DOCSLIB.ORG

Palestinian Refugees This Page Intentionally Left Blank Palestinian Refugees Challenges of Repatriation and Development

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Palestinian Refugees This Page Intentionally Left Blank Palestinian Refugees Challenges of Repatriation and Development Palestinian Refugees This page intentionally left blank Palestinian Refugees Challenges of Repatriation and Development Edited by Rex Brynen and Roula El-Rifai International Development Research Centre Ottawa · Cairo · Dakar · Montevideo · Nairobi · New Delhi · Singapore Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd and the International Development Research Centre 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com International Development Research Centre PO Box 8500 Ottawa, ON KIG 3H9 Canada [email protected]/www.idrc.ca ISBN (e-book) 978–1–55250–231–0 In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan a division of St. Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © International Development Research Centre 2007 All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978 1 84511 311 7 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Typeset by Jayvee, Trivandrum, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by T J International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Contents List of figures and tables vii List of contributors x Preface and acknowledgements xvi Glossary xix 1 Introduction: Refugee repatriation, development, 1 and the challenges of Palestinian state-building Rex Brynen and Roula El-Rifai 2 Statistical data on Palestinian refugees: what 14 we know and what we don’t Hasan Abu-Libdeh 3 Living in provisional normality: the living conditions of 29 Palestinian refugees in the host countries of the Middle East Jon Hanssen-Bauer and Laurie Blome Jacobsen 4 Social capital, transnational kinship and refugee 46 repatriation process: some elements for a Palestinian sociology of return Sari Hanafi 5 The return of Palestinian refugees and displaced 79 persons: the evolution of a European Union policy on the Middle East Peace Process Mick Dumper vi · Contents 6 Refugees, repatriation, and development: 102 some lessons from recent work Rex Brynen 7 Planning in support of negotiations: the refugee issue 121 Khalil Nijem 8 Infrastructure scenarios for refugees and 132 displaced persons Nick Krafft and Ann Elwan 9 Land and housing strategies for immigrant absorption: 163 lessons from the Israeli experience Rachelle Alterman 10 Israeli settlements and the Palestinian refugee question: 218 evaluating the prospects and implications of settlement evacuation in the West Bank and Gaza – a preliminary analysis Geoffrey Aronson and Jan de Jong Notes 229 Index 237 Figures and tables 3.1 Labour force participation rates 42 3.2 Number of household members in the labour force. 43 Camp refugees 7.1 Returnee housing programme, design for the 148 West Bank and Gaza 9.1 Housing production strategies: conceptual 185 policy spectrum 9.2 Housing consumption policies: de facto spectrum 186 of subsidies and approximate periods Tables 1.1 UNRWA-registered refugees (mid-2003) 7 2.1 Estimated Palestinian refugee population by country of residence, 1998 17 2.2 Schedule of censuses and sample surveys at PCBS 18 2.3 Percentage distribution of the Palestinian population in the OPT by refugee status and region, mid-2002 19 2.4 Percentage distribution of households in the OPT by size and refugee status, 2002 20 2.5 Percentage distribution of employed persons (15+ years) by status and occupation, 2002 21 2.6 Percentage distribution of persons (15+ years) by employment status and refugee status, 2002 22 viii · Figures and tables 2.7 Households by availability of durable goods and refugee status, 2002 23 2.8 Preferred solution of refugee issue for refugees in the OPT, by region and refugee status 24 2.9 Expected solution of refugee issue for refugees in the OPT, by region and refugee status 25 2.10 Preferred solution of refugee issue for refugees living outside the OPT, by region and refugee status 26 2.11 Expected solution of refugee issue for refugees living outside the OPT, by region and refugee status 27 3.1 Fafo surveys on Palestinian refugees in the Middle East 30 3.2 Fafo population projections 32 3.3 Summary of good and poor health and infrastructure outcomes 36 3.4 Percentage of women receiving pre-natal care by a skilled attendant (doctor, nurse, trained midwife) 37 3.5 Summary of good and poor maternal and child health outcomes 38 3.6 Summary of good and poor education outcomes 40 3.7 Summary of poverty rates among camp and gathering refugees 44 4.1 Financial contribution of the Palestinian diaspora 61 4.2 Scenarios taking into account only socio-economic factors 72 6.1 Costs of sample refugee absorption programme 117 8.1 Distribution of registered refugee population 135 8.2 Options for upgrading or new development of housing and infrastructure for refugees and displaced people 138 8.3 Estimated costs for on-site public and social infrastructure 142 8.4 Indicative costs for housing and land 144 8.5 Vacant expansion areas and public land in study locations 136 8.6 Available public land in the new town sites 148 8.7 Potential for accommodating new residents on public land in or near existing towns 149 Figures and tables ·ix 8.8 Potential for accommodating new residents on public land in new towns 150 8.9 Summary of illustrative infrastructure cost estimates for new residents in study areas 152 8.10 Illustrative cost estimates of infrastructure for new residents in study areas, including costs of upgrading existing water/wastewater infrastructure for existing residents 154 8.11 Illusrative cost estimates of infrastructure and housing for new residents in study areas 156 9.1 Major periods of immigration to Israel, by number of immigrants, existing population and GDP per capita 166 9.2 The evolution of public land policies as related to immigrant absorption 176 9.3 The outputs and outcomes of the housing strategies in key policy periods 212 Contributors Dr Hassan Abu-Libdeh Dr Hassan Abu-Libdeh served as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs with the Palestinian National Authority. An expert in socio- demographic statistics, Dr Abu-Libdeh was previously Founder and President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). He received his B.Sc. in Mathematics from Birzeit University in 1979, his M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics from Stanford University (1981), his M.Sc. in Applied Statistics and a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Cornell University (1988). He also served as a member of the Board of Governors and Deputy Managing Director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PEC- DAR), a board member Al-Quds Open University, the Palestinian Economic Policy Research Institute, the Policy Research Initiative for Palestine, the Council for Higher Education, and the Higher Council for Children and Motherhood. He served as a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC), in charge of planning and implementing the first ever general and political elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (January 1996). He is currently a member of the Palestinian National Council (1996). Since the beginning of the peace process with the Madrid conference in 1991, he was appointed to several dele- gations to bilateral negotiations and multilateral working groups. Dr Rachelle Alterman Professor Rachelle Alterman is an urban planner and lawyer who holds the David Azrieli Chair in Town Planning/Architecture at the Contributors ·xi Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She holds degrees in social science and city planning from the University of Manitoba, a Ph.D.in planning from the Technion, and a law degree from Tel-Aviv University. Dr Alterman is internationally known for her cross- country comparative research on planning law and property rights, urban and housing policy, and planning theory. She has published extensively in international academic journals and is the author of many books, among them Planning in the Face of Crisis: Land Use, Housing, and Mass Immigration in Israel (Routledge, 2002), and National- Level Planning in Democratic Countries, (Liverpool University Press, 2001). Dr Alterman has been invited as a visiting professor at leading American and Dutch graduate planning programmes and has served as consultant to the World Bank and the UNDP.Professor Alterman is in the process of founding the world’s first international academic association of Planning and Law. Geoffrey Aronson Geoffrey Aronson is Director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC and Editor of the Foundation’s bi-monthly Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories. He is author of From Sideshow to Center Stage: US Policy towards Egypt and Israel (Lynne Rienner, 1986) and Israel, Palestinians and the Intifada: Creating Facts on the West Bank (Routledge, 1990) as well as numerous news- paper, magazine, and journal articles on a wide range of Middle East issues. He writes regularly in the USA, the Arab world, and for European publications, and has consulted for both the World Bank and the UN. Dr Rex Brynen Dr Rex Brynen is Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Canada. He is author, editor, or coeditor of eight books on Middle East politics including A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza (USIP Press, 2000) and Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Westview, 1990). Professor Brynen has served as a member of the Policy Staff of Foreign Affairs Canada, and as a consultant to the Canadian International Development Agency, the International Development Research Centre, and the World Bank.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Palestinian Refugees: Adiscussion ·Paper
    Palestinian Refugees: ADiscussion ·Paper Prepared by Dr. Jan Abu Shakrah for The Middle East Program/ Peacebuilding Unit American Friends Service Committee l ! ) I I I ' I I I I I : Contents Preface ................................................................................................... Prologue.................................................................................................. 1 Introduction . .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2 The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem .. .. .. .. .. 3 • Identifying Palestinian Refugees • Counting Palestinian Refugees • Current Location and Living Conditions of the Refugees Principles: The International Legal Framework .... .. ... .. .. ..... .. .. ....... ........... 9 • United Nations Resolutions Specific to Palestinian Refugees • Special Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law • Challenges to the International Legal Framework Proposals for Resolution of the Refugee Problem ...................................... 15 • The Refugees in the Context of the Middle East Peace Process • Proposed Solutions and Principles Espoused by Israelis and Palestinians Return Statehood Compensation Resettlement Work of non-governmental organizations................................................. 26 • Awareness-Building and Advocacy Work • Humanitarian Assistance and Development • Solidarity With Right of Return and Restitution Conclusion .... ..... ..... ......... ... ....... ..... ....... ....... ....... ... ......... .. .. ... .. ............
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction Really, 'Human Dust'?
    Notes INTRODUCTION 1. Peck, The Lost Heritage of the Holocaust Survivors, Gesher, 106 (1982) p.107. 2. For 'Herut's' place in this matter, see H. T. Yablonka, 'The Commander of the Yizkor Order, Herut, Shoa and Survivors', in I. Troen and N. Lucas (eds.) Israel the First Decade, New York: SUNY Press, 1995. 3. Heller, On Struggling for Nationhood, p. 66. 4. Z. Mankowitz, Zionism and the Holocaust Survivors; Y. Gutman and A. Drechsler (eds.) She'erit Haplita, 1944-1948. Proceedings of the Sixth Yad Vas hem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem 1991, pp. 189-90. 5. Proudfoot, 'European Refugees', pp. 238-9, 339-41; Grossman, The Exiles, pp. 10-11. 6. Gutman, Jews in Poland, pp. 65-103. 7. Dinnerstein, America and the Survivors, pp. 39-71. 8. Slutsky, Annals of the Haganah, B, p. 1114. 9. Heller The Struggle for the Jewish State, pp. 82-5. 10. Bauer, Survivors; Tsemerion, Holocaust Survivors Press. 11. Mankowitz, op. cit., p. 190. REALLY, 'HUMAN DUST'? 1. Many of the sources posed problems concerning numerical data on immi­ gration, especially for the months leading up to the end of the British Mandate, January-April 1948, and the first few months of the state, May­ August 1948. The researchers point out that 7,574 immigrant data cards are missing from the records and believe this to be due to the 'circumstances of the times'. Records are complete from September 1948 onward, and an important population census was held in November 1948. A parallel record­ ing system conducted by the Jewish Agency, which continued to operate after that of the Mandatory Government, provided us with statistical data for immigration during 1948-9 and made it possible to analyse the part taken by the Holocaust survivors.
    [Show full text]
  • Aliyah and Settlement Process?
    Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel HBI SERIES ON JEWISH WOMEN Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Joyce Antler, Associate Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor The HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, pub- lishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fills major gaps in Jewish Studies and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com and www.upne.com/series/BSJW.html. Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, editors, Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel: Life History, Politics, and Culture Tova Hartman, Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation Anne Lapidus Lerner, Eternally Eve: Images of Eve in the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Modern Jewish Poetry Margalit Shilo, Princess or Prisoner? Jewish Women in Jerusalem, 1840–1914 Marcia Falk, translator, The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible Sylvia Barack Fishman, Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage Avraham Grossman, Pious and Rebellious: Jewish Women in Medieval Europe Iris Parush, Reading Jewish Women: Marginality and Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society Shulamit Reinharz and Mark A. Raider, editors, American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise Tamar Ross, Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism Farideh Goldin, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman Elizabeth Wyner Mark, editor, The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite Rochelle L.
    [Show full text]
  • ACROSS the CULTURAL DIVIDE: IMMIGRANT ORIENTAL JEWISH CHILDREN MEET ISRAELI FOLKSONG Shai Burstyn
    URBAN PEOPLE | LIDÉ MĚSTA 17 | 2015 | 2 ACROSS THE CULTURAL DIVIDE: IMMIGRANT ORIENTAL JEWISH CHILDREN MEET ISRAELI FOLKSONG Shai Burstyn Abstract: Many songs created in pre-State Israel incorporated certain Oriental elements, but their overall stylistic slant, like that of other contemporaneous local cultural products, was largely Occidental. The radical demographic change caused by a massive immigration of Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries to the new state created enormous pressure to absorb the newcomers both physically and culturally. The ensuing melting pot policy declared by the young state as its supreme national task proved unsuccess - ful. This failure had many reasons, not least of them the condescending attitude of the absorbing establishment and its inability to fathom the socio- cultural processes involved in such a colossal national project. Against this background, I examine in this article the encounter of immigrant Oriental children with Israeli folksong, mainly from the perspective of musical percep - tion and cultural conditioning. In the 1930s and 1940s, ingrained musical perceptual habits made European-oriented audiences insert variants into the newly composed modal, mildly Oriental songs they used to sing. In the 1950s, however, the musical perceptual habits of immigrant Oriental children hindered them from embracing Israeli folksongs created mainly by composers of Eastern European origin. Keywords: Israeli folksong; immigration; melting pot; cross-cultural music perception 317 ARTICLES מִ חּזְרָ ָאבִ יא זַרְ עֶ ָך ּומִ מַ ּעֲרָ באֲ קַ בְ ּצֶ ָךּ (ישעיה מג:ה) I will bring thy seed from the east And gather you from the west (Isaiah 43: 5) These words of the prophet Isaiah reverberated in Israel for over a decade after the establishment of the state in 1948.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nakba: 70 Years ON
    May 2018 Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib Photo: A I THE NAKBA: 70 YEARS ON 70 Years of Dispossession, Displacement and Denial of Rights, but also ASS 70 Years of Steadfastness, Self-Respect and Struggle for Freedom and Justice P INTRODUCTION 2018 is the year where Palestinians all over the world remember the 70th anniversary of the Nakba - 70 Years in which they had their civil and national rights trampled on, sacrificed lives and livelihoods, had their land stolen, their property destroyed, promises broken, were injured, insulted and humiliated, endured oppression, dispersion, imprisonment and torture, and witnessed numerous attempts to partition their homeland and divide their people. However, despite all past and ongoing land confiscation, settlement construction, forcible displacements and rights denials, the Zionist movement has failed to empty the country of its indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, whose number has meanwhile increased to an extent that it is about to exceed that of the Jews. Despite all repressions at the hands of the occupier, despite all attempts at erasing or distorting their history and memory, and despite all political setbacks and failed negotiations, Palestinians are still steadfast on their land and resisting occupation. The 1948 Nakba remains the root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and will continue to fuel the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination. As clearly reflected in the ‘Great March of Return’ which began on 30 March 2018 along the Gaza border fence, the Palestinians will not relinquish their historical and legal right of return to their homeland nor their demand that Israel acknowledges Contents: its moral and political responsibility for this ongoing tragedy and the gross injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people.
    [Show full text]
  • MB-01 COVER.Indd
    SHANAH TOVAH uc,f, vcuy vbak INFLUENCERS Plus: Fiction by Ella Burakowski M THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS B2 [ RH 5776 ] SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 Supreme Court judge broke new ground A colourful life Employment, she coined the term and in the spotlight the concept of “employment equity,” as a strategy to remedy workplace dis- arbara Amiel has been called a lot of crimination faced by women, Aborigin- B things, but boring shouldn’t be one of al Peoples, people with disabilities and them. visible minorities. Known for her outspoken, politically That same year she was the first conservative column in Maclean’s maga- woman chair of the Ontario Labour Re- zine as much as for her marriage to for- lations Board and later became the first mer media baron Conrad Black, Amiel is Barbara Amiel Rosalie Silberman Abella woman in the British Commonwealth to a British Canadian journalist, writer and head a law reform commission. socialite. In 2001, Amiel made a splash when she osalie Silberman Abella, the first In 2004, she was appointed to the Su- Born in England, Amiel moved with her reported in the British weekly magazine, R Jewish woman appointed to the Su- preme Court, where she has written de- family to Hamilton, Ont., as an adolescent, The Spectator, that the then-French am- preme Court of Canada has been shat- cisions on family law, employment law, but spent years living on her own and bassador to Britain had called Israel “that tering the glass ceiling her entire life. youth criminal justice and human rights. holding various jobs to support herself af- shitty little country” to Black at a private Born to Holocaust survivor parents in She continues to be involved in issues ter her mother and stepfather pushed her dinner party he was hosting.
    [Show full text]
  • CEPS Middle East & Euro-Med Project
    CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN POLICY WORKING PAPER NO. 6 STUDIES JULY 2003 Searching for Solutions PALESTINIAN REFUGEES HOW CAN A DURABLE SOLUTION BE ACHIEVED? TANJA SALEM This Working Paper is published by the CEPS Middle East and Euro-Med Project. The project addresses issues of policy and strategy of the European Union in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wider issues of EU relations with the countries of the Barcelona Process and the Arab world. Participants in the project include independent experts from the region and the European Union, as well as a core team at CEPS in Brussels led by Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci. Support for the project is gratefully acknowledged from: • Compagnia di San Paolo, Torino • Department for International Development (DFID), London. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which he is associated. ISBN 92-9079-429-1 CEPS Middle East & Euro-Med Project Available for free downloading from the CEPS website (http://www.ceps.be) Copyright 2003, CEPS Centre for European Policy Studies Place du Congrès 1 • B-1000 Brussels • Tel: (32.2) 229.39.11 • Fax: (32.2) 219.41.41 e-mail: [email protected] • website: http://www.ceps.be CONTENTS 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Background.....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • What Dreams Are Made of Are What Dreams
    2012 1971 what dreams are made of are what dreams 2012 AnnUAL REPORT THE JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL Taking care of tomorrow... today 1971 2012 message from the president and executive director A year ago, we talked a lot about dreams – yours, ours and those Our visioning process has delivered what we hoped it would – who rely on them to live the quality of Jewish life that was built measurable results to stimulate community growth and a on the dreams of others. Our 40th anniversary has provided vibrant future. We are proud to be a partner of the Federation numerous occasions to realize how far we have come. Today, GEn J initiative to build a stronger and better community through we have much to report on the dream front. identity-building programs that support access to quality Jewish education, the camping experience and outreach and engagement Last year, we issued a record-number of 4,500 cheques to almost opportunities. 500 organizations. We distributed almost 24 million in funds to hundreds of social service, educational, religious and community We are reminded every day of the goals simply stated 40 years organizations on behalf of our donors. That is staggering. ago by Arthur Pascal z”l and other leaders like Milly Lande z”l and Boris Levine z”l, who we lost last year, to provide a safety net for It wasn’t all about the money. It was about doing good and helping the future and enhance the quality of Jewish life. others to do good. And in doing that, we fulfilled dreams – for our donors and their beneficiaries.
    [Show full text]
  • Camp Evolution and Israel's Creation
    Camp evolution and Israel’s creation: Between ‘state of emergency’ and ‘emergence of state’ Irit Katz, Centre for Urban Conflicts Research, The Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, Girton College, UK. Political Geography 2016 ***Please do not circulate and do not cite without the permission of the author*** ABSTRACT This paper examines the central role of the camp in the early Israeli state period and its spatial and geopolitical evolution. Unlike official Israeli history, which presents the immigrant transit camps as an inevitable improvised response to the unexpected problem of mass immigration, I examine the camp as a strategic modern biopolitical instrument that allowed for the state’s profound geopolitical changes and was itself altered according to them. The paper analyses the ways in which the camp facilitated the creation of Israel as a state formed by two seemingly contradictory, but in fact complementary, conditions: on one hand, a product of a chaotic ‘state of emergency’ and a form of ‘ordered disorder’ created by mass immigration, and on the other hand, a product of a comprehensive, tightly controlled modernist project combining physical planning and social engineering. This duality reveals the role of these camps as spatial ‘black holes’ which swallowed the contradiction between the radical geopolitical transformation and the rational self-image of the Israeli state-building project. The evolving and hybrid typologies of the camp in Israel’s pre-state and early-state periods expose it as a versatile instrument, highlighting the need for informed spatial and geographical genealogies of the camp in order to illuminate its various transformations.
    [Show full text]
  • Rights in Principle – Rights in Practice, Revisiting the Role of International Law in Crafting Durable Solutions
    Rights in Principle - Rights in Practice Revisiting the Role of International Law in Crafting Durable Solutions for Palestinian Refugees Terry Rempel, Editor BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights, Bethlehem RIGHTS IN PRINCIPLE - RIGHTS IN PRACTICE REVISITING THE ROLE OF InternatiONAL LAW IN CRAFTING DURABLE SOLUTIONS FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES Editor: Terry Rempel xiv 482 pages. 24 cm ISBN 978-9950-339-23-1 1- Palestinian Refugees 2– Palestinian Internally Displaced Persons 3- International Law 4– Land and Property Restitution 5- International Protection 6- Rights Based Approach 7- Peace Making 8- Public Participation HV640.5.P36R53 2009 Cover Photo: Snapshots from «Go and See Visits», South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Palestine (© BADIL) Copy edit: Venetia Rainey Design: BADIL Printing: Safad Advertising All rights reserved © BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights December 2009 P.O. Box 728 Bethlehem, Palestine Tel/Fax: +970 - 2 - 274 - 7346 Tel: +970 - 2 - 277 - 7086 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.badil.org iii CONTENTS Abbreviations ....................................................................................vii Contributors ......................................................................................ix Foreword ..........................................................................................xi Foreword .........................................................................................xiv Introduction ......................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • When the Carob Tree Was the Border
    When the Carob Tree Was the Border: On autonomy and Palestinian practices of figuring it out† Linda Quiquivix* Introduction “How did they know where the borders were?” I ask, “If people didn’t have maps, how did they know?” Ahmed Al-Noubani opens his arm out and points. “It was that carob tree,” he says, “to that carob tree.” “Neighbors,” he shrugs. They figured it out. Al-Noubani and I are in his office at Bir Zeit University’s geography department, discussing histories of Palestinian map-making.1 Palestinians did not really start making maps, he says, until after Oslo.2 When the leadership first began negotiating with Israel over sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian side had no maps of its own. In fact, the first maps of the country that Yasser Arafat signed in the negotiations were ones that belonged to, and had been fully drafted by, the Israeli side.3 Recognizing the new urgency to map, the Palestinian leadership would later † I presented a draft of this work under the title “Defending the Palestinian Commons” at the Historical Materialism Conference in New York City, 26-28 April 2013. The final version benefited greatly from the discussion and I thank Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro for arranging our gathering there. In preparing this article for publication, I must also acknowledge the centrality of my sustained discussions with Alvaro Reyes, Denis Wood, Yousuf Al-Bulushi, Mayssun Sukarie, Ahmad Al-Nimer, and Salim Tamari on many of the topics I address here. My conversations with Nidal Al-Azzraq in Aida Refugee Camp have shaped much of my thinking on Palestine and cartography.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnicity and Education: Nation-Building, State-Formation, and the Construction of the Israeli Educational System
    ETHNICITY AND EDUCATION: NATION-BUILDING, STATE-FORMATION, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ISRAELI EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM GAL LEVY A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR PHD DEGREE THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2002 2 ABSTRACT The dissertation is about the ethnicisation of social relations in Israeli society and its reflection and manifestation in education. My main aim in this study is twofold: first, to offer a critical account of the development of ethnic relations in Israeli society and to examine the role ethnicity has played in the processes of nation-building and state-formation; and, second, to propose a history of the educational system in Israel which accounts for the role of education in creating and perpetuating ethnic identities. The first part of the dissertation consists of a critical reading of existing analyses of ethnicity in Israel. Its aim is to bring the state into the analysis of ethnic relations and demonstrate that such an approach is vital to the understanding of ethnic relations and identities. In the following part, I trace back the processes of nation-building and state-formation demonstrating how governments and major political actors became involved in the formation and re-production of ethnic boundaries within Israeli society. In these two parts, I am arguing against both functionalist and critical accounts of ethnicity in Israel, which tend to ‘essentialise’ ethnic categories and thus deny the political nature of ethnicity and its power as an organising basis for political action. In the third and major part of the dissertation, I seek to re-construct the history of the Israeli educational system within an understanding of ethnicity as a structural feature of state-society relations.
    [Show full text]