Global Diaspora Protests in Response to the 2014 Gaza War

• In Event: Transnational Diaspora Mobilizations

Abstract

Despite abundance of crises in world politics, there is little understanding about how critical events in one part of the globe affect diasporas to mobilize in another. Some scholars have shown that violence, electoral campaigns, changes in legislation and peace processes can motivate diasporas to become more active abroad (Demmers 2007, Koinova 2011, Orjuella 2008). Yet, there is no systematic evidence that such case-based assertions apply evenly across different global locations. This paper seeks to understand how violent events in the Middle East on the one side, and characteristics of global contexts on the other, shape the intensity of diaspora protests in different global locations. It is based on a large data-set of over 1200 protests, which Palestinian diaspora activists and their solidarity networks launched during the war in Gaza in July and August 2016 across different global locations. We develop exploratory analysis of event history data and seek to analyse and visualize patterns of protests based on their timing relative to the beginning of the war, types of organizers and sponsors involved, numbers of protesters, geo-spatial location in a specific city (in front of an embassy, in public square, streets, etc), and proximity/distance of the respective global context to the Middle East.

Authors

• Maria V. Koinova, University of Warwick

• William Margulies, University of Warwick