Research Article
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Digital Activism in the Gaza War: Mirroring Israelis on Social Media

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 111 - 132

Zeynep Zelal Kızılkaya

https://doi.org/10.33709/ictimaiyat.1578788

Abstract

Social media platforms, with their different ecosystems, offer their users various sociotechnological
environments and new communication experiences. Social media platforms, with
their diverse ecosystems, offer users a variety of socio-technological environments and new
communication experiences. These platforms allow users to engage in political activism and
challenge hegemonic narratives. After October 7, 2023, as the Israeli attacks on Gaza turned into
genocide, social media became an important arena of struggle. In this study, I aimed to examine
how young Palestinian users subvert the perception of Israel's victimization on social media,
focusing on the digital publications of Hamzah Sadaah and Bilal Nassar, who actively use the
dialogic aspect of social media platforms for political activism. Using a digital ethnography
approach, I watched the videos of the two activists hosting Israeli participants with the technique
of non-participant observation and interpreted the data obtained through descriptive analysis to
reveal the outlines of the Israeli participants' discourses. As a result, the activists made Israeli
soldiers, youth and adults visible by hosting them on their platforms, making their war crimes and
hate speech visible. They also used social media as a mirror, revealing a side of Israeli society that
is ignored by mainstream Western media

Keywords

Social Media Digital Activism Palestine Digital Floating Homeland İsrael.

Ethical Statement

This publication complies with ethical rules

References

  • Abbas, L, Fahmy, S. S., Ayad, S., Ibrahimand, M. and Ali, A. H. (2022). TikTok Intifada: Analyzing Social Media Activism Among Youth. Online Media and Global Communication, no. 1(2), 287–314.
  • Ahmed, S. (2004). The Cultural Politics of Emotions. Edinburg University Press, Edinburgh.
  • Aouragh, M. (2016). Hasbara 2.0: Israel’s Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age. Middle East Critique, vol. 25:3, 271-297.
  • Apodaca, T. and Uzcátegui-Liggett, N. (2024). How We Investigated Shadowbanning on Instagram. Retrieved May 6, 2024 from, https://themarkup.org/automated-censorship/2024/02/25/how-we-investigated-shadowbanning-on-instagram.
  • Bennett, W. L. and Segerberg, A. (2012). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and The Personalization of Contentious Politics, Information, Communication & Society, no.15(5), 739-768.
  • Castells, M. (2008). Enformasyon Çağı: Ekonomi, Toplum ve Kültür - Ağ Toplumunun Yükselişi, (Çev. Kılıç, E), İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
  • Chon, M. G. and Park, H. (2020). Social Media Activism in the Digital Age: Testing an Integrative Model of Activism on Contentious Issues, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 97 no. 1, 1-26.
  • Cervi, L. and Divon, T. (2023). Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance on TikTok #Challenges, Social Media and Society, no. 9(1), 1-13.
  • Dwonch, A. (2021). Palestinian Youth Activism in the Internet Age: Online and Offline Social Networks after the Arab Spring. London: I.B. Tauris.
  • Human Rights Watch (HRW). Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content, Retrieved April 6, 2024 from https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorship-palestine-content.
  • Hands, J. (2011). @ is for Activism - Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture. London: Pluto Press. Jost, J. T., Barbera, P., Bonneau, R., Langer, M., Metzger, M., Nagler, J., Sterlin, J. and Tucker, J. A. (2018). How Social Media Facilitates Political Protest: Information, Motivation, and Social Networks, Advances in Political Psychology, no. 39(3), 85-118.
  • Khalidi, R. (2020). The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine : A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. First edition. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
  • Karpf, D (2010). Online Political Mobilization from the Advocacy Group’s Perspective: Looking Beyond Clicktivism, Policy & Internet, Vol. 2: Iss. 4, 1-35.
  • Lievrouw, L. A. (2011). Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • McCaughey, M. and Ayers, M. (2003). Cyberactivism - Online Activism in Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.
  • Monshipouri, M. and Prompichai, T. (2018). Digital Activism in Perspective: Palestinian Resistance via Social Media, International Studies Journal (ISJ) vol. 14 no. 4, 37-57.
  • Murdoch, S. (2010). Destructive Activism: The Double-Edged Sword of Digital Tactics in Digital Activism Decoded - the New Mechanics of Change, ed. M. Joyce, 137-148. New York: Idebate Press.
  • Özkula, S. M. (2021). What is Digital Activism Anyway? Social Constructions of the ‘Digital’ in Contemporary Activism, Journal of Digital Social Research, vol. 3, 60-84.
  • Polletta, F. (2013). Participatory Democracy in the New Millenium, Contemporary Sociology, no. 42(1), 40-50.
  • Shehadeh, H. (2023), Palestine in the Cloud: The Construction of a Digital Floating Homeland, Humanities, 12: 75, 1-18.
  • Support David Miller. ‘Hasbara’: Israel’s Propaganda Policy Hiding in Plain Sight, publised April 21, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2024 from https://supportmiller.org/hasbara.
  • Tang, L. (2013). The Politics of Flies: Mocking News in Chinese Cyberspace, Chinese Journal of Communication, no. 6(4), 482-496.
  • Tatarchevskiy, T. (2011). The 'Popular' Culture of Internet Activism, New Media & Society, no. 13, 297-313.
  • The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) (2002). Hasbara Handbook: Promoting Israil on Campus, Jerusalem, Retrieved June 5, 2024 from https://web.archive.org/web/20210324184610/http:/www.middle-east-info.org/take/wujshasbara.pdf.
  • Tufekci, Z. (2013). Not This One: Social Movements, the Attention Economy, and Microcelebrity Networked Activism, American Behavioral Scientist, no. 57, 848-870.
  • Tüysüz, B. (2019). İsrail’in Hasbara Çalışmaları Üzerinden İsrail’in Tehdit Algılarının Değerlendirilmesi, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İstanbul Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü.
  • Vijay, D. & Gekker, A. (2021). Playing Politics: How Sabarimala Played Out on TikTok, American Behavioral Scientist, no. 65(5), 1-23.
  • Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests Against the World Bank, in Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, ed. M. McCaughey and M. Ayers, 71-95. New York: Routledge.
  • Yıldırım, A. & Şimşek, H. (2008). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. (8. Baskı) Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
  • Weizman, E. (2007). Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. Verso, London.
  • Wolfe, P. (2006) Settler Colonialism and The Elimination of The Native. Journal of Genocide Research 8.4, 387–409.
  • Video Bibliography
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024a, May 20). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7370835492083879199
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024b, March 28). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7351514459069762858
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024c, February 7). Just teying to figure out what to donate (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7332600560392178987
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024d, May 3). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7364525737258323246
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024e, June 13). Lets go Dalton!!! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7379788799590616351
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024f, July 20). Watch until the end….. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7393528467054136607
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024g, May 13). Like & comment for Part.2‼ (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7368248226723482923
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023a, October 26). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7294290773632109867
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023b, November 4). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7297366450149313838
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023c, December 4). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whLuMJZ2WwA&t=325s
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023d, November 28). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zv1kG-dcd3k
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023e, November 12). Speaking to İsraili soldiers about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt7qkjL8VbI
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023f, November 23). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7304434188265016619
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024a, May 10). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lwOCBkhL230
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024b, May 14). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7368622994190650666
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024c, May 14). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine.. LIVE! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH5t6Vhj4Vc
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024d, February 25). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sqjeNSZWzIA
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024e, May 14), Speaking to Israelis about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kNHWeLjLfWU
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024f, May 4). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7364896959078993194
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024g, March 10). Speaking to İsraili soldiers about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_5muKjfd234
  • Sammy Obeid. (2024, June 4). Hamzah Saadah (ABSORBER) Faced Death For His Content (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gki_C5zn8

Gazze Savaşında Dijital Aktivizm: Sosyal Medyada İsraillilere Ayna Tutmak

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 111 - 132

Zeynep Zelal Kızılkaya

https://doi.org/10.33709/ictimaiyat.1578788

Abstract

Sosyal medya platformları, farklı ekosistemleriyle kullanıcılarına çeşitli sosyo-teknolojik ortamlar
ve yeni iletişim deneyimleri sunmaktadır. Bu platformlar kullanıcıların siyasi aktivizme katılmasına
ve hegemonik anlatılara meydan okumasına olanak tanımaktadır. 7 Ekim 2023'ten sonra İsrail'in
Gazze'ye yönelik saldırılarının soykırıma dönüşmesiyle birlikte sosyal medya önemli bir mücadele
alanına dönüştü. Bu çalışmada, Filistinli genç kullanıcıların sosyal medyada İsrail'in mağduriyet
algısını nasıl altüst ettiğini incelemeyi amaçladım. Bu doğrultuda sosyal medya platformlarının
diyalojik yönünü siyasi aktivizm için aktif olarak kullanan Hamzah Sadaah ve Bilal Nassar'ın dijital
platformlardaki yayınlarına odaklandım. Dijital etnografi yaklaşımıyla iki aktivistin İsrailli katılımcıları
konuk ettiği videoları katılımsız gözlem tekniğiyle izledim ve elde edilen verileri betimsel analizle
yorumlayarak İsrailli katılımcıların söylemlerindeki ana hatlarını ortaya çıkardım. Sonuç olarak,
aktivistler, İsrailli askerleri, gençleri ve yetişkinleri kendi platformlarında konuk ederek onların
savaş suçlarını ve nefret söylemlerini görünür kılmıştır. Ayrıca sosyal medyayı bir ayna olarak
kullanarak, ana akım Batı medyasında görmezden gelinen İsrail toplumunun bu yüzünü gözler
önüne sermiştir.

Keywords

Sosyal Medya Dijital Aktivizm Filistin Yüzen Dijital Vatan İsrail

Ethical Statement

Bu yayında etik kurallara uyulmuştur.

References

  • Abbas, L, Fahmy, S. S., Ayad, S., Ibrahimand, M. and Ali, A. H. (2022). TikTok Intifada: Analyzing Social Media Activism Among Youth. Online Media and Global Communication, no. 1(2), 287–314.
  • Ahmed, S. (2004). The Cultural Politics of Emotions. Edinburg University Press, Edinburgh.
  • Aouragh, M. (2016). Hasbara 2.0: Israel’s Public Diplomacy in the Digital Age. Middle East Critique, vol. 25:3, 271-297.
  • Apodaca, T. and Uzcátegui-Liggett, N. (2024). How We Investigated Shadowbanning on Instagram. Retrieved May 6, 2024 from, https://themarkup.org/automated-censorship/2024/02/25/how-we-investigated-shadowbanning-on-instagram.
  • Bennett, W. L. and Segerberg, A. (2012). The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and The Personalization of Contentious Politics, Information, Communication & Society, no.15(5), 739-768.
  • Castells, M. (2008). Enformasyon Çağı: Ekonomi, Toplum ve Kültür - Ağ Toplumunun Yükselişi, (Çev. Kılıç, E), İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
  • Chon, M. G. and Park, H. (2020). Social Media Activism in the Digital Age: Testing an Integrative Model of Activism on Contentious Issues, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 97 no. 1, 1-26.
  • Cervi, L. and Divon, T. (2023). Playful Activism: Memetic Performances of Palestinian Resistance on TikTok #Challenges, Social Media and Society, no. 9(1), 1-13.
  • Dwonch, A. (2021). Palestinian Youth Activism in the Internet Age: Online and Offline Social Networks after the Arab Spring. London: I.B. Tauris.
  • Human Rights Watch (HRW). Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content, Retrieved April 6, 2024 from https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/20/meta-systemic-censorship-palestine-content.
  • Hands, J. (2011). @ is for Activism - Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture. London: Pluto Press. Jost, J. T., Barbera, P., Bonneau, R., Langer, M., Metzger, M., Nagler, J., Sterlin, J. and Tucker, J. A. (2018). How Social Media Facilitates Political Protest: Information, Motivation, and Social Networks, Advances in Political Psychology, no. 39(3), 85-118.
  • Khalidi, R. (2020). The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine : A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. First edition. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
  • Karpf, D (2010). Online Political Mobilization from the Advocacy Group’s Perspective: Looking Beyond Clicktivism, Policy & Internet, Vol. 2: Iss. 4, 1-35.
  • Lievrouw, L. A. (2011). Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • McCaughey, M. and Ayers, M. (2003). Cyberactivism - Online Activism in Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.
  • Monshipouri, M. and Prompichai, T. (2018). Digital Activism in Perspective: Palestinian Resistance via Social Media, International Studies Journal (ISJ) vol. 14 no. 4, 37-57.
  • Murdoch, S. (2010). Destructive Activism: The Double-Edged Sword of Digital Tactics in Digital Activism Decoded - the New Mechanics of Change, ed. M. Joyce, 137-148. New York: Idebate Press.
  • Özkula, S. M. (2021). What is Digital Activism Anyway? Social Constructions of the ‘Digital’ in Contemporary Activism, Journal of Digital Social Research, vol. 3, 60-84.
  • Polletta, F. (2013). Participatory Democracy in the New Millenium, Contemporary Sociology, no. 42(1), 40-50.
  • Shehadeh, H. (2023), Palestine in the Cloud: The Construction of a Digital Floating Homeland, Humanities, 12: 75, 1-18.
  • Support David Miller. ‘Hasbara’: Israel’s Propaganda Policy Hiding in Plain Sight, publised April 21, 2021. Retrieved May 5, 2024 from https://supportmiller.org/hasbara.
  • Tang, L. (2013). The Politics of Flies: Mocking News in Chinese Cyberspace, Chinese Journal of Communication, no. 6(4), 482-496.
  • Tatarchevskiy, T. (2011). The 'Popular' Culture of Internet Activism, New Media & Society, no. 13, 297-313.
  • The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) (2002). Hasbara Handbook: Promoting Israil on Campus, Jerusalem, Retrieved June 5, 2024 from https://web.archive.org/web/20210324184610/http:/www.middle-east-info.org/take/wujshasbara.pdf.
  • Tufekci, Z. (2013). Not This One: Social Movements, the Attention Economy, and Microcelebrity Networked Activism, American Behavioral Scientist, no. 57, 848-870.
  • Tüysüz, B. (2019). İsrail’in Hasbara Çalışmaları Üzerinden İsrail’in Tehdit Algılarının Değerlendirilmesi, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İstanbul Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü.
  • Vijay, D. & Gekker, A. (2021). Playing Politics: How Sabarimala Played Out on TikTok, American Behavioral Scientist, no. 65(5), 1-23.
  • Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests Against the World Bank, in Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice, ed. M. McCaughey and M. Ayers, 71-95. New York: Routledge.
  • Yıldırım, A. & Şimşek, H. (2008). Sosyal Bilimlerde Nitel Araştırma Yöntemleri. (8. Baskı) Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
  • Weizman, E. (2007). Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. Verso, London.
  • Wolfe, P. (2006) Settler Colonialism and The Elimination of The Native. Journal of Genocide Research 8.4, 387–409.
  • Video Bibliography
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024a, May 20). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7370835492083879199
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024b, March 28). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7351514459069762858
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024c, February 7). Just teying to figure out what to donate (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7332600560392178987
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024d, May 3). Lets go Dalton! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7364525737258323246
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024e, June 13). Lets go Dalton!!! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7379788799590616351
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024f, July 20). Watch until the end….. (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7393528467054136607
  • Bilal Nassar (bfendyy). (2024g, May 13). Like & comment for Part.2‼ (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@bfendyy/video/7368248226723482923
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023a, October 26). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7294290773632109867
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023b, November 4). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7297366450149313838
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023c, December 4). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whLuMJZ2WwA&t=325s
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023d, November 28). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Zv1kG-dcd3k
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023e, November 12). Speaking to İsraili soldiers about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt7qkjL8VbI
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2023f, November 23). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7304434188265016619
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024a, May 10). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lwOCBkhL230
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024b, May 14). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7368622994190650666
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024c, May 14). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine.. LIVE! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH5t6Vhj4Vc
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024d, February 25). Speaking to Israelis about Palestine! (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sqjeNSZWzIA
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024e, May 14), Speaking to Israelis about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kNHWeLjLfWU
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024f, May 4). Free Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.tiktok.com/@hamzah/video/7364896959078993194
  • Hamzah Saadah. (2024g, March 10). Speaking to İsraili soldiers about Palestine (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_5muKjfd234
  • Sammy Obeid. (2024, June 4). Hamzah Saadah (ABSORBER) Faced Death For His Content (Video File). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gki_C5zn8
There are 53 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Peace Studies, Political Communication, Communication Sociology, Middle East Studies
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Zeynep Zelal Kızılkaya 0000-0003-1073-1264

Early Pub Date May 29, 2025
Publication Date
Submission Date November 4, 2024
Acceptance Date March 17, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 9 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Kızılkaya, Z. Z. (2025). Digital Activism in the Gaza War: Mirroring Israelis on Social Media. İçtimaiyat, 9(1), 111-132. https://doi.org/10.33709/ictimaiyat.1578788
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