Paper is patient: tweets from the ‘#AnneFrank of Palestine’

Farah Baker is a teenager living in Gaza who used Twitter to report the bombings she witnessed over the summer of 2014. She has been controversially named the ‘#AnneFrank of Palestine’. This article examines how far digital and printed forms of war writing compare, and places particular emphasis on a remark Anne Frank made in, and about, her diary: ‘paper is patient’. It discusses the extent to which the expectations of readers, and the limitations of the form of the tweet, shaped what Baker was able to say. It considers how she answered the premium placed upon authenticity and immediacy in war reporting, and also the desire for a medium that would rally support and express solidarity. It also asks how far the digital meme meets the challenge of reconciling the need for expressions of commonality with the recognition of complexity. In comparison with the diary, the ability of users of social media to manipulate form, and to make their own formal choices, is constrained. The article discusses the implications these restrictions might have for both war writers and life writers.