All Eyes on Rafah: A solidarity campaign interacted with more than 40 million people

The Israeli attack on the tents of the displaced in Rafah renewed interaction with a statement made by the representative of the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, Rick Pepperkorn, last February, when he said in an interview with a group of journalists that “all eyes are on Rafah.” He was then warning of an attack. Israeli on Rafah.

Berkun spoke from the Gaza Strip, via an online call, with journalists at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, that he fears a humanitarian catastrophe “beyond imaginable” if a large-scale incursion by the Israeli army takes place in Rafah, south of Gaza.

Media reports indicate that officials and activists have been repeating Berkun’s phrase since then to express their concern and denounce the launch of a military operation in Rafah.

In the months that followed, popular events carried the slogan “All Eyes on Rafah,” to express their solidarity with the city that receives more than one and a half million refugees from Gaza. Perhaps the most notable of these was when an Irish singer composed a song entitled “All Eyes on Rafah.” It calls on politicians to stop any attacks on the city. Protesters also carried out solidarity protests in various cities raising the same slogan.

During the past weeks, when Israel began operations in Rafah, activists used the hashtag “All Eyes on Rafah” in posts on social media platforms.

After the attack on the tents of the displaced in Rafah, a young Malaysian man shared an image designed with artificial intelligence on his Instagram account, in which he used the phrase that became famous in the previous period in solidarity with the city of Rafah. The image was widely shared with more than 40 million shares by celebrities and actors, most notably pop singer Ricky. Martin, Turkish actress Tuba Buyuk Ustun, Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, and Syrian actress Kinda Alloush.

E-marketing and artificial intelligence consultant Maher Al-Nimri confirms that the image was entirely designed using artificial intelligence, as it does not express a real image of the city of Rafah. Rather, it shows a vast desert on which large numbers of tents are erected, which together form the phrase “All Eyes on Rafah.”

Nimri believes that the method of choosing to publish the image greatly helped expand the solidarity campaign, as the feature used to publish requires only two clicks to participate, which made it easier for millions of people to join the campaign.

But Nimri points out that the event that took place in Rafah and the interaction that followed helped spread the solidarity campaign widely, saying that there are many previous campaigns on other issues that did not succeed in spreading in this way, as the event in Rafah still causes widespread sadness, according to his expression. This helps the image spread.

The image also does not contain any scenes of blood, shots of real people, names, or sensitive scenes, all of which are reasons that Al-Nimri believes helped it spread more widely without any restrictions that conflict with the standards for using Instagram.

According to what the characteristics of the stories belonging to the account of the young Malaysian man, who published the photo for the first time through his account shahv4012, show, he used a feature called “ADD YOURS”, which is a feature launched by Instagram in 2021, which allows any ordinary user to publish a photo and ask for interaction via it. Account of the person browsing.

Nimri says that since its launch, this feature has been widely used by the tourism and travel sector, where a person posts a picture of a site he visits or a café, and expects users to interact with him by adding their pictures to their own accounts, which increases interaction on the Instagram platform among users. This is what the platform seeks, according to Al-Nimri.

He adds that using such a feature in political or social campaigns or public opinion issues is considered a recent matter, and says: “Mostly, anyone who starts using this feature for political issues aims to contribute to launching broad campaigns, because the matter later becomes a snowball.”

This campaign is not an exception in the context of solidarity through social media, as social media pioneers have previously expressed solidarity with many issues using their personal accounts.

In Sudan, social media users interacted several times with the events and developments taking place there, especially after the military actions that the country witnessed, in which hundreds were killed and thousands were displaced to neighboring cities and countries.

One of the most prominent campaigns that the country witnessed through social media was the “ Blue for Sudan“When users changed their profile pictures to blue in solidarity with the demonstrations taking place in Khartoum, which later became an expression of political and economic demands.

Celebrities also interacted in 2023 with the earthquake that took place in Marrakesh, Morocco, which killed thousands. They posted pictures via the Stories feature on their Instagram accounts to offer condolences, collect donations, and show solidarity with the families of the victims.

The story of a Syrian refugee who was exposed to violence in Turkey also witnessed a similar campaign on social media, in which activists demanded justice for refugees, the rejection of racism, and an end to violence against them.