Activism you can feel: How pro-Palestine youth are responding to online censorship

Faced with digital fatigue and heightened surveillance, Gen Z and millennial organisers are turning to zines, posters, stickers and embroidery to express solidarity with Palestine

Pro-Palestine students hang a banner in the Butler Library at Columbia University, New York on 7 May (Tamara Turki)

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When Israel initiated plans to evict Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for illegal settlers, millions of young people around the world got involved in a high-profile social media campaign to raise awareness.

Using the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah, more than 40 million people joined in, forming part of a wave of online organising that set the stage for a new era of pro-Palestine digital activism.

That trend continued as Israel launched its ongoing genocide in Gaza in October 2023 with activists dedicating their instagram feeds and TikTok reels to spreading awareness of Israeli atrocities.

But mounting censorship on social media, digital fatigue and a hunger for deeper forms of engagement, are forcing organisers to shift gears and adopt new modes of activism.

Many Gen Z and millennial activists are going analog, turning to tangible and material means of information sharing.

This buregoning shift allows them to overcome surveillance on social media platforms and lets them share their message directly with people in the "real world" in ways that feel more personal and engaging.

In south-east London, the Peckham Keffiyeh collective sells hand block–printed tote bags and scarves to raise funds for Gaza while spreading political messages.

Their latest design features the slogan “Make proscription unenforceable”, a reference to the UK's crackdown on pro-Palestine direct action group Palestine Action.

The artwork includes drawings of police cars, a keffiyeh-print border, and images of balaclavas, a nod to Irish hip-hop group trio Kneecap, whose member Liam Og O hAnnaidh is facing terrorism charges in the UK after allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag during a concert.

Elsewhere, Maqam Books, a nomadic community bookshop run by Mahmoud Masoud, brings rarely available Arabic and English titles on Palestine to pop-up art events and creative gatherings across the UK.

By curating literature often absent from mainstream bookstores, Masoud offers young audiences an entry point into Palestinian history, politics, and storytelling.

'Sense of purpose'

“With social media, posting something will take you two seconds,” says Naiema, a student at University College London.

“But crafting something and putting in that extra effort makes you feel more connected to the cause. It gives me a sense of purpose, like I’m actually doing something rather than sitting around.”

Naiema incorporates analog forms of activism in several ways, from designing calligraphic posters and distributing leaflets to baking Palestine-themed cupcakes.

'Crafting something and putting in that extra effort makes you feel more connected to the cause. It gives me a sense of purpose'

- Naiema, student at UCL

In the second year of a degree in History and Politics, Naiema said social media often feels fleeting, with posts easily swiped past and forgotten.

In contrast, a leaflet or banner demands attention and engagement, confronting people in ways that are harder to ignore.

She cites the impact of stickers, which she frequently sees plastered across London’s public transport network and she displays on her own belongings.

“My laptop is completely covered in them,” she said. “I’ve had people approach me about my stickers, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Regardless, it sparks a conversation.”

Naiema said she draws inspiration from her grandfather, who fought for Bangladesh’s liberation from Pakistan in 1971 and relied heavily on analog forms of resistance.

“It’s important not to stop using those older methods, because they were still very effective. Analog media is something that can’t be censored as easily as social media,” she said.

Stifling activism online

Through social media, Palestinians in Gaza, and their supporters across the globe, have challenged mainstream media narratives by documenting Israel’s brutality.

They have captured everything from Israel's bombardment of designated safe zones to the kidnapping of doctors treating patients in hospitals.

But young activists are increasingly facing algorithmic shadow bans and the removal of pro-Palestinian content by major social media platforms.

The New York-based art collective, 8-Ball, reported that its fundraising campaigns for families in Gaza have been suppressed on Instagram.

'Online, we’re overloaded with information - something profound followed instantly by something trivial. It’s hard to internalise. Analog slows things down'

- 8-Ball volunteer

In December 2023, Human Rights Watch released a 51-page report detailing how Meta’s content moderation policies on Instagram and Facebook have increasingly censored pro-Palestinian voices.

Meanwhile, TikTok has come under criticism for its July 2025 hiring of Erica Mindel, a former US State Department contractor and Israeli army instructor, to oversee hate-speech policies.

Responding to accusations of censorship, a Meta spokesperson said: "We have been public about the fact that we adopted a number of temporary product and policy measures in response to this conflict, and we also have broader policies on recommendability and demotion that can impact pages like this.

"We acknowledge we make mistakes, but any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false."

As part of its initiatives, 8-Ball has been distributing Palestine zines at fairs and running pro-Palestine zine-making workshops.

“Zines let you reach people directly, without algorithms, and it feels safer,” one volunteer, who requested anonymity, explained.

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A post shared by Peckham Keffiyeh (@peckham_keffiyeh)

“Plus, they break out of social media’s echo chambers. You can bring them anywhere, leave them anonymously, and reach different age groups and communities. That kind of autonomy makes them powerful.”

DIY zines, small, self-published pamphlets that are easy to circulate, were popularised during the feminist movements of the 1980s and ’90s. They have since seen a strong resurgence within Palestinian activism

The volunteer attributed a renewed popularity in zines to a growing desire for community and tangible connection.

“Online, we’re overloaded with information - something profound followed instantly by something trivial. It’s hard to internalise. Analog slows things down.”

State-sponsored censorship

Posting on social media has also become an particular source of anxiety for international students in the US, many of whom have faced threats of deportation over their pro-Palestine activism since the Trump administration took office.

In June, the US State Department announced that all student visa applicants would be required to set their social media profiles to “public”.

“We’re under constant surveillance online,” another 8-Ball volunteer added.

Pro-Israel website Canary Mission used to identify students for deportation, says ICE

“Every gesture is tracked: what you scroll past, how long you linger. Platforms like Instagram don’t have our best interests in mind, and relying on them as the primary source of information feels dangerous. They can be useful tools, but they shouldn’t be the only ones we use.”

According to scholars Alice Mattoni and Diego Ceccobelli, young activists are instead turning to face-to-face organising as a way to secure greater privacy and evade surveillance.

Sharing physical space for meetings, they noted, has become a valued activity in itself.

Within these gatherings, the creation and circulation of physical media about Palestine is common.

Activists prepare banners and other art work for demonstrations and write the names of slain Palestinians for posters, a practice intended to counter desensitisation to the rising death toll in Gaza.

“Global crises feel overwhelming, but at the community level things feel more manageable. It might sound cheesy, but community and reciprocity go a long way in sustaining activism,” the 8-Ball volunteer said.

Gen Z and Millennial consumers have driven the resurgence of analog products in recent years, from vinyl, to film cameras to CDs.

Analog appeal

While once dismissed as nostalgia tied to retro trends in entertainment and fashion, researchers suggest this shift reflects the tactile appeal of analog objects, which foster deeper, more immersive, and emotionally fulfilling experiences than digital screens.

“I think young people like to have analog mementos of culturally significant events or moments, something they can hold on to and reflect on, as opposed to reading Instagram captions or insipid Instagram graphics,” said Jynnan Ong, cofounder of Baeisanz, a London-based collective that fosters cultural awareness and solidarity of Asian identities.

'Pamphlets, posters, leaflets, flyers, stickers, help young people feel like they are part of something'

- Jynnan Ong, cofounder of Baeisanz collective

“Pamphlets, posters, leaflets, flyers, stickers, help young people feel like they are part of something. It is a reminder that they were there and stood up for something they believed in and had the courage, freedom, and energy to say something with their chest,” she added.

The group, which organises exhibitions, film screenings, solidarity fundraisers, radio shows, and audiovisual performances, has used analog media to shed light on the genocide in Gaza.

To balance the reach of online platforms with the intimacy of analog experiences, Baeisanz has created both physical and digital zines.

“There’s power in appealing to the local and having something precious experienced in person,” Baesanz co-founder Sarah Khan added.

“At the same time, the issues we’re speaking to are incredibly important, and thinking beyond the local is crucial for encouraging a wider sense of solidarity with Palestine and the urgency of that.

“There’s power in the intimacy of analog being part of a more intimate space, but there’s also the question: does this need to reach further? How can we make that accessible? Is this a message to be kept in a room, or to be sung on the streets?"

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