Report reveals Israeli hate speech ahead of Hawara settler rampage

A report by digital rights group 7amleh revealed that inflammatory and inciteful tweets in Hebrew contributed to Israeli violence in the Palestinian town of Hawara earlier this year. 

7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media monitored 15,250 tweets containing the Hebrew hashtags for ‘Hawara’ and ‘Wipe Out Hawara’ during the first three months of the year. 

It found that more than 80 percent spoke negatively of Hawara, and added that “[the] intensity of incitement and hate speech increased on the eve of the settler attack on the village of Huwara on the night of February 27”. 

The most popular hashtag among Israeli users tweeting about Huwara was probably ‘Wipe Out Hawara’, and the tweets frequently included words such as “terrorism” and “saboteurs”. 

The hate speech spiked in late February, according to the data, and an average of 188 negative tweets were published each day till the end of March, from around 158 accounts. 

“We don’t want to calm the situation, we want to burn Hawara,” read one tweet in Hebrew, while the bio of another account reads “A village of murderers, it's time for the army to demolish this village".

לא רוצים להרגיע את הרוחות, רוצים לשרוף את חווארה.

— סמיילי (@agent_smiley005) February 26, 2023

Hawara, a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, was the scene of a deadly rampage by dozens of Israeli settlers in February in which more than 350 Palestinians were injured and dozens of homes and vehicles torched in revenge for the killing of two settlers.

There have been several episodes of deadly Israeli violence this year. More than 156 Palestinians have been killed by settlers and Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2023, which is more than one per day.