Palestinian youths have launched a campaign on Twitter to show solidarity with China, reinforcing an international trend on social media to back China’s ongoing fight against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, known as COVID-19.
The campaign, inaugurated 7:00 p.m. Gaza time (1700 GMT) on Sunday in both Arabic and English with hashtags “#PalestineInSolidarityWithChina” and “#PalestineWithChina” respectively, was largely retweeted by Palestinian social media activists and browsers.
Within the first one hour and a half of the campaign, the number of its supporters reached 1 million.
“It is an indication that the Palestinians believe in the necessity of expressing solidarity with China in the face of the Coronavirus crisis,” said one of the organizers.
The supervisors of the campaign are prominent Palestinian journalists and veteran media activists, who said the campaign is aimed at supporting China’s fight against COVID-19.
They said in a press statement sent to Xinhua that the campaign was organized for several reasons, first to express solidarity with China, which is fighting the coronavirus “on behalf of the world and protect humanity,” and second to foil some rumors about the epidemic.
“It is our duty as Palestinian journalists to stand on the side of the great people of China who have been always standing on the side of the Palestinian people, either socially, economically or politically,” said the statement.
Around 15 male and female youths gathered in a room to tweet the hashtag “Palestine in Solidarity with China” and published media reports and content to tell the readers China’s efforts and achievements in containing the epidemic.
One Twitter account said: “The China people and government are stronger than the coronavirus.”
Mohammad al-Jammali, one of the 15 participants, wrote on his Twitter: “I’m a Palestinian Muslim and I express full solidarity with China because I’m in solidarity with humanity and with life in China.”
“I call on all my friends, no matter what their color, language or religion is, to express deep and full solidarity with humanity in China,” he tweeted.
“It is impossible for a great country like China to be defeated by the coronavirus and I believe we have to intensify our tweets in solidarity with this just cause. We try to deny all allegations and rumors”, he said.
Marwa Izzat, a 27-year-old woman from Gaza who joined the campaign said: “It is hard to see the people of China suffering from this … epidemic.”
“I believe that all the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims all over the world should express full and deep solidarity with the people of China because the virus doesn’t differentiate between a man or a woman, a child or an elderly,” she said.
Ahmad Mas’oud, a Palestinian in his mid-20s, expressed happiness and joy after the campaign won enormous support on Twitter.
“We succeeded in making the tweet of the Hashtag an international trend,” he said.
