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Exiles at Home Mobility, Exclusion and (In)visibility among Palestinians in Tel Aviv Andreas Hackl PhD in Social Anthropology University of Edinburgh 2016 Declaration I declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where stated otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is entirely my own. Some ethnographic vignettes and sub-sections appear in modified form in three publications which were released at about the same time as this thesis (Hackl 2016c; Hackl 2016b; Hackl 2016a). Signature Date: 10 March 2016 Abstract This thesis explores intersecting processes of inclusion and exclusion among Palestinians in Tel Aviv, a city considered to be essentially Jewish-Israeli. It looks at Palestinians from diverse backgrounds and statuses who engage with the city in search of employment, higher education, political activism, or an urban lifestyle. Although this self-consciously liberal city creates social and economic openings, unequal power relations and conflict prevail over urban civility and citizenship. The Palestinians face a paradox: the deeper their inclusion into Tel Aviv’s political economy, the stronger their estrangement and the more serious their dilemmas. Because their urban inclusion is limited, mobility and constant adaptation become obligatory and eventually disempowering. As they oscillate between conflicting desires and senses of solidarity or identification, the Palestinians in Tel Aviv struggle with intersecting forms of cultural and political power. They seek individual opportunities within a political system they oppose, demand recognition of their identity and history but also seek urban anonymity as unmarked individuals. Their balancing acts resemble acrobats: they walk a tightrope between contradictory worlds, unable to reconcile both into a stable balance and simultaneously prevented from ever fully arriving at the other end. They live in exile ‘at home’. Contents Introduction 1 Exiled in Citizenship 9 The Dual City: Between Exclusion and Civility 13 Difference and Urban Utopia 17 Tel Aviv’s other Dimension 19 Questions 23 Methods and the Researcher’s Position in the Field 26 A Note on Terminology and Scope 29 Ethical Considerations 31 Growing Visibility 32 Balancing Ambivalence 34 Overview of Chapters 36 1 Coming and Going: Navigating Transitions and Bounded Mobility 39 Disempowering Mobility and Spatial Inequality 42 Confined to Depoliticising Mobility 49 Palestinians in the High-Tech Industry: Tele-Commuting and ‘Impossible Integration’ 54 Visibly Mobile 58 Beyond the Clock Tower: Jaffa’s Invisible Boundaries 61 Bounded Mobility: Stigmatised and ‘Suspicious’ 67 Conclusion 70 2 Between Politicisation and Civility: the Palestinian Students at Tel Aviv University 73 The Hidden Curriculum 76 The Burden of Civility 81 Political Organising despite Civility 86 Female Students between Different Lives 91 In Search of Control 93 Procrastination and Evading Return 94 ‘Double Lives’ 96 Straddling Tel Aviv and the ‘Village’ 98 No Need to Belong: a Christian Particularity 103 Conclusion 105 3 Lone Pursuits: In Search of Success in the ‘City that Never Stops’ 107 Difference as Profit and Obstacle 109 Alone Together 113 Privileged Choices 118 The Limits of Tel Aviv 122 The Other Dimension of Tel Aviv 124 Good Arabs, Good Business 131 Conclusion 136 4 Dancing in the Shadows: The Perils and Joys of Palestinian Leisure in Tel Aviv 139 The Politics of Pleasure, Leisure and Fun 140 Anonymity and the Risk of Being Recognised 143 Being Palestinian and Gay in Tel Aviv 147 Searching for Islands of Distinctiveness 153 The ‘Arab Hipster’ Debate 156 Compromising the Palestinian in Tel Aviv 159 Enjoying at Home 163 Conclusion 169 5 The Politics of (Non)Recognition 171 From Recognition to the Politics of Ambivalence 172 A Palestinian Seat in the City Council 176 Palestinian Jaffa, Israeli Tel Aviv 177 Recognition without Borders 181 A Political Heterotopia 183 Confronting Urban Utopia 189 Palestinian Artists and Writers in Tel Aviv 189 Political Protests in Tel Aviv 193 Recognizing Tel Aviv’s Palestinian Past 195 Conclusion 201 6 The Ebbs and Flows of Crisis: War, Polarisation and the Dilemma of Recurring Conflict 203 Unmasking Normality and Crisis 204 The Sirens of Crisis: The 2014 Gaza-Conflict 208 Dissonance and Ambiguity 212 When War Comes to Work 215 Protests and Segregation 218 Beyond Protests: Hopes and Fears 223 The Sirens of Non-Crisis: Memorial Days and Other Tense Events 226 Another People’s Flag and Celebrations 227 The Siren that ‘Rules’ them All 229 Conclusion 233 7 Conclusion 237 Included but Exiled 239 Bounded Mobility 240 Urban Inclusion and its Limits 242 Balancing Acrobats 246 The Political Within 248 Recurring Crisis 249 The Risks and Joys of Visibility 250 Tel Aviv Hangover 251 Bibliography 254 Acknowledgments This thesis would have no voice without the trust and support of those who informed the research behind it with stories and insights. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the many individuals who contributed to this piece of work, whether directly as research participants, or indirectly through their advice and help. Conducting this research has been an intellectual and personal inspiration far beyond the conclusions presented in this thesis. I feel particularly privileged for having had Toby Kelly and Jamie Furniss as my PhD supervisors at the University of Edinburgh. Always available, reliable and listening, their supervision provided invaluable advice and constructive critique, as well as the most encouraging environment a PhD student can hope for. The same holds true for the staff and peers at Social Anthropology in Edinburgh more generally, a place I experienced as an inspiring and very welcoming social environment. Further thanks go to my fellow PhD students for their input during our weekly ‘writing-up’ seminars and for the frequent sociability beyond it. I am particularly indebted to those individuals who have helped with the proofreading. I would also like to thank my office mates Anna, Eloi and Sissela for making the place where most of this thesis was written a very enjoyable one. Moreover, my PhD thesis and the research behind it would not have been possible without the necessary financial support, which is why I owe particular gratitude to the Austrian Academy of Sciences for funding me with a generous DOC-Fellowship over a period of three years. Special thanks also go to the staff and peers at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, who have supported and hosted me during my field research. I am particularly thankful to Dan Rabinowitz, who supervised the early phase of my project and pointed me in the right directions. I would also like to thank the members of the international PhD program Transformations in European Societies, of which I had the honour to be a member. I am grateful for the exchange this network provided and the friendships it has allowed me to build. In addition, I would like to thank all other scholars and non-academic professionals whose support and input has greatly benefitted this thesis and the pathway that led towards its completion, among them Andre Gingrich, Irene Götz, Johannes Moser, Jacques Picard, Yehouda Shenhav, Khaled Furani, Salim Tamari, Amalia Saar, Ronen Shamir, Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni, Maisalon Dallashi, Erella Grassiani, Andreas Indregard, Ofer Zalzberg, Thomas Seifert, and Anna Trechsel. The latter two deserve special credit as international-desk editors of the Austrian daily Wiener Zeitung and the Sunday edition of the Swiss paper NZZ respectively. By taking me on board as their correspondent in Israel/Palestine they have given me the privileged opportunity to write for a wider audience throughout the period of my research. The stated professional and institutional support has contributed significantly to the quality and timely completion of this thesis, but I would have hardly made it to the end without all those who were there to support me as friends and colleagues on the ground. I feel particularly grateful for the invaluable friendship and support of Rima, who has inspired me to take up this research and helped me carry it out. I would also like to say thank you to all other friends and colleagues who have helped me to stay sane and grounded during the often difficult periods of research and writing, among them Jonas Opperskalski, Monika Bolliger, Max Borowski, Jillian Kestler- D'Amours, Rachel Busbridge and Noga Malkin. I would also like to say thank you to Allison Reid for her continuous support and understanding. And last but not least, I am grateful for the unconditional support and encouragement I have received from my parents Evelin and Günter, from my brother Uwe, and the rest of this loving family. Introduction One late summer night in Tel Aviv, the Jewish holiday of Sukkot seemed to bring some rest to this otherwise bustling metropolis, which is called ‘the city that never stops’ by one of its many nicknames. It was an important Jewish holiday in the quintessential Jewish-Israeli city.