Hallyu across the Desert: K-pop Fandom in Israel and Palestine

This study examines the role that fan communities in Israel and Palestine play in the transcultural dissemination of Korean popular music, or “K-pop.” Based on in-depth interviews with fans, a survey of K-pop online communities, discourse analysis of online discussions, and participation in K-pop gatherings, this article examines the practice of K-pop, its localization and institutionalization, and its influence on the identities of fans. Special attention is given to the role of K-pop fans as cultural mediators who create necessary bridges between the music industry and local consumers and thus play a decisive role in globalizing cultures. Typically, literature on the globalization of popular culture either utilizes a top-down approach, depicting powerful media industries as making people across the world consume their products, or emphasizes a bottom-up resistance to the imposition of foreign cultures and values. This article suggests that popular culture consumption not only changes the lives of a few individuals but that these individuals may themselves play a decisive role in connecting globalized culture with local fandom. Keywords: K-pop, Hallyu, Israel, Palestine, Middle East, fandom Click here to watch a video of patrolling Israeli soldiers who were invited in to join the dancing at a Palestinian village wedding in the summer of 2013. The music? "Gangnam Style.

Modern Communication Techniques as Means of Breaking the Cultural Barrier of Arab-Bedouin Youth and Jewish Youth

New media have facilitated communication all over the world and we are able to maintain long-distance relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate how young Arab Bedouin people engage with their friends online via social networking sites. The researchers employed 200 questionnaires to gather information from Jewish and Arab-Bedouin users of social networking sites. According to the findings, online interaction between Bedouin and Jewish teenagers in the Arab world helped them acquire social and emotional experiences. Additionally, many mentioned how communicating online has improved their perceptions of and relationships with Jews. This kind of communication is more important for exposing people to different cultures because it does not put their community membership at risk. The results of this study are an initial encouragement to modify the relations between young people in the country. It is also a golden opportunity for Arab Bedouin youth to get to know the Jewish community. Therefore, this study emphasizes the interaction between the two communities, which differ in religion, language and cultural heritage

Contextualizing Palestinian Hybridity: How Pragmatic Citizenship Influences Diasporic Identities

Palestinians are one of the largest diaspora populations in the world, with members in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. How are the individual diasporic experiences of nationalism similar and different to one another? This research examines the creation and maintenance of Palestinian identity in diasporic contexts through ethnographic analysis and a series of interviews conducted in Chile, Jordan, and The United States. The results show that despite Palestinians maintaining Palestinianness as a dominant characteristic of identity in all three settings, there are contextual influences on how people integrate that identity into their lives. Within Jordan, Palestinians experience conflicting national identities and economic disparity while sharing language, culture and geographic proximity with Palestine. In The United States and Chile, Palestinians experience cultural and spatial separation from Palestine and are influenced by local political and economic situations. Evidence also shows that the identities of most of the participants in the three countries demonstrate various levels of cultural hybridity

Hip Hop Culture in a Small Moroccan City

This paper explores Hip Hop culture by tracing its development from the global level through the Arab world to finally its manifestation in Morocco. Hip Hop culture is defined broadly as a wide range of artistic expressions-rap, graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, etc.-and also a mind-set or way of life. The focus on the Moroccan context starts at the national level, pointing out some of the key artists, issues Moroccan Hip Hop faces, and how this has been explored by scholars of Hip Hop. The paper focuses on an ethnographic exploration of Hip Hop culture in Ifrane, a small Moroccan city. An analytic approach suggested in Patti Lather\u27s 1991 book Getting Smart informs and expands the paper particularly by privileging the emancipatory power of Moroccan Hip Hop, creating a nuanced view of the impact of Hip Hop on the lives of youth in this small community. Finally, the paper employs a self-reflexive stance to critically view the author\u27s own position in the research project in order to name some of the challenges and contradictions of a white male American doing Hip Hop research in the Moroccan context

Hip Hop Culture in a Small Moroccan City

This paper explores Hip Hop culture by tracing its development from the global level through the Arab world to finally its manifestation in Morocco. Hip Hop culture is defined broadly as a wide range of artistic expressions-rap, graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, etc.-and also a mind-set or way of life. The focus on the Moroccan context starts at the national level, pointing out some of the key artists, issues Moroccan Hip Hop faces, and how this has been explored by scholars of Hip Hop. The paper focuses on an ethnographic exploration of Hip Hop culture in Ifrane, a small Moroccan city. An analytic approach suggested in Patti Lather\u27s 1991 book Getting Smart informs and expands the paper particularly by privileging the emancipatory power of Moroccan Hip Hop, creating a nuanced view of the impact of Hip Hop on the lives of youth in this small community. Finally, the paper employs a self-reflexive stance to critically view the author\u27s own position in the research project in order to name some of the challenges and contradictions of a white male American doing Hip Hop research in the Moroccan context

Hip Hop Culture in a Small Moroccan City

This paper explores Hip Hop culture by tracing its development from the global level through the Arab world to finally its manifestation in Morocco. Hip Hop culture is defined broadly as a wide range of artistic expressions-rap, graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, etc.-and also a mind-set or way of life. The focus on the Moroccan context starts at the national level, pointing out some of the key artists, issues Moroccan Hip Hop faces, and how this has been explored by scholars of Hip Hop. The paper focuses on an ethnographic exploration of Hip Hop culture in Ifrane, a small Moroccan city. An analytic approach suggested in Patti Lather\u27s 1991 book Getting Smart informs and expands the paper particularly by privileging the emancipatory power of Moroccan Hip Hop, creating a nuanced view of the impact of Hip Hop on the lives of youth in this small community. Finally, the paper employs a self-reflexive stance to critically view the author\u27s own position in the research project in order to name some of the challenges and contradictions of a white male American doing Hip Hop research in the Moroccan context

Intifada 3.0? Cyber colonialism and Palestinian resistance

Palestine “exists” on Google and increasingly in various other “virtual” ways. But are “Palestine” on Google or the acquisition of the google.ps domain name in 2009 examples of political resistance on the internet? For Palestinian politicians, virtual presence has historical significance. Consider, for example, the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology’s (MTIT) suggestion that “ICTs information and communications technology] contribute directly to the national goal of establishing and building an independent state.”3 Within that context, Sabri Saydam, adviser to Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas and a former MTIT minister himself, posited Google’s 2013 move as “a step towards...liberation.” 4 For Israeli politicians, as quoted above, the emergence of (a virtual) “Palestine” poses ideological and practical dangers. Both camps ascribe power to the internet. Their only disagreement is over the ends to which the internet is a means: The internet is a threat to the existence of the state of Israel or a step toward a future state. At heart, however, both views are a form of technological determinism. They remove the internet from human, historical, and geopolitical contexts, and posit it as agent of political, social, or economic change. We contend that neither position is valid

More similar than different? A study on the effects of trauma on intra and inter-group relations in Israeli and Palestinian informal groups

We present here an analysis of a qualitative research that took place in Ramallah, West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel, from October 2011 to June 2012. The research consisted of semi-structured interviews with university students from West Bank and Israel. The students belonged to small informal groups formed through personal choice and based to an assignment. The aim of the research was primarily centralized in the exploration of the different ways collective trauma has been incorporated in the national identity as well the individual identity of the interviewees. It was conceived as a central key in the formation of everyday life through influencing the intra- and inter-group relationships within the two ethnic groups. In the content analysis of the interviews, we trace similarities in the two ethnic groups that occurred in the process of group formation and the elements that bring young people together. In this content analysis we take into consideration the existing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the historical/collective trauma transferred through memory from one generation to the next as well as the personal experiences connected to conflict and trauma. Finally, we argue that, the socio-economic background of the individual/member of the informal groups defines (a) the proximity and the personal involvement in the ethnic conflict and thus the possibility of experiencing traumatic events and (b) the level of internalization and incorporation of the collective trauma in the individual identity. Based on these parameters the ideas of belongingness of the individual to the group is discussed

Digital resistance: #SaveSheikhJarrah and the role of Palestinian activism on social media

This Master dissertation explores the evolution of transnational social movements and the rise of digital mobilisation in the twenty-first century, with a focus on the Palestinian case. Parallel to the theoretical study of social movements, the core of this work represents a synopsis of Palestinian resistance history, with a focus on the period between 1936 and today's popular struggles, particularly digital resistance in the age of social media. More in detail, this dissertation is based on a case study around the hashtag #SaveSheikJarrah, which went viral in May 2021. The hashtag represents a generational outcry against the Israeli occupation and settler-colonial evictions in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and has brought unprecedented attention for the Palestinian cause on a global level. This dissertation contributes to the documentation of activists' narratives and maps the meanings of Palestinian resistance in the new era of social media within a broader historical context. Furthermore, the rather novel and multidisciplinary research approach, which combines digital ethnography with interviews with activists, makes an original contribution to Palestine studies within Portuguese academia, which constitutes a major research gap that exists to this day.Esta dissertação de Mestrado explora a evolução dos movimentos sociais transnacionais e a subida da mobilização digital no século XXI, com enfoque no caso palestiniano. Paralelamente ao estudo teórico dos movimentos sociais, o núcleo desta obra representa uma sinopse da história da resistência palestiniana, com destaque para o período entre 1936 e as lutas populares de hoje, particularmente a resistência digital na era dos meios de comunicação social. Mais em detalhe, esta dissertação baseia-se num estudo de caso relacionado ao hashtag #SaveSheikJarrah, que se tornou viral em Maio de 2021. O hashtag representa um clamor geracional contra a ocupação israelita e as expulsões relacionado ao colonialismo do assentamento no distrito de Sheikh Jarrah em Jerusalém Oriental e trouxe uma atenção nunca vista para a causa palestiniana ao nível global. Esta dissertação contribui para a documentação das narrativas dos activistas e mapeia os significados da resistência palestiniana na nova era dos meios de comunicação social, dentro de um contexto histórico mais amplo. Além disso, a abordagem de investigação bastante inovadora e multidisciplinar, que combina a etnografia digital com entrevistas com activistas, dá um contributo original para os estudos sobre a Palestina no seio da academia portuguesa, o que constitui uma grande lacuna de investigação que existe até aos dias de hoje