Nowadays, a slogan, reportedly ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ have been trending a lot on social media, with being held with support and controversies. This hashtag has been trending worldwide. Have you ever wondered what could be the story behind the tag?
In fact, in India too, this slogan is gaining popularity, with many celebrities posting about it. Now, it’s time to know the story behind the trend or hashtag or slogan.
Amidst the on-going war between Israel and Palestine, the Israeli army now wants to eliminate the remaining Hamas bases in Rafah, which is located in the southern part of Gaza. One more thing to understand is that the war between Israel and Gaza has been going on since 2023. Before the war, the total population in Gaza was over 14 Lacs, but when Israel started attacking, especially in northern Gaza, people began to flee to the southern side.
As the Israeli army advanced, civilians started taking shelter in Rafah and concentrated there. It is now said that over 10 Lacs people are spread around the Rafah area, who are civilians. However, Israeli army and officials say that the Hamas bases in Rafah need to be removed, but civilians are also there, so an attack would also harm civilians and cause deaths.
Then suddenly, one day, this campaign and slogan “All Eyes On Rafah” came into discussion. Many people posted and shared this slogan on various social media handles. This slogan suddenly gained popularity in Western Europe, Australia, and even in India.
So, firstly, you need to know where this slogan emerged from. At the beginning of February, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered that the Hamas bases in Rafah must be completely eliminated. As many civilians are also in Rafah, Netanyahu said he wants an evacuation plan to be made to remove civilians so that Israel can completely eliminate Hamas. A few days after Netanyahu’s statement, Rick Peppercorn, Director of the World Health Organization’s office of the occupied Palestinian Territories, commented that all eyes are on Rafah. His basic intent was to ensure that people around the world watching the war do not ignore this, as Israel’s attack on Rafah could lead to the loss of many innocent lives. That was his motive for saying this.
Due to this, his statement “all eyes are on Rafah” gradually began to be discussed, but initially, it was not much talked about. Only a few organizations and lobbying groups like Oxfam, Save the Children, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign started using this slogan. Many protesters in London and New York were using the slogan “all eyes on Rafah” to show sympathy and raise awareness.
From Tuesday onwards, several celebrities, including actors Varun Dhawan, Aly Goni, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Tripti Dimri, Sonam Kapoor, and Rakul Preet, posted identical “All Eyes on Rafah” graphics to their Instagram stories. Other celebrities who have spoken out include Australian cricket player Travis Head, British singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock, model Bella Hadid, and actresses Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Susan Sarandon.
There are more than 195,000 posts with millions of views for the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah on TikTok, and the topic was trending on Instagram on Tuesday, with nearly 100,000 posts made about it. So the question is, what exactly is the Israeli army doing now? A few days ago, after months, Hamas fired many rockets at Tel Aviv, a city in northern Israel. In response, the Israeli army attacked Rafah, resulting in many deaths, including civilians. Following this, on Monday, Netanyahu said that the civilian deaths were a tragic accident. Due to this, people around the world are becoming aware and raising their voices for Rafah. They are saying that Israel can fight Hamas, but it should not harm civilians and should stop the attack on Rafah.
Because of this, many celebrities in India are posting stories on their social media platforms about what Israel did to Rafah. However, none of these celebrities have talked about or posted stories about the 125 hostages held by Hamas in Israel. Nor did they say anything when Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and brutally killed many women and children. No one posted a story or raised their voice in support of Israel. Indian actress Nushrratt Bharuccha was stranded in Israel when an unprecedented attack was made by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel. She shared her story, knowing how she was stranded in Israel because of Hamas.
Due to this, many people in India are trolling the celebrities who shared stories about “all eyes on Rafah,” questioning why they never posted about other issues. Why did they not speak up when Hindus were being killed and forcibly converted in Pakistan? When Hindus were being killed in Bangladesh? When there was a genocide in Kashmir? Even when Hamas raped Israeli women, they never posted any story. Due to this, people started trolling these celebrities. Some social media influencers even claim that these celebrities were paid by PR teams to post this.
For the past few months, it has been observed that Israel was pushing and saying that they will not leave any Hamas base and will eliminate Hamas completely. In February, Israeli officials also said that they would eliminate all Hamas bases in Rafah. However, after February, there were some negotiations going on. In Egypt, there was an attempt to have a ceasefire discussion between Hamas and Israel to sort things out and stop the war, but no solution was found, and no group was ready to agree, but after the attack on Rafah, Hamas now says that they do not want any more discussions. This means that the war will intensify even more.
This was the complete backstory on this slogan and why it is being talked about in different countries, including India. Anyone supporting either Hamas or Israel needs to know about this.
