As has unfortunately often been the case in recent years, this year too there were riots on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan: hundreds of masked young men barricaded themselves into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem with stones, fireworks, wooden boards and iron bars and disrupted the evening prayer taking place there. When the Israeli police moved against the rioters, in part with the unpleasant images typical of such operations, social media were flooded with sharp criticism of Israel. Some media outlets took up the narrative of „evil Israel supposedly attacking peaceful worshippers“.
Distorted portrayals also appeared in German-language coverage, both in the press and on social media. A great many emotions are bound up with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the same time, behind the ‘protection’ of anonymity it seems that the threshold for verbal violence on social media is sinking ever further, which in this context contributes to an often aggressive and anti-Israel underlying mood. Since social media are used above all by young users, we have invited the youth worker Burak Yilmaz.
In this WI-Talk the educationalist and author Burak Yilmaz talks to Leonard Kaminski about his experiences in his work with young people, what their reception of the so-called Middle East conflict looks like and to what extent this affects anti-Israel dynamics on social media.
Burak Yilmaz has been strongly committed to the fight against antisemitism for years. For his commitment he has been awarded, among other things, the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit).
