DOI: 10.34230/fiad.1767434 ISSN: 2587-2532

Rhythms of Resistance in Palestine: Political Socialization, Ideology and Cultural Performativity within Hamas Anthems

Dalal Bajes, Ahmet Yusuf Özdemir
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This study examines the role of political anthems (nasheeds) in the processes of political socialization, identity formation, and cultural resistance within Palestinian Islamic movements, with a particular focus on Hamas. Drawing on a dataset of one hundred anthems produced and circulated between 1980 and 2012, the article investigates how these songs function as vehicles for transmitting ideology, cultivating collective identities, and mobilizing political action across generations of supporters. The study asks three central questions: How do anthems contribute to political socialization within Islamic movements in Palestine? What ideological and emotional themes do they communicate? And how do they reflect the historical evolution of Hamas’s political narratives and modes of resistance? Methodologically, the research employs qualitative content analysis, combining thematic coding with close textual reading of lyrics. Twenty-two thematic categories were identified and analyzed, while supplementary interviews with poets and performers provided contextual insights into the production and circulation of nasheeds. The analysis is informed by Judith Butler’s concept of performativity and reiteration, as well as Gayatri Spivak’s reflections on representation and political voice. The findings demonstrate that Hamas-affiliated anthems function not merely as cultural expressions but as performative spaces in which political subjectivities are produced and reproduced. Recurring themes include Islamic collective identity, attachment to land and Jerusalem, exile and return, martyrdom, imprisonment, resistance, and political participation. Through repeated discursive and emotional patterns, the songs cultivate a resistant subjectivity that links faith, sacrifice, and national liberation. At the same time, they serve as mechanisms through which collective memory, ideological commitments, and emotional attachments are transmitted across generations. The article argues that political anthems should be understood not only as reflections of resistance but also as active instruments in the construction of collective identities and the performative reproduction of political struggle under conditions of occupation and settler colonialism..

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