Established and Outsiders at the Same Time
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alestinians frequently present a harmonizing and homogenizing we-image of their own 8 Göttingen Series in Pnational we-group, as a way of counteracting Israeli attempts to sow divisions among them, whether through Israeli politics or through the dominant public discourse in Israel. However, Social and Cultural Anthropology a closer look reveals the fragility of this homogenizing we-image which masks a variety of internal tensions and conflicts. Gabriele Rosenthal (Ed.) By applying methods and concepts from biographical research and figurational sociology, the articles in this volume o er an analysis of the Middle East conflict that goes beyond the polar opposition between “Israelis” and “Palestinians”. On the basis of case studies from five Established and Outsiders urban regions in Palestine and Israel (Bethlehem, Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Haifa and Ja a), the authors explore the importance of belonging, collective self-images and di erent forms of at the Same Time social di erentiation within Palestinian communities. For each region this is bound up with an analysis of the relevant social and socio-political contexts, and family and life histories. The Self-Images and We-Images of Palestinians analysis of (locally) di erent figurations means focusing on the perspective of Palestinians as in the West Bank and in Israel members of di erent religious, socio-economic, political or generational groupings and local group constellations – for instance between Christians and Muslims or between long-time residents and refugees. The following scholars have contributed to this volume: Ahmed Albaba, Johannes Becker, Hendrik Hinrichsen, Gabriele Rosenthal, Nicole Witte, Arne Worm and Rixta Wundrak. Gabriele Rosenthal is a sociologist and professor of Qualitative Methodology at the Center of Methods in Social Sciences, Univer- sity of Göttingen. Her major research focus is the intergenerational impact of collective Established and Outsiders at the Same Time and familial history on biographical structu- res and actional patterns of individuals and family systems. Her current research deals with ethnicity, ethno-political conflicts and the social construction of borders. She is the author and editor of numerous books, including The Holocaust in Three Generations (2009), Interpretative Sozialforschung (2011) and, together with Artur Bogner, Ethnicity, Gabriele Rosenthal (Ed.) Gabriele Rosenthal Belonging and Biography (2009). ISBN: 978-3-86395-286-0 Universitätsverlag Göttingen Göttingen University Press ISSN: 2199-5346 Gabriele Rosenthal (Ed.) Established and Outsiders at the Same Time This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Published in 2016 by Göttingen University Press as volume 8 in “Göttingen Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology” This series is a continuation of “Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie”. Gabriele Rosenthal (Ed.) Established and Outsiders at the Same Time Self-Images and We-Images of Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel Volume 8 Göttingen Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology Göttingen University Press 2016 Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.dnb.de> abrufbar. German edition published in 2015 by Campus, Frankfurt/M.: Etablierte und Außenseiter zugleich. Selbst- und Fremdbilder in den palästinensischen Communities im Westjordanland und in Israel. Hg. von Gabriele Rosenthal. “Göttingen Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology” Editors Prof. Dr. Elfriede Hermann Prof. Dr. Andrea Lauser Prof. Dr. Roman Loimeier Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Schareika Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Theaterplatz 15 D-37073 Göttingen This work is protected by German Intellectual Property Right Law. It is also available as an Open Access version through the publisher’s homepage and the Göttingen University Catalogue (GUK) (http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de). The license terms of the online version apply. Translated by Ruth Schubert Set and layout: Steffen Herrmann Cover design: Friedlind Riedel Cover picture: Johannes Becker: Old City of Jerusalem © 2016 Göttingen University Press http://univerlag.uni-goettingen.de ISBN: 978-3-86395-286-0 ISSN: 2199-5346 Contents Preface . 7 1 Introduction . 9 Gabriele Rosenthal Voices from the West Bank 2 We-images and collective memories in the West Bank . 17 Gabriele Rosenthal 3 On the brittleness of the homogenizing we-discourse: Christians in Bethlehem and Ramallah . 31 Hendrik Hinrichsen, Johannes Becker, Gabriele Rosenthal 4 The homogenizing we-discourse and the social positioning of the refugee camps . 45 Arne Worm, Hendrik Hinrichsen, Ahmed Albaba 5 The way outsiders speak: Counter discourses, self- and we-images of stigmatized gay men in the West Bank . 67 Arne Worm, Hendrik Hinrichsen 6 Voices of former political prisoners and their families in the West Bank . 87 Gabriele Rosenthal, Ahmed Albaba 6 Established and Outsiders at the Same Time Voices from East Jerusalem 7 Palestinians in East Jerusalem . 111 Johannes Becker, Arne Worm 8 Commitment to the Old City and ambivalent emplacement . 125 Johannes Becker Voices from Israel 9 Palestinians in Israel . 149 Nicole Witte 10 Palestinian voices from Haifa . 159 Nicole Witte 11 Being Palestinian in Jaffa: How Druze and Bedouin Israeli women talk about we-images and belonging . 181 Rixta Wundrak Glossary . 203 Transcription symbols . 213 About the authors . 215 Bibliography . 217 Preface This book is the result of research and fieldwork carried out between 2010 and 2015 by a team of German, Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli social scientists . It is a study of Palestinians and Israelis in different established and outsider figurations in the West Bank and in Israel 1. We are deeply grateful to the many people in Palestine and Israel who were will- ing to be interviewed and to give us insights into their lives and their personal histo- ries . Without their support our research and this book would not have been possible . We cannot mention them by name for reasons of data protection . All names and personal data of the people we interviewed, and of their relatives and friends, have been changed in order to ensure that they cannot be identified . We would also like to express our thanks to all colleagues who, in addition to the authors of the articles in this volume, gave time to participate in our project by conducting interviews and making initial analyses of the data . These include Mariam Abdul Dayem (Tel Aviv), Eva Bahl (Göttingen), Zeina Barakat (Jerusalem), Amany Bawardy (Nazareth), Michal Beckenstein (Tel Aviv), Khansaa Diab (Jerusalem), Isa- bella Enzler (Göttingen), Filip Habib (Berlin), Yahya Hijazi (Jerusalem), Tal Litvak- Hirsch (Be’er Sheva), Adi Mana (Be’er Sheva), Serene Mjally-Knani (Be’er Sheva), Majd Qumsieh (Bethlehem), Amina Rayan (Berlin), Sveta Robermann (Jerusalem), Aida Saifi (Jerusalem), and Anan Srour (Jerusalem) . Our special thanks for their help and support go to those Palestinians from the West Bank who do not want to be named here because of the boycott of Israeli uni- 1 The trilateral research project Belonging to the Outsider and Established Groupings: Palestinians and Israelis in Various Figurations was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from Febru- ary 2010 to October 2015 . The other project leaders, in addition to the editor, were Prof . Shifra Sagy (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel) and Prof . Mohammed S . Dajani Daoudi (East Jerusalem) . 8 Established and Outsiders at the Same Time versities which has been joined by all academic institutions in the West Bank, and the rejection of any kind of cooperation with Jewish-Israeli scholars and institutions which intensified during the period of our project . According to the guidelines for the boycott,2 collaboration with Israeli academic institutions – but not automatically with their members as individual scholars or persons – must be rejected because aca- demic bi- and multilateral projects are based on the false premise of symmetry “be- tween the oppressors and the oppressed”, “colonizers and colonized” and are there- fore “intellectually dishonest and morally reprehensible forms of normalization” . Although each chapter of this volume appears under the name of the main author or authors, both the analysis and interpretation of empirical findings and the formu- lation of ‘theoretical’ syntheses are the result of discussions by the whole team . 2 http://www pacbi. org/etemplate. php?id=1108,. 29 04. .2015 . 1 Introduction1 Gabriele Rosenthal In Israel I have repeatedly found that, without any prompting, people will inform my colleagues and me of their opinion concerning ‘the Arabs’ in the country – a Jewish taxi driver in West Jerusalem, for instance, on being asked to drive to East Jerusalem . Their remarks are often extremely unfriendly, highly prejudiced and indiscriminate . But sometimes they add the comment: “The Christians are a bit different ”. This division of the Palestinians into ‘Arabs’ and ‘Christians’ reflects two essential features of discourses on ‘the Palestinians’ that are often heard in Israel, in everyday situations, in the media, or in political and academic contexts . On the one hand, a very broad, generalized and homogenized image of ‘the Arabs’ is created – a stand- ardized they-image, to borrow a term from Norbert