#BringBackOurBoys IDF Hashtag Sparks Palestinian Outrage On Twitter

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict raged on another front -- social media -- after the Israel Defense Forces used the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys on Saturday in their effort to find three teenagers believed to have been kidnapped in the West Bank.

This is the IDF tweet, sent Saturday morning, that spurred the controversy:

#BringBackOurBoys is a variation on the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which was used last month as part of a social media campaign -- with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama pitching in -- to highlight the abduction of Nigerian schoolgirls by the Boko Haram militant group. Israel is trying to find teenagers Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, both 16. They went missing Thursday night.

Some critics of the IDF tweet accused Israel’s army of using the hashtag in poor taste, while Palestinian sympathizers claimed the hashtag as their own to bring attention to Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails and Palestinian children who have been killed by Israeli forces.