The increasingly popular Twitter account called @Imshin disseminates videos, blog posts, and news from the middle-class and wealthy world of the Gaza Strip that never make it into the mainstream media.
According to the UN, 53% of Gazans live in poverty, despite humanitarian assistance. But while world media outlets choose to focus solely on photographs of destitute Gazans carting off sacks of UNRWA flour by donkey cart, the swank world of high-class hotels, black-tie restaurants, and gourmet supermarkets stocked to overflowing with Israeli products are ignored, presenting a misleading picture of what life in Gaza after Israeli "occupation" is truly like.
Under the hashtag #TheGazaYouDontSee, Imshin, who prefers to keep her identity anonymous, shares diverse vignettes from life in Gaza that are a far cry from the oppression and misery that "everybody knows" is the lot of the Gazan population. From shopping sprees to swimming academies, bumper cars to the upscale Palmera Restaurant, Imshin opens our eyes to the fact that life in Gaza is more complex than what anti-Israel propagandists would have one believe.
"Tala and Ameer share their day with us," Imshin tweets. "They start with lunch at the Palmera Restaurant. They've obviously been there before, they know exactly what they want and don't need on the menu."
"The reason I started following children's vlogs was that reading and listening to Palestinian news accounts, sites and radio stations was depressing and started to make me anxious," Imshin told Arutz Sheva. "I wanted a lighter non-political input, which still exposed me to the local dialect. I was very surprised with what I found."
Her publications hit their mark apparently, as is evident by even her most benign tweets being subject to Twitter shadowbanning and tagging as "sensitive material".