The cyber-front in a battle for hearts and minds

Red Flag’s website was recently shut down for several days by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

The registered owner of the site was contacted by someone apparently linked to a known pro-Israel hacktivist group. The individual gloated about the action and revealed details about how it occurred. A comment read, “Factless bias against Israel, siding with peoples who have been brainwashed by the military state – hamas. #down #dead”.

Red Flag has run a number of articles in opposition to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Members of Socialist Alternative, the organisation that publishes Red Flag, have been involved in organising protests in solidarity with the Palestinians in a number of cities. A member of the organisation has received death threats as a result of this activity.

Red Flag was not the only Australian pro-Palestine site attacked. Jews Against the Occupation – Australia (JAO) has also battled attacks that brought its website down. Those attacks started soon after JAO posted an open letter from Australian Jews protesting the war.

The attacks on Australian websites are not isolated. Since the start of Operation Protective Edge, much has been written about the cyber component of the conflict. It is undeniable, though usually overstated, that the battle for public opinion has played an important role.

As with all aspects of this conflict, there is great inequality in this domain. Israel’s online machine has resources that Palestinians living in the Gaza strip can only dream of. On one side of the Gaza border, access to the internet is sporadic at best. The bombing of the strip’s sole power plant left Gaza capable of supplying only 30 percent of its power needs.

On the other side, Israel’s hasbara machine is well funded and resourced. Hasbara, literally “explaining”, is the term commonly used in Israel for government propaganda. The student union of the Interdisciplinary Centre Herzliya, a prestigious Israeli private university on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, played its part in the war by setting up a “hasbara war room” in which 400 students have volunteered to “deliver a very clear message to people abroad”.

In the battle of ideas, hacktivists operating under the broad umbrella of “Anonymous” have played an offensive role. Anonymous is a broad collective of internet activists rather than a formal organisation. Its members generally deface websites or conduct DDoS attacks, which render the attacked site unreachable. Its targets are those organisations or governments that its members believe are treating global citizens unfairly. Anonymous does not have a formal political line, so pro-Israel and pro-Palestine Anonymous groups operate simultaneously against very different targets.

Under the banner #OpIsraelRetaliate, Israeli hackers targeted the Palestine Report and the Gaza Ministry for Health, among others. Others, operating under #OpSaveGaza, claimed responsibility for briefly shutting down the websites of the Israeli Ministry of Education, the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Israeli postal service.

There is a clear disparity in the ability of either side to cope with cyber attacks. In 2012, Israel announced it would spend US$78 million annually on a National Cyber Directorate. Gaza, by contrast, has an economy strangled by the ongoing effects of the siege. Its entire budget in 2012 was less than US$769 million. Cyber security is not on the top of the list of priorities in an area struggling to rebuild basic infrastructure and feed a population after a massive four-week assault.

Added to this difficulty is the fact that most Palestinian telecommunications infrastructure is routed through Israel in some way. Israel does not need Anonymous to shut down Gazan access to the internet when military bulldozers can cut fibres within Israel and leave Gaza without international landline, mobile phone or internet connections.

Despite Israeli propaganda, and the firm backing that the country receives from Western governments and media organisations, there are signs that public opinion internationally is shifting. There is obviously still a long way to go, but Israel’s actions are becoming harder and harder to defend. In the end, no amount of hacktivism will be able to bury the truth.