From The Media Line:
Under slogan ‘It’s Me or the Coordinator,’ activists seek to pressure people to stop following COGAT’s Arabic-language Facebook page
Palestinian activists and public figures have launched a campaign against “Al-Munasek,” the Arabic-language Facebook page of COGAT, Israel’s liaison body for coordinating activities in the Palestinian territories.
Under the slogan “It’s Me or the Coordinator,” the idea is to convince Palestinians to unfollow and even boycott the page, which features news and announcements about Israeli activities in the West Bank. Information includes the operating hours of checkpoints and border-crossing stations, and, more recently, ads for entry permits for purposes of work and medical treatment.
The activists call the COGAT page an effort to “whitewash” the Israeli occupation.
The COGAT Arabic page has some 570,000 followers. It provides critical information for people who need to cooperate with Israeli authorities, such as workers and traders who need to travel to Israel.
Last week it posted one of the videos that drive haters crazy. Israel opened up the crossings for all workers with permits to enter Israel, and it showed a 15 minute clip of Palestinian workers entering the Qalandia checkpoint – live and unedited. The workers averaged about 4 seconds at each face-recognition turnstile, and the only slowdown was when they forget to remove their mask to be recognized.
The Arabic comments on the video were overwhelmingly positive and polite. A few commenters went so far as to say “All respect to the Coordinator (COGAT)” but those elicited derisive responses upset that anyone can say anything nice about the IDF, and counter-responses that there is nothing wrong with showing appreciation to Israel’s efforts to streamline the checkpoints and save them hours that they used to waste.
The page also dispels rumors (today many Arabs heard that COGAT was giving out permits to traders without checking them, and they gently explained that the procedures have not changed) and other important information (workers whose permits expired during the coronavirus shutdown were given an automatic 30 day extension.)
Telling people, especially workers, to boycott the page shows that those activists don’t care about their own people. Frankly, the idea that boycotting the page hurts Israel and not Palestinians is bizarre.
(h/t YMedad)
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