the Middle East deserves to be taken seriously, regardless of some people’s position on it.
He continued that in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel, the latest TikTok “trends” showed something that had been brewing for years, namely “the imperialist nature of extreme American left-wing thought.”
Paradoxically, America’s unique views, often espoused in the name of anti-imperialism, have themselves become imperialist, easily worming their way into matters that do not belong to them.
The writer concluded that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is long and complex. As much as some followers say that bias is a must, doing so without reason is wrong, according to his opinion.
He pointed out that the phrase “I don’t know” is not a hate expression, no matter what activists say, but what is hateful is the assumption that one group is inherently evil, and it is unfortunate that when it comes to Israel and Palestine, this is exactly what drives a lot of controversy.