DOCSLIB.ORG

Gender and Nation Building in the Middle East

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Elise G. Young is a Middle East historian and Professor in the History Department at Westfield State University. She has conducted research in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan, and has written extensively on women and modern nation-state building in those regions. She is the author of Keepers of the History: Women and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, an innovative feminist historiog- raphy of the war over Palestine. GENDER AND NATION BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE EAST The Political Economy of Health from Mandate Palestine to Refugee Camps in Jordan ElisE G. YounG Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2012 Elise G. Young The right of Elise G. Young to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. 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. Library of Modern Middle East Studies 114 ISBN 978 1 84885 481 9 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements x Preface 1 History as Spiritual Science and Medicine 1 Awakening 4 Palestine in Geo-Political Perspective 5 When History Is Sung By Griot(te), It Is a Medicine 7 1 Introduction 10 Approach and Methodology: ‘Knowledge’ in the Era of the Modern Nation-state 13 Feminist Epistemology and Modernization Theory: Transmission of Knowledges 22 Epistemology and Oral History Methodology 25 Feminist Theory and Middle East Studies 29 Research Summary 31 State of the Field: Research on Jordan 34 Chapter Outline 35 2 Imperialism and Health: Political Implications of Malaria Eradication Campaigns in Palestine and Transjordan, 1919–1939 47 An Imperial Pursuit: Malaria Eradication and Land Reclamation 47 Race, Gender, Class Politics of Malaria Eradication 50 The Political Economy of Health and Rehabilitation 54 vi Gender and nation BuildinG in the Middle east Mighty Reactions and Anti-Malaria Measures: A Testing Ground 61 Long-Term Effects 66 Conclusions: Disease Control and/or the Imposition of Imperial Politics? 69 3 Between Daya and Doctor: A Formidable Abyss? 77 Dangerous Hags and Sanitized Hovels: Midwifery and Modernity 79 Reorganization/Regulation/Specialization 85 A Formidable Journey: Midwives in Refugee Camps in Jordan 96 Conclusions: Doctors Training Dayat or Dayat Training Doctors? 105 4 ‘The Camp of Return’ – Health and Palestinian Women Refugees in Jordan, 1950–1995 109 Refugee or Freedom Fighter? Identity Politics and Health in Exile 111 The Political Economy of Refugee Health 121 Women Talk About Health: Al – Ghurbah – The Disaster 127 From Jabal al-Hussein Camp to the Ministry: Poverty/ Reproductive Health/Resistance 133 Conclusions: The Necessity for Cooperation Among Women Worldwide 146 Notes 149 Additional Resources 163 Bibliography 168 Index 186 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Areas of Palestine Under the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. Map. Dartmouth College: Government 46: Middle East Maps. http:// www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/pal-sykes-picot. gif (accessed September 28, 2010). 39 Figure 2 Middle East. Map. NationMaster. http://www. nationmaster. 40 Figure 3 Administrative Map: Jordan. Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. http://www. jordanembassyus.org/new/aboutjordan/map. shtml (accessed September 30, 2010). 41 Figure 4 Jordan Economic Activity Map. from the CIA Atlas of the Middle East 1993, available at: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_middle_ east/jordan_land.jpg (accessed October 3, 2010). 42 Figure 5 Jordan Political Map. Map. Maps of the World. http://www.mapsofworld.com/jordan/jordan- political-map.html (accessed September 30, 2010). 43 Figure 6 Palestinian Mandate of the San Remo Conference, 1920 – 1922. Map. Dartmouth College: Government 46: Middle East Maps. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/ pal-mandate-sremo-1922.gif (accessed September 27, 2010). 44 viii Gender and nation BuildinG in the Middle east Figure 7 Palestine and Transjordan After 1922. Map. Dartmouth College: Government 46 – Middle East Maps. http://www.dartmouth. edu/~gov46/pal-transjrdn-1922.gif (accessed September 28, 2010). 45 Figure 8 Palestine 1946: District and District Centers During the Mandate Period. Map. Palestine Remembered. http://www. palestineremembered.com/Acre/Maps/ Story583.html (accessed September 30, 2010). 46 Figure 9 ‘Palestinians Fleeing Gaza 1948.’ 1948. Unknown. Body on the Line: The Ongoing Nakbas. http://bodyontheline.files.wordpress. com/2009/05/palestinian-flight-ghaza-1948.jpg (accessed October 1, 2010). 71 Figure 10 BADIL. ‘al-Hussein Refugee Camp.’ 2010. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. http://www. badil.org/en/photo-gallery/category/15-al- husein (accessed October 1, 2010). 72 Figure 11 ‘Zenko Houses in Baqa’a Camp 2008 – Jordan.’ 2010. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Redidency and Refugee Rights. http://www.badil.org/en/photo-gallery/ category/17-baqaa (accessed October 1, 2010). 72 Figure 12 ‘Overcrowded Baqa’a refugee camp houses – Jordan.’ 2010. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. http:// www.badil.org/en/photo-gallery/category/17- baqaa (accessed October 1, 2010). 72 Figure 13 ‘Baqa’a Camp Health Center – Jordan.’ 2010. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. http://www. badil.org/en/photo-gallery/category/17-baqaa (accessed October 1, 2010). 73 list of illustrations ix Figure 14 ‘Palestinian Refugees in Al-Hussein’s Camp – Jordan.’ 2010. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. http://www.badil.org/en/photo-gallery/ category/15-al-husein (accessed October 1, 2010). 74 Figure 15 ‘Baqa’a refugee camp in Jordan 1970s.’ Nehmeh, G. UNRWA Archives. UNRWA Refugees Conditions – Jordan. http://www. unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=555 (accessed October 1, 2010). 74 Figure 16 ‘Woman and Child in Neirab refugee camp, Syria.’ UNRWA Photo Galleries: Camp Life . http://www.unrwa.org/photogallery.php?cat_ id=50 (accessed October 1, 2010). From the UNRWA web site photo caption: ‘The camp community suffers from high unemployment and poverty. The strain of this has led to a high divorce rate.’ All Rights Reserved. 75 Figure 17 ‘Meeting between Israeli and Palestinian midwives.’ Midwives for Peace. August 21, 2009. Madre: Pressroom: http:// www.madre.org/images/uploads/ images/1251411642_ProjectUpdate_Palestine_ MidwivesforPeace2009-08_1.JPG (accessed October 1, 2010). 76 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR) for a USIA/ACOR Fellowship, January–May 1995, in Amman, Jordan. Special thanks to all of the staff at ACOR. Thanks to the Jordan Staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for providing the initial tours of Jabal al Hussein and Baqa’a Refugee Camps. I am indebted to Chaya Shalom, Yumna Abu Hassan, Dr. Salwa Najjab-Khatib and Dr. Rita Giacaman, without whose dedica- tion and guidance this project could not have been carried out. Many thanks for their warm friendship and hospitality. Special thanks to Hala Hani Abu-Hijeh, Halla Salem, Ruth Tell, Raeda Al Zuabi, Firas Daraiseh, Umm Mohammad, Dr. Zeid Hamzeh, Ruba Kana’an, Hajj Anisa Shokar, Dr. Kamal Salibi, women of Jabal al-Hussein and Baqa’a refugee camps, and the Jordanian Women’s Union, Amman, Jordan, for interviews, for providing me with the opportunity to conduct my research, and for sharing their wisdom. A year as a Research Associate at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 1995–96, provided an office space and community for writing and presenting this research. I gratefully acknowledge Dr. Mary C. Wilson, Dr. Yvonne Y. Haddad, Dr. Janice G. Raymond, and Dr. Joyce Berkman for guidance and support throughout the years of this project, and without whom this work could not have been completed. Thank you to Dr. Elaine Hagopian and Dr. Manal Hamzeh for their generous sharing of wisdom and time. Special thanks to Margaret Holt, Janet Heindal, Joe Forbes, Jenine Mailand, Shanta Rao, acknowledgments xi Dianne Johnson, Anita Weigel, Michael Holroyde, Arkie and George Markham, Dr. Meyer Weinberg, Dr. Karen Pfeifer, Dr. Leila Ahmed, Dr. Ahmad Dallal, and Dr. Max Pepper. Gratitude and thanks to Maurice and Sylvia Young, and to Dr. Enid B. Young and Dr. Ilene T. Lipari, for their unconditional love, generosity, and unwavering support and inspiration throughout the years during which this project was conceived and carried out, and beyond. Appreciation to the late Salvatore L. Lipari, Quaker and Principal for many years of Great Neck South Middle School, for his encouragement and for his dedication to world peace. Thanks to Paki Wieland, Frances Crowe, Claudia Lefko, Joel Dansky, Dr. Marty Nathan and, Dr. Elliot Fratkin, for their coura- geous work on behalf of the peoples of the regions addressed. Thanks to Diana Malin for providing the perfect writing space and for her on-going interest in this work. Gratitude to Lynn Fine for on-going wisdom on the path, and insights and comments on subject matter and text, Buddhist teacher in the Thich Nhat Hanh tradition. Deep appreciation to Morning Light Sangha for their practice, service, and dedication to social justice globally. Ingrid Jardat Gassner, Director of the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinians provided invaluable assistance, as did Jaber Suleiman of AIDOUN, Dr.
Recommended publications
  • Introduction

    Introduction

    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87598-1 - The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, Second Edition Edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim Excerpt More information Introduction The Palestine War lasted less than twenty months, from the United Nations resolution recommending the partition of Palestine in November 1947 to the final armistice agreement signed between Israel and Syria in July 1949. Those twenty months transformed the political landscape of the Middle East forever. Indeed, 1948 may be taken as a defining moment for the region as a whole. Arab Palestine was destroyed and the new state of Israel established. Egypt, Syria and Lebanon suffered outright defeat, Iraq held its lines, and Transjordan won at best a pyrrhic victory. Arab public opinion, unprepared for defeat, let alone a defeat of this magnitude, lost faith in its politicians. Within three years of the end of the Palestine War, the prime ministers of Egypt and Lebanon and the king of Jordan had been assassinated, and the president of Syria and the king of Egypt over- thrown by military coups. No event has marked Arab politics in the second half of the twentieth century more profoundly. The Arab–Israeli wars, the Cold War in the Middle East, the rise of the Palestinian armed struggle, and the politics of peace-making in all of their complexity are a direct con- sequence of the Palestine War. The significance of the Palestine War also lies in the fact that it was the first challenge to face the newly independent states of the Middle East.
  • From the Editor by Rashid I. Khalidi Sixty Years Ago the Zionist

    From the Editor by Rashid I. Khalidi Sixty Years Ago the Zionist

    Journal of Palestine Studies issue 147, published in Spring 2008 From the Editor by Rashid I. Khalidi Sixty years ago the Zionist movement launched an all-out military offensive to establish a Jewish state in a country with a two-thirds Arab majority. Victories followed in quick succession as the well-organized,well-armed Haganah battled poorly coordinated Arab irregulars and local militias. On 18 April 1948, after the prelude of the Dayr Yasin massacre and the conquest of Arab villages in the Jerusalem corridor, the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Tiberias was captured and its entire Arab population bused to Transjordan. The attack against the Arab quarters of Haifa, Palestine’s largest city, followed almost immediately; Haifa fell on 22 April. With the conquest of Arab Jaffa several weeks later, the fate of Palestine was sealed, and on 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. This issue of JPS commemorates this first crucial phase of the 1948 war with two articles about those first key Zionist victories: Mustafa Abbasi’s “The End of Arab Tiberias” and a reissue of Walid Khalidi’s landmark 1959 article, “The Fall of Haifa,” with a new introduction and footnotes by the author. The two articles have different approaches, with Abbasi focusing especially on the background to the tragedy, tracing the deterioration of relations between Tiberias’s Jewish and Palestinian communities, and Khalidi concentrating more on the immediate military and diplomatic background of the attack on Haifa and the progress of the battle itself. Both articles, however, highlight the extraordinary collusion between the Haganah and Britain, which in each case virtually turned the cities over to the Zionists.
  • Download Original 8.64 MB

    Download Original 8.64 MB

    WELLESLEY COLLEGE CALENDAR 1909-1910 WELLESLEY COLLEGE CALENDAR 1909-1910 PRESS OF FRANK WOOD, BOSTON CORRESPONDEN CE All inquiries regarding admission (including admission to grad- uate courses) should be addressed to Miss Ellen F. Pendleton, Dean of the College. Applications for general information should be addressed to Miss Mary Caswell. As Secretary of the Teachers' Registry, Miss Caswell is also prepared to furnish full and confidential informa- tion in regard to the qualifications, character, and experience of teachers educated at Wellesley. Former students of the College who wish situations as teachers have the aid of the Teachers' Registry. Applications for pecuniary assistance (see p. 150) should be made by letter addressed to the Secretary of the Students' Aid Society, Wellesley, Mass. TABLE OF CONTENTS Correspondence 1909 CALENDAR The academic year consists of thirty-four weeks exclusive of vacations and ot the week devoted to entrance examinations. Commencement Day falls on the Tuesday nearest the eighteenth of June. The academic year begins on the four- teenth Tuesday after Commencement. 1909. Examinations .... September 28-October i. College dormitories open . 9 a. m. Friday, October i. Registration closes . i p. m. Saturday, October 2. Academic year begins . Tuesday, October 5. Recess from 12.30 p. m. Wednesday, November 24, until 12.30 p. M. Friday, November 26. Recess from 12.30 p. m. Thursday, December 16, 1909, until I p. M. Wednesday, January 5, 1910. 1910. Registration closes for all students at i p. m. Wednesday, Jan- uary 5. Second Semester begins . Monday, February 21. Recess from 12.30 p. m. Wednesday, March 23, until i p.
  • The Ohio State University

    The Ohio State University

    MAKING COMMON CAUSE?: WESTERN AND MIDDLE EASTERN FEMINISTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MOVEMENT, 1911-1948 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Charlotte E. Weber, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2003 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Leila J. Rupp, Adviser Professor Susan M. Hartmann _________________________ Adviser Professor Ellen Fleischmann Department of History ABSTRACT This dissertation exposes important junctures between feminism, imperialism, and orientalism by investigating the encounter between Western and Middle Eastern feminists in the first-wave international women’s movement. I focus primarily on the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, and to a lesser extent, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. By examining the interaction and exchanges among Western and Middle Eastern women (at conferences and through international visits, newsletters and other correspondence), as well as their representations of “East” and “West,” this study reveals the conditions of and constraints on the potential for feminist solidarity across national, cultural, and religious boundaries. In addition to challenging the notion that feminism in the Middle East was “imposed” from outside, it also complicates conventional wisdom about the failure of the first-wave international women’s movement to accommodate difference. Influenced by growing ethos of cultural internationalism
  • 1948 Arab‒Israeli

    1948 Arab‒Israeli

    1948 Arab–Israeli War 1 1948 Arab–Israeli War מלחמת or מלחמת העצמאות :The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence (Hebrew ,מלחמת השחרור :, Milkhemet Ha'atzma'ut or Milkhemet HA'sikhror) or War of Liberation (Hebrewהשחרור Milkhemet Hashikhrur) – was the first in a series of wars fought between the State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict. The war commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine and the Israeli declaration of independence on 15 May 1948, following a period of civil war in 1947–1948. The fighting took place mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also in the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.[1] ., al-Nakba) occurred amidst this warﺍﻟﻨﻜﺒﺔ :Much of what Arabs refer to as The Catastrophe (Arabic The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Background Following World War II, on May 14, 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France.
  • Why Did the Palestinians Leave Revisited

    Why Did the Palestinians Leave Revisited

    WHY DID THE PALESTINIANS LEAVE,REVISITED WALID KHALIDI Themyth that the Palestinian exodus of 1948 was triggered by orders from the Arab leaders—a cornerstone of the official Israeli version of the 1948 war and intended to absolve it of responsibility for the refugee problem—dies hard. Thus, it continues to be deployed by apol- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/jps/article-pdf/34/2/42/141663/jps_2005_34_2_042.pdf by guest on 02 June 2020 ogists for Israel as a means of blaming the Palestinians for their own fate. Even Benny Morris, one of whose major conclusions in his 1986 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem wastodiscredit the Israeli claim, cannot seem to let go of it completely. Thus, the conclusion of the substantially revised update of the book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004), states that although the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) and the local National Committees made efforts to block the exodus of army-aged males, “at the same time, they actively promoted the depopulation of villages and towns. Many thousands of Arabs—women, children, and old people ...left, well before battle was joined, as a result of advice and orders from local Arab commanders and officials.... Indeed, already months before the war the Arab states and the AHC had endorsed the removal of dependents from active and potential combat zones....There can be no exaggerating the impor- tance of these early, Arab-initiated evacuations in the demoralization, and eventual exodus, of the remaining rural and urban populations” (pp. 589–90). Given the endurance of this central plank of the Israeli doctrine of 1948, JPS has decided to reprint for the first time a difficult-to-obtain ar- ticle published in July 1959 by Walid Khalidi in a long-defunct periodi- cal of the American University of Beirut (AUB), Middle East Forum.
  • Selected Documents on the 1948 Palestine War Author(S): Walid Khalidi Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol

    Selected Documents on the 1948 Palestine War Author(S): Walid Khalidi Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol

    Selected Documents on the 1948 Palestine War Author(s): Walid Khalidi Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Spring, 1998), pp. 60-105 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2537835 Accessed: 24-07-2015 20:24 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Institute for Palestine Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Palestine Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 66.134.128.11 on Fri, 24 Jul 2015 20:24:50 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SELECTED DOCUMENTS ON THE 1948 PALESTINE WAR SELECTED AND ANNOTATED BY WALID KHALIDI The 1948 PalestineWar, whose fiftiethanniversary occurs thisyear, fell into two major phases: the first,the civilwar phase, began soon afterthe UnitedNational General Assembly(UNGA) partitionresolution of 29 November 1947 and lasted until15 May 1948,the formalend of the BritishMandate. The second, the regular war phase, lasted from15 May (when the Stateof Israel was also declared) until the various Arab-Israeliarmistice agreements were concluded in 1948-49.
  • Arab-Israeli Relations Dr

    Arab-Israeli Relations Dr

    Arab-Israeli Relations Dr. Daniel Zisenwine Course Number 702.2280 Class Time: TBA Class Location:TBA E-Mail: [email protected] This course introduces students to the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict, from its initial stages starting from the first waves of Zionist immigration to Palestine through the 1948 war and the establishment of the state of Israel. It will focus on the emerging features of the conflict, the struggle between the Palestinian Arab and Jewish Nationalist movements, and the regional and international involvement in these events. Subsequent sessions will focus on the wars of 1956, 1967, 1973 and later developments such as the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty (1979) and Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Moving closer to the present, the course will highlight the 1987 Palestinian Intifada, the Oslo accords and the prospects for peace leading up to the second Intifada and the breakdown of negotiations. We will conclude with a discussion of the current age of uncertainty in the region and the impact of non-state actors (such as Hizballah and Hamas) on the conflict, in an effort to bring the class up to the present as possible. A variety of scholarly studies, diverse opinions, and approaches will provide the background for class discussions. CLASS FORMAT This course uses a lecture and discussion format. Learning as a dynamic process in which the student and teacher interact over the material under discussion. You will learn best by asking questions; all questions are welcome and, if they are of interest to the class as a whole, we will stop and discuss them together.
  • Myth and Narrative in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Conference: February 27–March 1, 2003 John F

    Myth and Narrative in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Conference: February 27–March 1, 2003 John F

    WPF REPORTS number 34 Myth & Narrative in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Deborah L. West WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION FOUNDED 1910 THE WORLD PEACE FOUNDATION The World Peace Foundation was created in 1910 by the imagination and fortune of Edwin Ginn, the Bos- ton publisher, to encourage international peace and cooperation. The Foundation seeks to advance the cause of world peace through study, analysis, and the advocacy of wise action. As an operating, not a grant-giving foundation, it provides financial support only for projects which it has initiated itself. Edwin Ginn shared the hope of many of his contemporaries that permanent peace could be achieved. That dream was denied by the outbreak of World War I, but the Foundation has continued ever since to at- tempt to overcome obstacles to international peace and cooperation, drawing for its funding on the en- dowment bequeathed by the founder. In its early years, the Foundation focused its attention on building the peacekeeping capacity of the League of Nations, and then on the development of world order through the United Nations. The Foundation established and nurtured the premier scholarly journal in its field, International Organization. Since 1993, the Foundation has examined the causes and cures of intrastate conflict. The peace of the world in these decades has been disturbed primarily by outbreaks of vicious ethnic, religious, linguistic, and intercommunal antagonism within divided countries. The episodes of brutal ethnic cleansing that convulsed Rwanda, Bosnia, and Kosovo are but the best known and most devastating of a rash of such attempts to oust rivals across the globe.
  • 3 Mohammed S. Dajani

    3 Mohammed S. Dajani

    ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS: CONTESTED NARRATIVES Mohammed S. Dajani Introduction Israeli scholar Yossi Klein Halevi begins the introduction of his book, At the Entrance of the Garden of Eden, A Jew’s Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, pub- lished in 2001, by saying: “In early winter 1998, I set out to discover my country, the Holy Land.”1 A Palestinian scholar embarking on reading this book would take issue by the proposition my preceding the word country that describes Halevi’s attachment to the Holy Land. This sense of belonging to the Holy Land by an Israeli clashes with the similar sense of belonging by a Palestinian, illuminating the crux of the Palestinian-Israeli confrontation and struggle. Historically, the conflict began with the assertion: “This land is mine”, and ever since the struggle focused on the question: “To whom does this land belong?” The way the question is constructed is in itself conflictual – “The land belongs to one and not the other!” This assumption gave rise to diametrically opposed conflicting national narratives that presented the claims of one against the other. This paper aims at confronting the Israeli and Palestinian constitutive historical clash of national narratives and their significance in shaping identities of “self” and “other” in the conflict and in constructing obstacles to conflict resolution. It looks into the historic junc- tions of decision-making and appraises processes that left their imprint on collective mem- ory and perceptions. Some of the major themes and histories will be analyzed and explained within their own historical context in order to deconstruct demonized images.
  • THIS ISSUE: PALESTINE Kerry's Billions an Interview with Walid Khalidi Raves, Prison Cells and Foucault Palest

    THIS ISSUE: PALESTINE Kerry's Billions an Interview with Walid Khalidi Raves, Prison Cells and Foucault Palest

    VVolumeolume 1010 - NumberNumber 2 FFebruaryebruary – MMarcharch 22014014 ££44 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: PPALESTINEALESTINE ● KKerry’serry’s bbillionsillions ● AAnn iinterviewnterview withwith WalidWalid KhalidiKhalidi ● RRaves,aves, pprisonrison cellscells andand FoucaultFoucault ● PPalestinianalestinian refugeesrefugees andand thethe politicspolitics ofof returnreturn ● RRememberingemembering PalestinePalestine ● PPalestinianalestinian youthyouth challengechallenge thethe PrawerPrawer PlanPlan ● A cculturalultural mmissionission ● FFindinginding a voicevoice ● TTwowo ppoemsoems ● PPhotohoto competitioncompetition resultsresults ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LLondonondon VVolumeolume 1100 - NumberNumber 2 FFebruaryebruary – MMarcharch 22014014 ££44 TTHISHIS IISSUESSUE: PPALESTINEALESTINE ● KKerry’serry’s bbillionsillions ● AAnn iinterviewnterview wwithith WWalidalid KKhalidihalidi ● RRaves,aves, pprisonrison ccellsells aandnd FFoucaultoucault ● PPalestinianalestinian rrefugeesefugees aandnd thethe politicspolitics ooff returnreturn ● RRememberingemembering PPalestinealestine ● PPalestinianalestinian youthyouth cchallengehallenge thethe PPrawerrawer PPlanlan ● A cculturalultural mmissionission ● FFindinginding a vvoiceoice ● TTwowo ppoemsoems ● PPhotohoto ccompetitionompetition rresultsesults ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews aandnd eeventsvents iinn LLondonondon Birds of Paradise, 2011, by Palestinian artist Laila Shawa About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) © Laila Shawa Volume 10 - Number 2 Th e London Middle East Institute
  • 1948 War Syllabus Hillel Cohen Hebrew University

    1948 War Syllabus Hillel Cohen Hebrew University

    Palestine 1948 Graduate Students Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rothberg International School Spring 2013 – Hillel Cohen View Syllabus The war of 1948 has shaped the history of modern Middle East more than any other single event. The establishment (and survival) of the state of Israel despite Arab efforts to avert it, on one hand, and the prevention of establishment an Arab state in Palestine while creating the Palestinian refugee problem, on the other, are the main lasting consequences of this war. Naturally enough, Zionists and Arabs see the events of 1948 rather differently (leaving alone the internal debates within each camp). Zionists view the result of the war as a fulfillment of a dream to regain Jewish sovereignty in the holy land after 2000 years of Diaspora, and a realization of their natural right to freedom and statehood, acknowledged by the international community after the Holocaust. Arabs, generally speaking, see the war as the culmination of a colonialist endeavor in which the Jews accomplished their idea of transferring the Arabs of Palestine, with the consent of the West who aimed to disunite the Arab nation. Debates on the real intentions of the Jewish forces during the war, as well as the reasons to the collapse of the Palestinian society, still exists in both scholarly and political writing. These debates touch the very core of Palestinian and Zionist narratives, the self- image of each society and the way they portray themselves to the outer world. Studying the events of 1948 is therefore rather problematic, taking into consideration that (almost) each of us carries with him his beliefs, previous knowledge, views, and to a certain degree his prejudices.