Surviving a double lockdown: Inspirational resilience and digital storytelling in Gaza during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 compelled people to seek new ways to get by during a stressful time. In this study, I explain how Palestinians in Gaza used digital storytelling to survive a stressful situation by leaning on community and finding joy in the simple things. They taught people elsewhere how to do the same by sharing their experiences in English, offering a unique perspective and insight to international readers because the people of Gaza were uniquely positioned to do so; unlike others, the pandemic was not the first time they experienced a lockdown, after decades of occupation and siege. I call this communicative practice inspirational resilience. Specifically, I look at We Are Not Numbers, a digital project in which young Palestinians write about their lives. Using multimodal analysis to make sense of the stories published on We Are Not Numbers’ website, I show how inspirational resilience, which is based on the long-established Palestinian tradition of Sumud , can help turn Gaza from a disaster zone in constant need of the world to a place the world needs desperately at times of great adversity.