The Impact of Social Revolutions on the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Yaron Katz

doi:10.22158/eprd.v1n1p17

Abstract

The Arab Spring refers to the protests and revolutions that spread across Middle Eastern and North African Muslim countries in the spring of 2011. It was the first “social media revolution”, which demonstrated the spread of social revolution and the way civil protests and demands for political reforms can swiftly spread globally through social media. Following the social movement in the Arab World, the turmoil in the Middle East continued with the Israeli Social Justice movement of summer 2011, which was also identified as a social media revolution. Same as in the Arab World, in Israel too new media increased the role of the public, who could influence political issues by bypassing the monopoly of the political establishment and traditional media on the political discourse. The research examines the way that the concept of democracy in the region changed in the digital age. The findings show that social media became crucial in shaping the political discourse and determined dramatic changes in the balance of political power in Israel and Arab countries. Through digital technology and online campaigns politics changed as young Arabs and Israeli altered public agenda from the traditional religious and political Arab-Israeli conflict to social and economic issues.

Highlights

The Arab Spring refers to the protests and revolutions that spread across Middle Eastern and North African Muslim countries in the spring of 2011
The two main conclusions of the research are that the new media environment encouraged social movements across the Middle East with the result that the interests of the people and governments have been well embedded in the new politics of the region
The findings show that the impact of the social revolutions was significant since Arab countries were well-educated and politically active young population but with few employment opportunities (Riise, 2019)

Summary

Introduction

The Arab Spring refers to the protests and revolutions that spread across Middle Eastern and North African Muslim countries in the spring of 2011. 3. New Politics of the Middle East The revolution in Israel was different from the uprisings in the Arab World in that the government did not restrict social media and demonstrators used Facebook as the main tool to promote the Social Justice movement and encourage the general public to join the protest. The demonstrations in the Arab World and in Israel remained local, despite their global influence, and focused on social issues and political changes rather than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Both social revolutions were based on domestic dissatisfaction with economic conditions and symbolized a common agenda that was influenced by region-wide anti-government sentiment. Digital technologies have become an increasingly important tool to increase pro-Israel sentiments with massive increase in funding for it

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion