The Hind Rajab Foundation
Reviewed By: Max Brawer, Xavier McCormick
Review Date: April 1, 2025
Site Link: https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/
Archive Link: https://archive.ph/fwHdb
Keywords: Activism and Advocacy, Political Science, Postcolonial Studies, History, Law and Legal Studies, Justice, Genocide Studies, Accountability, Legal Action, Crimes Against Humanity, Israel, Palestine
Data Sources:
- Video documentaries hosted on YouTube
- Multimedia (text and photo) works of journalism (posts, stories)
- Legal documentation
Processes:
- Stories are told in the editorial voice of the foundation and its writers
- Images are selected one per story and curated along with text
- News stories are collected and presented in curated, standardized format
- Photographs are stitched together (and in some cases appear to be AI generated)
Presentation:
The Hind Rajab Foundation project is a web-based news site that reads like a series of blogs with an RSS feed. Users can browse selected posts with titles, images and words (authored by the foundation) and occasionally watch YouTube videos within a set of categories. Beyond the foundation homepage there are links to social media platforms where the foundation continues its curation. The landing page tells the story in English of the origin of the Foundation and the aims of their work, detailing the core story of Hind Rajab that motivated their work.
Digital Tools Used:
- PHP blog template
- Content management by Weebly
- References to a MySQL DB
- Social media platform embeds (X, Instagram, etc.)
- AWS hosting
- Vimeo & YouTube
Languages:
- English
- On Instagram and social media channels, some content is tailored for:
- German
- Dutch
- Spanish
- French
- German
Review
The Hind Rajab Foundation emerged as a digital advocacy and legal justice initiative in direct response to the 2023 Israeli assault on Gaza. Named in memory of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed alongside her family in an event emblematic of the broader atrocities in Gaza, the foundation operates as both a tribute and a vehicle for international legal accountability. It is a new project, born from political urgency rather than the digitization of analog content, and affiliated with the March 30 Movement. Its mission is clear: to break the global culture of impunity surrounding crimes against Palestinians through documentation, legal filings, and public advocacy. Unlike many traditional digital archives, this project does not rely on institutional grants or academic infrastructure; rather, it reflects a grassroots legal framework, committed to justice, accountability, and dignity.
The site functions as a curated digital platform organized into several content categories, including legal updates, editorials, news briefs, and multimedia. Each story is accompanied by a selected image, often deeply emotional and starkly illustrative, and is written in the voice of the foundation. Many posts document acts of violence or identify accused perpetrators, while others center on the symbolic significance of figures like Hind or respond directly to international events. In some cases, video content hosted via YouTube and Vimeo provides documentary evidence or memorial storytelling. The site links to the foundation's broader social media presence, where content is translated into multiple languages to reach audiences across Europe and beyond. The editorial structure of the site is intentional and direct—it is designed to inform, rally, and pursue action, rather than to serve as an encyclopedic or academic archive.
From a digital memory standpoint, the site is powerful, but there are aspects that could be refined. Some stories are underdeveloped, with minimal sourcing or unexplained references to legal structures. While the editorial tone is clear and cohesive, there is little opportunity for user engagement or community input. The visual and interactive experience could be deepened: features such as a browsable archive of cases, embedded timelines, or maps would go a long way toward making the platform feel more dynamic and lasting. Similarly, the inclusion of a feed for on-the-ground visual content—photographs or stories submitted by Palestinians and allies—could create a stronger sense of participation and immediacy, while helping distribute narrative control more broadly.
Still, the Hind Rajab Foundation succeeds in its immediate aims. It makes its position unmistakable, and it does so with clarity and urgency. In a digital landscape where Palestinian voices are often buried, suppressed, or denied legitimacy, this project asserts a powerful counternarrative. Its effectiveness lies in the directness of its storytelling, its alignment with legal structures, and its refusal to separate memory from action. As the foundation continues to evolve, its potential lies not only in naming injustice but in deepening its capacity for participatory justice—welcoming more contributors, expanding its visual archive, and building out the connective tissue between legal strategy and historical remembrance.
How are the collaborative aspects reflected in the project and are there elements that work particularly well?
The Hind Rajab Foundation reflects collaboration through its integration of legal advocacy, digital storytelling, and grassroots organizing. While the site doesn’t list specific partners, its affiliation with the March 30 Movement and use of multimedia platforms point to behind-the-scenes coordination across disciplines. The project combines legal research, journalism, and media strategy to build a compelling narrative that’s both informative and actionable.
Though it doesn’t yet include public contribution features like donation or testimony submission, its shareable content and symbolic focus on Hind invite global audiences to participate by witnessing, amplifying, and supporting the cause. This public-facing strategy is where its collaborative impact is most visible.
Do you see an opportunity for collaboration that would be helpful to the project?
As mentioned in the previous section, crowdsourcing information could be helpful to help scale the project. Because the work is published by a single group from their point of view, the reader may also be interested in seeing non-editorial viewpoints from people on the ground in Israel and Palestine. A visual feed of photography, for example, could add color to the stories and their limited multimedia.