As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, people across the globe are being caught in a crossfire of misinformation, hurt feelings and vitriol – including children.
Such a saga has played out in Manhattan Beach over the last two weeks, with a dispute among middle schoolers roiling the community. The details are murky. Hearsay outweighs facts. The Jewish community and those who support Israel’s response to Hamas’ recent attacks have been pitted against those advocating for the rights of Palestinians in Gaza.
And these preteens have been caught in the middle.
Taken together, the dispute between a girl who is an Arab American and several Jewish girls appears to be a microcosm of the roiling international tensions now playing out on social media, on college campuses and in local communities.
How did it all begin?
The controversy stems from an apparent verbal exchange beween an Arab American girl and a small group of Jewish girls over the Israel-Hamas war.
Disagreements between school children aren’t uncommon — and, typically, the dustups are handled at school and among parents.
But this isn’t a typical case.
The disagreement occurred soon after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which lit the latest flare-up in the complex, 75-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which some experts say is intractable. Educators quickly found themselves caught up in a whirlwind.
Specifics — including exactly what was said and in what context — are being kept confidential, as is standard for such cases, according to MBUSD officials.
But that didn’t stop the incident from hitting social media.
And, unsurprisingly given the echo chamber of social media, speculation was quickly characterized as fact.
This has become a problem globally since the war broke out. Some claims that are objectively and clearly false are still going viral and being seen millions of times by users of X, formerly Twitter, in part because of changes made to the platform by CEO Elon…
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