Zena Tahhan, a journalist, and Duha Mohesen, a designer and content creator, have turned social media into their trench —a place from which to tell Palestine’s story beyond the war headlines. Their strategies differ but complement each other. Zena exposes the daily control exerted by authorities, the army, and settlers over Palestinians. Duha embodies another form of resistance: she fights oppression by celebrating vitality—the will to live that breathes through every occupied city.
Zena works as a freelance reporter and has spent more than a decade covering daily life in the West Bank. She shares her work on Instagram (@zenatahhan) and insists that journalism has become a form of resistance against the dominant discourse. “Western mainstream media is now seeing that their framing and their narrative are being challenged by people on social media, pointing out their bias and their long-standing prejudice against Palestinians,” she explains, adding that audiovisual journalism is “the best way to get the message across.”
Through her reports and digital posts, Tahhan documents abuses committed by Israeli settlers and the restrictions that fracture the territory: constant checkpoints, endless detours, and families torn apart. “We as journalists feel that we are a target when we identify ourselves as journalists. So, in fact, I prefer not to identify myself as a journalist to the Israeli army or police. Because as soon as I do that, I become a target,” she confides.
Unlike her colleague, Duha Mohesen chooses to portray everyday life as a gesture of affirmation and hope. A sustainable fashion designer and digital creator, she uses culture, aesthetics, and daily routines as tools of symbolic resistance. “Because I’m an artist, I want to showcase Palestine through its beauty: its nature, its creative people, its culture. These people have names, stories, and dreams, just like me, just like all of us,” she says.
Across Instagram (@duhamoh), TikTok (@duhamoh3), and YouTube (@DuhaMohesen), Duha insists on the same message: “We celebrate life by our very existence. They see our sense of humor, our jokes, our food, our culture. We are enduring a genocide, yes—but our singers still sing, our schools keep teaching, and the buzz of our markets can still be heard.”
Both young women are part of GENARRATION, a project promoted by the NGO Mundubat. “The initiative aims to transform the discourse around Jerusalem and empower Palestinian youth to reclaim their voice in the digital space,” explains Neus Company. The project, she adds, arises from the need to challenge the hegemonic narrative about Palestine, “which is often told from a colonial and militaristic perspective, reducing its reality to violence and conflict. This narrative does not foster empathy or move people to take action.”
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