Visual Representation of the 2023–Present Israel–Hamas War in the Public Space of Helsinki: An Analysis of Street Stickers and Posters

Alena LOCHMANNOVÁ  – Ondřej KOLÁŘ 

https://doi.org/10.53465/JAP.2025.9788022552806.306-321

 

Abstract: This qualitative case study examines how the 2023–present Israel–Hamas war is represented in the public space of Helsinki through a small set of posters and stickers. Visual material was photographed in 2024 and eight items were purposively selected for close analysis with attention to visual form and iconography, narrative framing and textual content, and spatial, linguistic and transnational context. All of the images employ an explicitly pro-Palestinian framing in which Palestinian symbols, grievances, and claims are foregrounded, while the Israeli side of the conflict remains almost entirely out of view. The analysis identifies a strong reliance on historical and decolonial references, especially the Nakba and the vocabulary of coloniser and colonised, together with emancipatory slogans such as “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The posters and stickers also mobilise distinct emotional registers that range from empathy and grief to anger and defiance and they link Helsinki streets to wider activist and diasporic networks through the combined use of English, Arabic and Finnish. The article argues that this cluster of images illustrates a selective and partisan way of framing the war in a Northern European city and discusses what this asymmetry suggests about visual politics in urban public space. Given the small and context specific sample the findings should be read as an exploratory illustration rather than as a representative picture of how the conflict is perceived in Finland.

Keywords: visual politics, public space, stickers and posters, Israel–Hamas war, Helsinki

Fulltext: PDF

Language of the paper: English

Online publication date: 23 December 2025

Pages: 306 – 321

 

ISBN: 978-80-225-5280-6 (online), 978-80-225-5279-0

ISSN: 2729-8973 (online), 2729-8981

Publisher: Bratislava University of Economics and Business, Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm

 

How to cite this conference proceedings paper (APA 7^th Edition):

Lochmannová, A., & Kolář, O, J. (2025). Visual Representation of the 2023–Present Israel–Hamas War in the Public Space of Helsinki: An Analysis of Street Stickers and Posters. In R. Štefančík (Ed.), Jazyk a politika. Na pomedzí lingvistiky a politológie X (pp. 306–321). Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm. https://doi.org/10.53465/JAP.2025.9788022552806.306-321