QassamCount

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QassamCount is a Twitter and Facebook social networking application which tracks rocket attacks on Israel.[1]

It was set up by Dan Peguine on Twitter during the early days of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip at the beginning of 2009. Peguine subsequently partnered with Arik Fraimovich to develop the application for Facebook.[2]

According to the Jerusalem Post website, the QassamCount application was a cornerstone of the online campaign run by HelpUsWin.org during the conflict.[3]

Niv Calderon of HelpUsWin stated that QassamCount "became a tool for us at the social media situation room to reach millions of people around the world with 75,000 people enabling it on their Facebook account, reaching all their friends in 150 countries all over the world."[4]

But while the operation in Gaza happened like a blitz and ended the same way, the facebook application just keeps quiet until more fire is launched from Gaza toward Israel and as you know, there's still fire being launched from Gaza even today. That's where the real power of QassamCount is. Most people haven't removed it and it reminds us of things we don't hear on the everyday news anymore, it travels the social web (and the social graphs), it shows you what we've been trying to say all this time, all these 9 years of crazyness that we've enduered, that no country will allow its citizens to be targeted. As the Qassams are the justification for operation Cast Lead , QassamCount is bookmarking tool and the constant reminder to the public around the world that there is more than one truth in this story.[5]

Notes

  1. Stephanie Rubenstein, Twitter, Facebook users show solidarity with QassamCount, jpost.com, 4 January 2009.
  2. Stephanie Rubenstein, Twitter, Facebook users show solidarity with QassamCount, jpost.com, 4 January 2009.
  3. Jessica Freiman, IDC students work to win media war, Jerusalem Post, 4 January 2009.
  4. Niv Calderon, QassamCount: A Continous Reminder, nivcalderon.com, 16 February 2009.
  5. Niv Calderon, QassamCount: A Continous Reminder, nivcalderon.com, 16 February 2009.