Invisible Lives, Visible Determination: Creative Agency as Resilience among Palestinian Children under Siege in Gaza

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Palestinian children in Gaza are often depicted in mainstream media as traumatized victims of an ongoing Israeli blockade and occupation, with little attention paid to their capacity for creative and civic agency amidst violence and conflict. Gaza has sustained a devastating blockade since 2006 and children of this generation have experienced several disastrous wars, witnessing cycles of violence, destruction and dismal efforts for reconstruction. While these events have had devastating effects, what is often missed are the ways in which many children continuously find creative ways to not only cope with ongoing violence and conflict, but begin developing new capacities to sustain mental well-being, self-expression, narrative imagination, and agency despite such extreme adversity.

The chapter reveals a complex picture of childhood struggles, vulnerability and forms of resilience through narrative expression, creative play and peer-based co-production, in the context of conducting participatory media programs and filmmaking. What emerges is children’s remarkable capacity for creative making, self-expression, and civic agency, despite their struggles coping with adolescence, family/social obligations, and traumas induced by the disruptive displacement (loss of home) and violence experienced during recent wars in Gaza.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLived Resistance against the War on Palestinian Children
EditorsHeidi Morrison
PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
Number of pages20
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 2024
MoE publication typeA3 Book section, Chapters in research books

Publication series

NameChildren, Youth, and War Series
PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press

Keywords

  • Participatory
  • children
  • resilience
  • creative agency
  • war
  • violence
  • adolescence
  • narrative
  • trauma
  • media play

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