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[NAME of the SCHOOL] This [Thesis/Dissertation] Was Presented By Between a City Divided and an Oasis of Peace: Narratives of Identity and Belonging in the Israeli/Palestinian ConflictUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH [NAME OF THE SCHOOL] by This [thesis/dissertation] was presented Eric Reidy by Bachelor of Philosophy and Bachelor of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2012 [author’s name] It was defended on [Month date, year] and approved by [Committee Member’s Name, Academic Rank, Departmental Affiliation]Submitted to the Undergraduate Faculty of [Committee Member’s Name, Academic Rank, Departmental Affiliation] [Committee Member’s Name, Academic Rank, Global Studies Department in partial fulfillment Departmental Affiliation] [Thesis Director/Dissertation Advisor]: [Name, Academic Rank, Departmental of the requirements for the degree ofAffiliation] Bachelor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This thesis was presented by Eric Reidy It was defended on April 2, 2012 and approved by Adam B. Seligman, Professor, Religious Studies Leslie Hammond, Lecturer, History Mohammed Bamyeh, Professor, Sociology Thesis Director: David Montgomery, Assistant Professor, Anthropology ii Copyright © by Eric Reidy 2012 iii Between a City Divided and an Oasis of Peace: Narratives of Identity and Belonging in the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Eric Reidy, BPhil University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Hebron and Neve Shalom/Wahat al‐Salam present a study in contrasts within the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Hebron is, perhaps, the most deeply divided city in the conflict. It is the only Palestinian city in the West Bank with Jewish settlers living in its center and the site of constant military presence and frequent hostilities. NSWS, on the other hand, is the only intentionally shared village between Palestinians and Israelis within Israel. Additionally, the Jewish settlement of Hebron and establishment of NSWS have oddly parallel histories stemming from distinct reactions to the changing environment within Israel in the aftermath of the June 1967 War, and both communities have produced texts that seek to explain and persuade a broader public of the merits and importance of their positions and activities through the articulation of collective narratives. The narratives produced by each community articulate starkly dissimilar approaches to the construction of identity and belonging. The different approaches of the two communities hold up mirrors, from opposite positions, to the construction of identity and belonging within Israeli society and its connection to the perpetuation of the conflict. Additionally, the absence of self‐produced narratives on the part of the Palestinian community of Hebron illuminates the historic construction of Palestinians as an illegitimate people incapable of presenting itself to the outside world without the legitimating mediation of a ‘reliable’ third‐party. Finally, the contrast between the construction of identity and belonging by the iv Jewish settlers of Hebron and the community of NSWS, as well as NSWS’s activities in the field of intergroup encounter work, point to the possibility of creating third spaces within the setting of the conflict for seemingly mutually exclusive sides to negotiate new possibilities of existence outside the essentialized and exclusionary confines of the current paradigm. v Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense. ~Rumi1 1 Rūmi Jalāl al‐Dīn and Coleman Barks, The essential Rumi (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995). 36. vi Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction:................................................................................................................................2 2.0 Impressions of Place: ................................................................................................................9 2.1 Imagined Geographies: ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Hebron: A City Divided:....................................................................................................................10 2.3 Neve Shalom/Wahat al­Salam: An Oasis of Peace:..................................................................15 2.4 Separate Worlds:................................................................................................................................17 3.0 The June 1967 War:................................................................................................................ 19 3.1 Al­Quds­Jerusalem: June 1967.......................................................................................................19 3.2 Lead up to 1967: .................................................................................................................................19 3.3 Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs: ................................................................................21 3.4 Jewish Israelis: ....................................................................................................................................21 3.5 Palestinian Dislocation: ...................................................................................................................22 3.6 Palestinian Israelis:...........................................................................................................................24 3.7 The June 1967 War and a New Map:............................................................................................27 3.8 The Ambiguities of Victory and Defeat:.....................................................................................28 3.9 “Will we forget them?”: The Jewish Settlement of Hebron: ................................................34 3.10 The Sons of Abraham: Establishing Neve Shalom/Wahat al­Salam: ..............................40 3.11 Contrasting legacies: ......................................................................................................................43 4.0 Narratives of Hebron’s Jewish Settlers:........................................................................... 45 4.1 Hebron: A Space of Conflict:............................................................................................................45 4.2 History, Belonging, Memory, and the Other in Jewish Hebron:..........................................45 4.3 The Hebron Settlers in Israeli Society: .......................................................................................53 4.4 Narratives of Irreconcilable Difference: ....................................................................................57 vii 5.0 The Problematic of Palestinian Self­Presentation:...................................................... 60 5.1 Who will speak for the Palestinians? ..........................................................................................60 5.2 Recovering Palestinian Voices: .....................................................................................................61 5.3 Discerning Palestinian Perspectives:..........................................................................................67 6.0 Narratives of Neve Shalom/Wahat al­Salam:................................................................. 71 6.1 Understanding the Oasis: ................................................................................................................71 6.2 NSWS’s Self­Presentation: ...............................................................................................................72 6.3 The work of the village:....................................................................................................................74 6.4 NSWS’s Foundational ideology:.....................................................................................................76 6.5 Construction of Space at NSWS:.....................................................................................................80 6.6 The Encounter Process: ...................................................................................................................82 6.7 Reflection, Self­Criticism, and Applicability: ............................................................................85 6.8 NSWS and Israeli Society: ................................................................................................................90 7.0 Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................ 93 APPENDIX A:......................................................................................................................................100 A.1 Map of Israel/Palestine.................................................................................................................100 A.2 Israel and surrounding States after June 1967 War ...........................................................101 A.3 Territory Near NSWS .....................................................................................................................102 A.4 Hebron and Surrounding Areas.................................................................................................103 Bibliography......................................................................................................................................104 viii 1.0 Introduction:
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