We write this piece while witnessing the human rights violations against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the violence created by the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. We recognize and share the horror and despair that many have felt as observers of this enormous, preventable suffering. At the same time, we have witnessed massive solidarity protests worldwide in the last few months. Disappointingly, we have also seen repression and the refusal of several governments (above all the United States) to follow the widely-supported demands for a ceasefire. In light of this duality of continued collective action despite despair (see Bird et al., 2024) and lack of apparent wins, our aim is to address how we understand efficacy in protest, both in the immediate and in the long term
