#  How Digitization is Changing Urban Politics 

 





November 12, 2024

 

 

 Hadas Zur 

   ![Antimigrant activists with Israeli flags surround asylum seekers while arguing and filming them.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/epicenter/files/protest-700px.jpg?itok=VfRsWLwZ) 

 

Anti-migrant activists march in the neighborhood with Israeli flags. In the photo, they are seen surrounding asylum seekers from Eritrea, arguing with them while filming it for social media. *Courtesy of Hadas Zur*In recent years, small groups of Israeli anti-migrant activists have been taking to the streets of Neve Sha’anan, a disadvantaged neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv. Equipped with smartphones and Israeli flags, they stroll down the streets filming and inciting arguments with asylum seekers, then edit the videos and spread them online. This practice, as the activists have explained, intends to “expose the everyday violence of the asylum seekers.” However, the purported goal of representing violence has become a violent practice of its own and a way to incite [violent encounters in place](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051231166443). An interviewee explained the strategy of the leader of their group:

> It is better to do one little provocative action in front of a single Sudanese migrant or a leftist. It goes online and then boom! Tomorrow, I’m on my way to a Knesset \[Israeli parliament\] committee \[to talk about the migrant issues in South Tel Aviv\]. (“D”, resident of South Tel Aviv, interview 1/21/2019)

This quotation shows how the interplay of violence, protest, and politics is changing in the digital age. Indeed, in the age of social media there is no need to produce mass protests which require a lot of energy and resources. Digital tools and platforms allow new actors, such as ordinary residents, to become predominant political actors through cultivating [new forms of digital agency](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00420980231224629). My research in Neve Sha’anan indicates how small groups gain visibility and political power through local digital activism that often incorporates violence.

## The neighborhood

Since the 1990s, Neve Sha’anan has been the central location in Israel for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers; it is also where drug trafficking, prostitution, and homelessness are most concentrated. Like many global cities of the past decade, this long-impoverished area is now going through urban regeneration and gentrification—interrelated processes that create a highly heterogeneous environment in terms of ethnicity, class, political views, norms, and status of citizenship. It is where long-term low-income residents, new young middle-class residents, asylum seekers, refugees, foreign workers, and populations in distress are living side by side. The encounters between them and the spatial transformation (e.g., new housing developments, new public spaces, new stores and cafes) provokes contestation over the future and character of the neighborhood. Different groups of residents strive to promote competing [political-spatial visions](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00420980231224629) for the neighborhood.

The research I conducted over four years shows how some groups are using the digital tools and spheres to activate and empower their agency to determine the future of the place. They develop digital-spatial practices to influence the framing of the problem of violence in particular locations and pressure politicians, authorities, and police to work in their favor. They have succeeded in enlarging neighborhood police forces to become the [most heavily policed area](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10780874221096748) in the city and created bonds with high-ranking politicians at the city and state level. Two groups in particular have managed to do so. For the purpose of this article, I call them the aforementioned “anti-migrant activists” and the “gentrifiers”—mostly young, middle-class populations that have recently moved to the neighborhood.

Beyond a specific place, this story reveals how politics, activism, and protests change in face of the possibilities offered by digitization—that is, the use of personal digital technologies—and how the digital spheres impact place and social relations. Here are five aspects that explain why we should more closely examine the role of digitization in shaping contemporary local politics.

### 1. Generates new modes of activism 

Digitization allows for new modes of protest such as small-scale acts in public spaces that are shared and disseminated online, where they generate impact not based on mobilizing masses to protest but on the basis of “going viral.” A protest act might be carried out by only a few people in a public space, but the recording could reach hundreds to millions and draw public and media attention. This expands the repertoire of practices as well as increases the struggle for attention on social media.

Moreover, digitization allows new forms of connectivity and political action. “Connective action,” as sociologist Ori Schwarz describes it, represents a [different kind of social coordination](https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Sociological%20Theory%20for%20Digital%20Society:%20The%20Codes%20that%20Bind%20Us%20Together-p-9781509542963) where people participate by being part of a network that enables them to create meaningful joint action. Some individuals become central nodes in driving or initiating the action, but people in the network easily share and amplify the action and message through social media. For example, the Neve Sha’anan residents used digital tools to produce competing representations of the violence in the neighborhood. Each group wanted to frame the cause of violence in a different way to impact the regulation of space. The anti-migrant activists produced representations that frame violence as a problem that stems from the migrant community, while the gentrifiers framed it as a social disorder problem focusing on prostitution, homelessness, and drug trafficking. The two groups developed different practices of representation such as an open google map of hazards, daily photographed reports, confrontational videos, counter-surveillance reports and more. These representations were created by many residents who participate by sharing and disseminating images and videos.

   ![Screenshot of Google maps showing places of ](/sites/g/files/omnuum8931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/epicenter/files/map-700px.png?itok=iptiGscN) 

 

Open-source map of “hazards” made by the residents of South Tel Aviv. The gentrifiers group leaders created the google map and invited residents to mark hot spots of crime, drug stations, prostitution, and gatherings of drug users with the intent of exposing its spread, visibility, and intensity in the neighborhood. Moreover, they wanted to challenge the police, reflect their inaction, and create a counter-surveillance that is public and transparent as opposed to the authority’s digital surveillance. *Courtesy of Hadas Zur* Other forms of connective action include orchestrated visual campaigns, trolling politicians, and opposing activists online and offline, among others. Hence, practices have moved from traditional mass protests to multiple actions that involve the physical and digital spheres on a weekly, or even daily basis. This type of framework is not based on the scale but on the sequence of events, their tempo, and timing. It is aimed at causing ongoing, constant nuisance to authorities and politicians.

### 2. Allows smaller groups to gain power and impact

The accessibility and low cost of digital assets and platforms empower grassroots movements with no resources or organizational structure to gain traction. Small, loud, and aggressive groups who master the use of social media can influence public discourse and promote their framing and agenda. For example, the anti-migrant activists push the terms “infiltrators” to describe the asylum seekers, and the derogatory “patters” for the human rights activists who assist the migrants. (They call them “patters” to portray a hierarchical and condescending relationship with the migrants.) This form of discourse promotes a hostile environment toward the human rights activists and the migrants.

Additionally, small groups can dominate the virtual and physical space through consistent activity on both domains. Their hybrid action produces intimidation across both spaces. For example, the anti-migrant activists’ practice of inciting encounters on video made asylum seekers, community organizers, and human rights workers avoid public spaces due to fear of encountering opposing activists and then being shamed and unfairly represented online. People in the sex trade who were being photographed for social media by the gentrifiers claimed this had become another [source of assault in public spaces](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051231166443).

### 3. Incentivizes violence

The competition for attention and visibility on social media stimulates and incentivizes provocative and violent representations. Hence, violence becomes strategic and intentional. Producing spectacles of violence attracts public and media attention, increases visibility, sparks public debate, and triggers rage and engagement among online audiences. The gentrifiers circulated provocative images of people in the sex trade and drug users and the anti-migrant activists triggered violent encounters by sharing graphic videos of brawls, stabbings, and evidence of violence (involving migrants) in the streets.

   ![Collage of different screenshots showing people lying in the street after violent acts.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/epicenter/files/app-700px.png?itok=QjqKN-hK) 

 

App screenshots of posts from Facebook public profiles. Daily visual reports of “disorder” filmed and distributed by the gentrifier activists to document the situation in the streets and criticize the failure of the authorities. However, their will to represent the violence and neglect in the streets leads to activating the violence of representation toward the populations in need, filmed in their worst situations. *Courtesy of Hadas Zur* ### 4. Bypasses (human) gatekeepers and changes power relations

The [democratization of the representational power](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444813489863) in the digital age enables residents to bypass traditional gatekeepers such as journalists, editors, and publishers, and thereby reshapes the relationship between residents and the media. Residents go from being represented by the media to becoming content producers who feed the media. As one interviewee proudly said, “80 percent of the materials on South Tel Aviv comes from my phone.” He, as well as other activists, send videos and images on WhatsApp to journalists weekly.

Media analysis indeed shows that the coverage of the neighborhood shifted from focusing on asylum seekers as the source of violence to focusing on law enforcement, homelessness, and drug use as the main problem once the gentrifiers started their campaign at the end of 2019. By producing new imagery of the neighborhood, they managed to shift media coverage, change the discourse, and thus effect policy change. One positive outcome is that the municipality and the police have started directing more resources to these issues in the neighborhood. It has increased the number of social workers in the department addressing addiction and homelessness and has searched for new solutions for people in prostitution, such as housing first. (The municipality, following meetings with the residents, came out with a plan and a timetable for improving life in the neighborhood in late 2019. However, COVID-19 broke out a few months later and interrupted this process which did not return with the same intensity.)

Bypassing formal channels or gatekeepers happens in other contexts as well. For example, the police opened new WhatsApp groups with residents and business owners to supply better services. This digital communication offered informal, immediate, and accessible communication with the police but only for the [digitally connected](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10780874221096748). It allowed the gentrifiers, who are digitally skilled and demand more police intervention, to gain wider visibility for their claims and needs. Circumventing the usual complaint procedures, they would immediately and directly share images and videos of hazards, complaints, and nuisances on the platform and get a responsive action from the police.

### 5. Making it personal

In the digital arena, political struggles become more personalized, with actors targeting political figures—such as the mayor, the Minister of Internal Security, council members—and opponents on social media. Another tactic is trolling these officials virtually and physically at public events or in the streets, filming them and sharing the videos online to harass or upset them, and also directing mass-messaging campaigns for the same purpose. The nonhierarchical nature of social networks makes urban and national politicians more accessible and targetable. Politicians even have become followers of local activists who are highly visible, giving them further exposure. As an anti-migrant activist described, one day the minister of justice started following him on Twitter, and since then his followers have grown exponentially. This demonstrates how politicians and residents are interdependent in their race to gain followers, visibility, and power. The leaders of both local groups, who were ordinary citizens beforehand, became political figures and are now invited to decision-making tables in the [municipal and national scale](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051231166443).

On the other end, human rights activists who were targeted by the anti-migrant activists testified that the personal struggle directed at them affected their well-being and had a chilling effect on their activism. The question of how this affects politicians requires further research as to how this impacts their decision making, motivation, and well-being.

   ![Black and white poster of white man subtly smiling with graphics of syringes and bottles underneath. Israeli text is at the right in red and black.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/epicenter/files/poster-700px.png?itok=CmfFWlZ6) 

 

Poster from social media. In the photo, the mayor of Tel Aviv is seen with drug syringes and a call for residents to come and wait for him outside the municipal building as a part of the practices of trolling public figures and policy makers in the physical and digital spaces. *Courtesy of Hadas Zur*## The future of protest: the physical-digital bond, violence, and scale

Digital activism doesn’t replace or dismiss the importance of physical space. On the contrary, the physical and the digital are bonded and help promote one another. As exemplified above, people use the digital sphere to promote new order in the physical space. They use digital tools to gain dominance in the physical environment, intimidate others, and affect policy and regulation. The physical environment becomes a stage for performance in the digital spheres; the presence of the camera makes every act—even the smallest one—a symbolic and public act of protest, communicated to the masses in the network. The physical space is what people struggle over to determine its values and order. Yet, the digital-spatial practices of protest benefit the distinct qualities that each space offers: the publicity, immediacy, transparency, and scale of social networks and the concrete reality and materiality of public spaces.

The growing entanglement between violence and protest in the digital age is concerning. Social media algorithms [incentivize the creation](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2624911) of inflammatory content such as violent spectacles and graphic images simply because such content attracts users. Social media is a mostly [ungoverned territory](https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/the-ungovernability-of-digital-hate-culture) that allows hate to rise. Groups who do not want to participate in this type of discourse and practices are less heard and visible in these arenas. For example, the human rights organizations involved in the cases described concentrate on legislation, lobbying, and aid. Care organizations who help populations in distress are not active on social media in this manner. It is an ethical and practical question of how to use these media to promote different values.

   ![Quotation by Hadas Zur showed graphically against a black background.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8931/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/epicenter/files/quote-hzur-1200px.png?itok=3PTkXAFp) 

 

Finally, the impact of digital tools on protest and politics is not limited to the neighborhood or urban locality due to the scalability of digital networks. Similar digital practices are used in struggles on larger national and international scales; from the Arab Spring up to the current conflict in Israel and Gaza, social media has been a crucial arena for swaying public opinion. On the one hand, this case study reveals an emerging dynamic in neighborhoods in the digital age and, on the other hand, allows us to see and model macro processes unfolding globally. Additionally, it starkly reveals the disparities between groups who know how to utilize the tools of social media and those who do not, and how it especially empowers those who are using it for exploitation, racist incitement, and violence. Hence, it is worth understanding these emerging practices, dynamics, and power relations shaped by the digital transformation, as they will continue to shape our environments and our political struggles.

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## Contributor Bio

Hadas Zur is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at Bar-Ilan University. She was a 2023–2024 postdoctoral fellow in the Weatherhead Scholars Program as a Fulbright fellow. She received her PhD in the Department of Geography at Tel Aviv University. Her research interests focus on violence and digitization in the urban arena.



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Articles ](/media-type/articles)
- [ September 2024 ](/month/september-2024)
- [ Middle East & North Africa (MENA) ](/region/mena)
- [ Digitization ](/topics/digitization)
- [ social media ](/topics/social-media)
- [ Violence ](/topics/violence)
 
 

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