Gender, race and activism : exploring the political repression of activists movements through the case of pro-Palestine activists in Brussels.

Since October 2023, Israel’s ongoing actions in Palestine have intensified global solidarity movements, with Brussels emerging as a particularly active arena. As the political capital of Europe and declared an antifascist city in 2025, Brussels has witnessed a proliferation of pro-Palestinian mobilizations over the past two years, ranging from national demonstrations and daily gatherings to artistic events and unauthorized actions such as graffiti, blockades, and direct interventions against institutions complicit with Israel’s policies. While primarily driven by civil society, these mobilizations have faced recurrent repression: police interventions, university censorship, political sanctions, and confrontations with pro-Israel actors. Such dynamics reveal both the resilience of grassroots engagement and the contested place of Palestinian solidarity within European political and social contexts. This research seeks to document, through a transversal and multi-dimensional lens, the mechanisms of repression shaping these mobilizations, while paying particular attention to the gendered dynamics within them. Central questions include: who mobilizes, how, and why; what rhetorical and organizational strategies are employed; and how these strategies vary across gendered lines. The project also investigates whether women and men activists experience repression differently, how gender influences public legitimacy, and what kinds of internal gender relations structure activist groups themselves. Methodologically, the project adopts a multidisciplinary and mixed-method approach, combining political, legal, media, and sociological analyses. Quantitative tools (mapping mobilizations and their frequency) are paired with qualitative methods (in-depth interviews, ethnographic immersion, and archival analysis), with specific attention to gendered narratives and practices. This iterative framework—rooted in grounded theory—seeks to articulate micro-level activist experiences, including gendered trajectories, with macro-level institutional and political dynamics. Drawing on four years of anthropological research and direct involvement in Brussels’ mobilizations, the researcher combines scholarly expertise with insider knowledge. This dual position enables privileged access to activist networks and a nuanced understanding of both collective practices and the gendered dimensions of repression. Ultimately, the project contributes to broader debates on social movements, gendered activism, state repression, and the intersections between civil society and institutions in contemporary Europe.