Archivalism and memory activism: The Nakba (1948) and the Gaza War (2023)

Abstract

This article focuses on analysing memory reconfiguration within creative digital forms of activism, heightened by interconnecting two major wars and traumas in the Palestinian context, namely the Nakba (meaning ‘catastrophe’) in 1948 and the Gaza War in 2023. From time and space perspectives, the Nakba is considered a ‘finished’ war where over 70% of the Palestinian population was displaced and Israel was established. For many Palestinians, however, the Nakba is ongoing and never stopped. The deterioration of Palestinians’ humanitarian rights and living conditions over the years preceding the genocidal Gaza War are symptomatic of a crisis that began back in 1948. This article examines the parallels being made on social media platforms between the ongoing Gaza War and the 1948 Nakba, by analysing a selection of videos and photo assemblages on social media platforms, particularly on Facebook. The proliferation of 1948 archival materials on social media during the Gaza War confirms Abbas and Abou-Rahme’s notion of ‘the archival multitude’, in which the agency of online users and activists is transformative, creating ‘the living archive’. The article thus explores the agency of the social media user as multidimensional, being both archivist and activist.