Protesters have showed up in the Second Life Israel sim daily since the attacks on Gaza began, but an initial wave of outrage managed to attract international media coverage, after a blogger reported on those events.
http://nwn.blogs.com/...
http://online.wsj.com/...
The story was also picked up by Faux "News" and other outlets, but generally presented with an extremely negative perspective, without acknowledging how the discussions evolved to a somewhat higher level after the initial wave had subsided.
In Second Life Israel, which features beaches and countryside, temples and schools, historic landmarks and cities, reality has encroached on the virtual world with the demonstrations, which some residents consider the ultimate insult to their escapist entertainment, and others see as an opportunity to openly discuss and debate the most pressing issues of the day.
http://slleftunity.blogspot.com/...
Second Life is a free interactive virtual online world, where "residents" can design their own "avatar", and "build" their own virtual "reality", according to whatever whims might amuse them.
This can range from the fantastic and bizarre, to the grotesque and horrific, to some amazingly creative and beautiful, artistic, imaginative, and even realistic imagery and environments, within a sprawling metaverse that seems virtually infinite.
Entire landscapes are constructed, with "natural" features and buildings, sometimes out of pure fantasy, and sometimes in replication of real world places.
Extremely popular internationally, Second Life actually now has more "residents" from around the world than from the US, and there are places that more or less resemble many different cities and countries, representing many different nationalities, cultures and religions.
Many avatars are there strictly for entertainment, and a major interest seems to be cyber sex, and "shopping" for virtual clothing and accessories, making the place seem like one big shopping mall and whore house, at first blush.
But a little exploration can turn up a place or a group oriented around just about any search term you can think of. Universities and businesses have established strong presence in Second Life, to explore the communication, education and marketing potentials of the new medium. The networking potential is awesome. And mere casual conversation with people from all over the world can be very interesting.
There are over ten million registered "residents", with as many as 70,000 logged on and interacting during peak weekend periods, these days.
There are a full range of political groups in Second Life, ranging from fascist organizations to communist organizations, and just about everything in between. The Obama campaign, and other candidates had a presence there, leading up to the elections.
Naturally, people started gravitating to relevant sites in the virtual world, when Israel began it's attacks on Gaza. The Tel Aviv site was shut down, rather than allowing protesters to demonstrate there.
But the Israel site, owned by an anonymous Jewish organization, has allowed protesters to congregate on the boardwalk near the beach, to demonstrate and engage in dialog with local residents.
Provocation has been intense from both sides at times, but some interesting discussions have also ensued.
The more right wing reactionary conservative ultra-nationalist chauvinist revisionist "zionists" who forced the closure of Tel Aviv have given the manager of the Israel sim a lot of heat for keeping one small area open to discussion, and have ganged up there to harass the demonstrators with obscenities, extremely hateful, racist, violent rhetoric, bullying and noise, trying to make discussion impossible.
Some demonstrators have risen to the bait, and descended into similar tactics from the other "side" of the issues, and, indeed, a few have come there only to provoke and harass the Israelis.
The manager of the sim has called for a moratorium, to keep from having to also close down the Israel site, or lose her job, pleading with the demonstrators to back off, while she works on calming down the more reactionary Israeli "defenders".
Because of the intense media coverage, she says her kids are getting harassed at school, both for their mom being a "jew hater", who has allowed criticism of Israel to occur, as well as for being Jewish.
She's a nice lady, and most of the protesters respect and appreciate her having allowed the debates without summary banning, and they have agreed to back off, at least for a few days.
Meanwhile, due to the media interest, further demonstrations will be occurring elsewhere in SL, and new venues are being built, to host a major debate in-world.
My own experience at the Israeli site has been...interesting. I did not participate in the initial surge, but ended up there during the somewhat more tranquil aftermath.
For one thing, I was shocked at how absolutely racist, vicious and obscene many of the Israeli "supporters" tended to be. I guess I should have expected that, from some of the I/P diaries here on dkos. But the somewhat more anonymous and freewheeling venue can really seem to bring out the worst in some people, not only there, but anywhere in SL. They were really letting it all hang out.
To be fair, I witnessed some of the same from a few of those who were there to criticize Israeli policy, as well. But at least the rest of us tried to make them STFU, and made a big point of trying to disassociate ourselves from such elements.
Such did not seem to be the case among the "Israelis" (many of whom, if not all, were actually from Israel). I really couldn't believe people didn't seem to recognize, or acknowledge, how badly some of these individuals were reflecting on them, on Israel and on all Jewish people. I was deeply embarrassed for them. Presumably at least some of them were trying to get the fools to chill out in personal IM, but that was not evident, in terms of any results, it seemed.
The only apologies I heard were to the effect that "that person has seen horrible things in combat", or "that person lost a loved one in a rocket attack". As if their grief, pain, trauma, and angst somehow made it OK for them to vent in that manner, and nobody was willing to say how terribly wrong it was, in front of any of the others.
While some of our people who rose to the bait and themselves got insulting in response to racist, sexist obscenities and threats, got ejected, none of the "Israelis" did. That didn't seem fair.
The protesters I was hanging out with, the largest, and mostly non-arabic, contingent, spent many hours before these encounters, discussing and arguing amongst ourselves, about how to avoid offending the Israelis, toning down the rhetoric, being careful with the words that we used, the images on our flags and placards, and briefing noobs on how to mute the offensive attackers, so they wouldn't have to listen to the provocations, and, like, not succumbing to the temptation to respond in kind.
This didn't always prove effective, because some who had attached themselves to us tended to wax very pedantic and rhetorical, like the little clique from the International Socialists/Socialist Workers Party (Troskyists). They were more inclined to go tit for tat, in like terms, with the rude and crude ones, and also refused to stop conflating the Z word with Jewish people and Israel, for example.
From what I had learned here on dkos, I tried to advise them on the connotations of that usage, but those guys are absolutely intransigent and ruthless in promulgating their inflexible, convoluted line, heh. They also insisted on using placards and flags with gross images of mutilated children, which the rest of us considered grotesque. They also wanted to express unconditional support for Hamas, which the rest of us would not.
But even though we distanced ourselves from them, and often chastised them publicly for their idiotic remarks, that didn't cut us any slack, even when they weren't there...there were always several very offensive and aggressive hecklers right up in our faces screaming at us, the whole time.
Nevertheless, we ignored them, and tried to engage the others present in dialog. Those who were more coherent offered up a full litany of excuses and "reasons" for why the slaughter of civilians was OK, and completely rejecting any criticism of Israeli policy whatsoever.
It was a grinding, disheartening marathon, that went on for hours, day after day. We plodded on, though, in our appeals for peace.
A most common point raised was 8 years of rocket attacks, like a broken record. No acknowledgement that in that 8 years only a few people were ever killed or injured, and that Israel is now killing over 100 to one in retaliation, which cannot be considered legitimate "defense".
They tended to say, well, it's not our fault the Palestinians are so inefficient, incapable, puny in their attacks...if someone shoots at my house, I'm going to shoot back. Period. This seemed to be perfectly logical and reasonable to them. They were completely oblivious to, or dismissive of, the disparity in numbers, as "meaningless". One said, "all killing is wrong...they stop killing us, we'll stop killing them". None would agree or acknowledge that the very few deaths from those rockets has in no way ever been a threat to Israel's existence, and that those rockets are nothing more than a symbolic response to the general harsh treatment of Palestinians on a daily basis, these many years.
None of them ever once responded to the issue of how Palestinians have long been treated on the West Bank, on a day to day basis, the brutality, the humiliation, the deprivation of necessities like access to a doctor or hospital. This was always completely ignored, like a forbidden topic.
Even when tangentally addressed, in regard to the deprivation in Gaza under the blockade, it was all about the corruption and ineptness of Hamas, never acknowledging the slightest responsibility or cause for any of the deplorable conditions, by Israelis. Never acknowledging that Palestinians had any reason to be mad at anyone but Hamas, and themselves for the way they are forced to live. Like, a kind of naive bewilderment, that the Palestinians could be so insane as to be angry at Israel, and even want to hurt Israel...like, obviously, Palestinians are not really humans, with feelings and legitimate needs.
While some explicitly expressed such racist sentiments, even the more coherent and articulate ones seemed only somewhat more subtly to insinuate...there was no other possible rationale that could cause them to make such callous remarks...to think that one Israeli life is just naturally "worth" 100 or more Palestinian lives.
I know some will say this is "insensitive" or "racist" of me to describe these encounters as I do, that I have to be an "anti-semite" to say these things. But I'm not making anything up, or exaggerating, in the slightest. I was so shocked, so disappointed. I'm thinking that anyone with experience must know what I'm talking about. This phenomenon exists, just as do the racist neo-nazi skinheads here in the US, as embarrassing and shameful as that horrible truth may be.
Absolutely horrifying. Even knowing that these people cannot possibly be representative of the entire Israeli society. Somebody please tell me it isn't so...?
I know there are peaceniks, and ordinary god-fearing people in Israel. But none of them have been there at the Israeli sim, or if they were, they were totally STFU and not at all representing. I can understand why, kinda, but then again, I can't really. Maybe they are too busy organizing and demonstrating on the streets, and mobilizing relief efforts, to have any time to be online in SL. That must be it.
The only thing that seemed to get any real response out of this crowd, and it seemed kinda profound, because they All STFU and just sat there and said nothing, no riposte, no abusive insults...
That was when I told them that while the US does love Israel and does support Israel's right to exist, and that we will not let anyone destroy them, yet and still, things are going to change, soon. They are not going to get that automatic veto in the UN any more, and we are going to start putting very strict conditions on the money and weapons we give them, anymore. This is not going to be like the Bush regime. Total silence.
And if they don't make peace, the whole world is going to unite against them, and boycott them, and blockade them, and bring them to their knees, and force them to the negotiation table, just like we did to South Africa. Total silence.
I went further to say that if they are really brave, they will vote for peace, in their upcoming election in early February. If they do that, the whole world will rejoice and embrace them as heros, for helping to solve one of the most pressing issues in the whole world right now. They could truly unite with America, and vote for hope, for change, for peace, or they could be condemned, boycotted and blockaded, humiliated, and forced to make a more onerous peace. Silence.
I decided to quit while I was ahead, and derezzed on out of there, exhausted, crying, my heart aching with sadness, despair, grief, over the pain these people are feeling, and are imposing on others...hoping I hadn't just lied to them. Hoping for a real change.
There are also other educational sites in SL that focus on Darfur, Bhagdad and such international crisis spots, and other issues like going green, social justice, womens' issues, etc.
http://secondlife.com/