Diaspora Activism and Demobilization in the Middle East

• In Event: Diaspora Politics: Transnationalism from Above and from Below

Abstract

Moments of moral shock can act as critical junctures, in which opportunities for dissent arise. This has an impact not only on the ground in the home country, but on diaspora communities abroad. Events such as mass protests or incidents of direct action against repressive regimes can act to mobilize transnational activist networks, even if previously politically repressed and/or largely disengaged. Moss (2021) calls these moments “quotidian disruptions.” We build on this literature further to analyze how such disruptions may have countervailing impacts. We specifically focus on the transnational pro-Palestine solidarity movement and diaspora organizing following the latest wave of resistance in historic Palestine (the “Unity Intifada”). We use interviews with activists and original social media data (Twitter and Instagram) to assess trends. The social media data includes network analysis of Palestinian activists across the political spectrum (close to 40,000 unique accounts and, on twitter, 1.2 million tweets). The social media dataset was built using digital ethnography, with 9 months of observation and iterative dataset building. The Twitter data is then paired with the Instagram data to assess trends outside of a single platform.

Using this evidence, we argue that disruptions have varying effects based on the context of activists; those who are politically active prior to disruption face more pressure than those who are first activated after. This has the effect of amplifying internal conflicts in the diaspora community and prompting alienation and exit from activism for certain members. This demobilization process ultimately changes the nature of diaspora groups and reduces their efficacy in transnational activism. Our paper complicates the causal story of how politics on the ground plays out in communities abroad, and sheds light on a critical case in the transnational activism literature using novel data.

Authors

• Dana El Kurd, University of Richmond

• Alexei Sisulu Abrahams, Harvard Kennedy School

• Nasir Almasri, Boston University