Gaza’s social media activists are a potent force for change in the fight against racism

A Black Lives Matter protest in London in 2020. The photographer, Wayne Campbell, sees his work as part of a black activist tradition, noting that as a child in Brixton in the 1970s, ‘being black was the only reason one needed to be stopped by police.’ Photograph: Wayne 'Wacfoo' Campbell

History is often written by ordinary people dedicated to a cause in the pursuit of peace and justice. Israel’s reign of terror over Palestine since the 7 October attack by Hamas has seen the rise to prominence of several such activists using social media to highlight the graphic truth of the horrific suffering there.

Railing against the state propaganda machines, people such as Motaz Azaiza, Bisan Owda, Plestia Alaqad, Hind Khoudary and the veteran journalist Wael al-Dahdouh have brought shocking, heart-rending images straight to our phones. Pictures of weeping parents kneeling over the tiny, bloodied corpses of children have stirred up deep anger against Hamas, the Israeli government and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and at the complicity of the US, UK and EU governments.