المقاومة الرقمية الفلسطينية في قضية حي الشيخ جراح: دور الصفحات الشخصية على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي في مواجهة محاولات التهجير والتهويد

Abstract

This study analyzed Mona A-Kurd’s (a Palestinian activist who played a pivotal role in protests against Israel’s forceful expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem) handling and framing of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood issue through her Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. We used thematic analysis to achieve this goal. The study sample consisted of all Al-Kurd’s posts published from March 1, 2021, to November 30, 2021, which were (194) posts. The study reveals that Al-Kurd relied on Facebook mainly to talk about the Sheikh’s Jarrah issue, with 41.2% of the posts. The call for participation and solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah’s people ranked first on the topics on Facebook, with a rate of 25.4%. Facebook is the most used platform by Palestinians using the Internet, with 95%. Posting pictures about the people of Sheikh Jarrah’s steadfastness was the highest on her Instagram topics, with a rate of 18.7%. Denouncing the Israeli ethnic cleansing policy and settlement and forced displacement are the most important on Twitter, with a percentage of 26.2%. Most of her Twitter audience was from different countries rather than Palestine. She focused on human issues on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. These percentages reveal that Al-Kurd used a conscious posting strategy that fits each platform’s audience. The study recommended that there is a necessity to conduct future research on the methods of Palestinian digital resistance. The study concluded that the personal pages of Palestinian activists on social media might play an essential role in communicating Palestinian issues regionally and internationally. The influence of Palestinian activists’ pages on social media might play a more significant role than that of the governmental press and partisan channels, as their impact is more on the millennial generation.