Social Media, Activism and Mass Protest: Framed Narratives of the May 2021 Sheikh Jarrah's Events

This chapter examines the Palestinian narrative on social media platforms during May 2021 events in Palestine, in which the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood was at the center of political and media attention. The study follows contents of social media accounts of renowned activists, politicians, academics, celebrities and solidarity groups in Palestine and in the diaspora, examining how collective narratives were framed. The authors applied narrative segmentation, framing analysis and binary opposition analysis to digital contents. Using the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah as a key word for searching content, the chapter found two dominant frames in the narratives: colonial policies frame and resistance frame. Findings indicate that intervention of social media platforms by acts of censorship and deleting activists’ accounts play a role in the mediatized conflict’s dynamics. Meanwhile, the high engagement of Palestinian youth on social media provided very rich visual contents, which contributed to the notion that, in mediatized conflicts, social media actors who are in the center of events play a significant role in enriching conflict digital content, amplifying events and framing their own narratives.