Generational (Dis)Continuities Among Palestinians and Other Arabs in Toronto

This paper investigates the generational (dis)continuity in politicization and solidarity ties among the Palestinian and other Arabs in Toronto. Building on Mannheim’s concept of generation, understood as a collective of individuals whose consciousness was influenced by transformative events at a socio-historical proximity, I analyze the political mobilization, grievances, and solidarity relations of four political generations among the Palestinian and other Arab communities in Toronto. These are: The Revolution Generation, The Oslo Generation, The “War on Terror” Generation, and more recently, the Gaza Genocide Generation. By integrating this temporal analysis that accounts for the variations of political contexts, my analysis challenges the unidirectional theorizing of generation, highlights the reciprocity in generations interactions, and shows the interplay between the different generations. My paper is based on fieldwork completed between 2014 and 2019, and then 2022-2024.