kerkko.fi

The "Gaza Youth Breaks Out" manifesto does not put forth any clear analysis of the current historical situation, or outline a response to it. It does not invite anyone to join anything. Its tone is denunciatory rather than analytical. Its language is apolitical: the terminology of resistance common to Palestinian manifestos is replaced here by use of the f-word. It lacks any mobilisational dimension.

Without being rooted in any particular or collective vision of change, the demands articulated in the manifesto are meaningless. Perhaps this is why it is so attractive to those who have read it on Facebook, and the European and American media who have taken it up. It caters to western tastes and desires, especially to the fantasy of a digitally connected youth emerging from cyberspace as agents of transformative change in the real world.

In the case of Palestine, this fantasy does a number of things besides soothing guilty consciences. It reframes the issue of justice for Palestine in vacuous and unthreatening terms, casts the method by which change may occur into virtual space, and empties the Palestinian body politic of the thoughtfully articulated demands of its millions of citizens.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/01/10/karma-nabulsi/facebook-in-gaza/