IF YOU’VE SPENT any time at all on Instagram over the last few days, there’s a high probability that you’ve seen the ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ graphic.
Shared tens of millions of times cumulatively, the AI-generated graphic bears the above slogan against a background of what appear to be hundreds of tents in a desert landscape. Though the image is not associated with any fundraising campaign or activist group, and does not feature real footage, image or information, it quickly outpaced actual footage from Gaza in terms of its spread online.
The image disappears from a user’s Instagram story after 24 hours, though a counter on the graphic shows that it is (at the time of writing) being shared by 24.5m accounts. The image appears to have been created by Instagram user Shav4012 and The Journal has reached out to the account for comment.
The graphic emerged on Monday, the day after an Israeli airstrike on a displaced people’s camp in Rafah killed between 45 and 50 civilians, at least. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing and subsequent fire, social media too was ablaze with horrifying imagery. In one particularly graphic video, a man held up the headless body of a child who had died in the strike. Other videos showed severely burned bodies being pulled from the rubble of the strike.
Writing on Twitter, BBC Verify journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh suggested that the scale of the destruction in Rafah partially explains why the graphic has been shared so widely, but also pointed to other factors, such as the ease with which users can share the template, and that its sanitised nature – omitting as it does any real events, people, or violence – means it cannot be removed or shadow-banned for violating the platform’s terms and conditions.
It's hard to assess why that AI image has become so viral, but it could be down to these factors:
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) May 29, 2024
- It's a reaction to a huge fire at a camp in Rafah that killed at least 45 Palestinians sheltering there on Sunday
- It's been shared by multiple influencers, athletes and…
Palestinians and activists standing in solidarity with Palestine, however, have pointed out the limitations of this kind of engagement.
“It doesn’t mean anything for me, as a Palestinian,” said musician Róisín El Cherif, speaking to The Journal. “I’ve been posting the massacres since they started so I’m wrecked. I just don’t know what to say anymore. So if an AI photo is going to make people do something for Palestine then fine, I’ll take it. We’re so far gone and everything is a farce anyway.”
El Cherif, a musician who has been featured on the The Tommy Tiernan Show, said she herself shared the graphic for momentum, and noted that she had shared it “among many other things” – such as links to aid funds, up-to-date information, and actual on-the-ground footage from Rafah.
“[The graphic] is not the be-all or end-all,” El Cherif said. “So if it makes beige people who have said absolutely nothing up until now because they don’t know what to say or what to do, then fine, okay, but it doesn’t mean anything for me as a Palestinian.”
El Cherif did go on to say, however, that there is some value in a strength in numbers approach.
Criticism of the AI image has grown in the days since it began to gather momentum, with activists across the globe raising several critiques: that the image fails to communicate the reality of what is happening in Gaza and that Gazans themselves are risking their lives in order to show the outside world what is happening.
Indeed, even as the image has gone viral, the Israeli Air Force has continued to bomb Rafah. AFP journalists in the city reported new strikes early on Wednesday, hours after witnesses and a Palestinian security source said Israeli tanks had reached the centre of Rafah.
Iraqi-New Zealander commentator Rasha Naddaf-Whaits also posted a video addressing the image, pointing out that the graphic has been shared by many social media users who, up until now, have not been engaged with the Palestinian solidarity movement.
In a video posted to her own Instagram, Naddaf-Whaits said: “Welcome to the movement, but this is the bare minimum. The very best thing you can do right now is to educate yourself, educate the people around you, and gain an accurate understanding of the horrific history of Palestine.”
“I’m not sharing graphic videos because I enjoy it. It breaks my heart,” El Cherif says, speaking about the real footage that has emerged from Gaza. “I’m sharing them because people have literally filmed their worst moments. Can you imagine someone close to you being blown up and the only thing you have left is to show the world? That’s what Palestinians have been doing. So for their sake it’s a shame to ignore when these people are suffering.”
“We still need to keep our eye on what is going to save Palestine.”
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