Bridging identities through activism: Palestinians in Sweden navigating the transnational divide

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article deals with the ways in which diaspora communities use activism, transnational political engagements and mobilisation in order to create and sustain identities and navigate in the transnational space of being neither ‘here’ nor ‘there’. Through an exploration of how Palestinians in Sweden use activism as a way to navigate their situation in between Palestine and Sweden, it is shown that transnational activism and social mobilisation are means of managing, meaning-making, mediating and negotiation vulnerable and complicated position between places and identities. Using narrative material collected through interviews with Palestinians in Sweden, this article unveils the relationship between conflict, activism and identity formation and how tensions, struggles and contestations inform that interlinkage. The article explores those relationships through investigating the case of the Palestinian community in Sweden and its narrated experiences of conflict and activism through the lens of the former homeland as well as the new or current country of residence. The study aims to deepen our understandings of the profound meaning of solidarity with a homeland lost as well as to a deeper understanding of the Palestinian diaspora in the Global North.