As the hashtag quickly backfired, jumping to top trending status in Israel and remaining there since then, users flooded the Twitter page with sarcastically snide remarks about Israel's occupation of Palestine and the less than pristine human rights record associated with it.

With thousands of tweets from around the world about war crimes, military aggression and apartheid, the hashtag quickly turned into an Israel-bashing fest channeling the Palestinian cause.

And yet, despite all of the online commotion, the Q&A went ahead as planned on Thursday, with Netanyahu answering cherry-picked questions about foreign policy and the economy.

The Israeli prime minister even took a question asking if he regretted launching the hashtag, to which he answered : "Heck no, enjoying every minute."