To Be Young in Palestine Pénélope Larzillière To cite this version: Pénélope Larzillière. To Be Young in Palestine: translation by William Snow of the book Etre jeune en Palestine (Paris, Balland, 2004, 205p.). Balland, 200p, 2004. halshs-00464037 HAL Id: halshs-00464037 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00464037 Submitted on 15 Mar 2010 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. To Be Young in Palestine Pénélope Larzillière Translation by William Snow of the book: Larzillière, Pénélope (2004), Etre jeune en Palestine, Paris, Balland, 205p. 3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 6 PART ONE: PALESTINIAN YOUTH ............................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 1 ........................................................................................................................................................ 15 THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE AND THE INDIVIDUAL ............................................................................................. 15 The First Intifada (1987-1993) .................................................................................................................... 15 Facing the Palestinian Authority ................................................................................................................. 18 The Al-Aqsa Intifada .................................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2 ........................................................................................................................................................ 35 YOUNG PALESTINIAN WOMEN AND NATIONALISM ........................................................................................... 35 The First Call: Enabling an “Enduring Identity” ....................................................................................... 35 The Second Command: Militating ............................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 3 ........................................................................................................................................................ 53 WHY THE NATIONAL OBJECTIVE HAS NOT BEEN ABANDONED ......................................................................... 53 Getting through Military Roadblocks .......................................................................................................... 57 ISRAEL: A FASCINATING ENEMY ....................................................................................................................... 65 Israel, an Outpost of Western Modernity..................................................................................................... 66 MYTHICAL REASONING..................................................................................................................................... 69 Heroic Palestinian Figures ......................................................................................................................... 72 Shiite References ......................................................................................................................................... 74 Rumours and Conspiracy Theories ............................................................................................................. 76 CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................................................................ 78 THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COMMUNITY ........................................................................................................... 78 The Private Sphere and Community ............................................................................................................ 81 Fulfilment or Betrayal? ............................................................................................................................... 92 Domination and the Fragmentation of Experience ..................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 5 ........................................................................................................................................................ 98 RELIGION’S PLACE IN SOCIETY ......................................................................................................................... 98 Traditional Islam ......................................................................................................................................... 99 Cultural Islam ............................................................................................................................................ 101 Islam as a Code of Ethics .......................................................................................................................... 102 Political Islam ........................................................................................................................................... 105 Islamic ‘‘Feminism”? ................................................................................................................................ 111 PART TWO: HOW TO RESPOND: BY MERGING, RECONFIGURING OR DISSOCIATING? ....... 117 CHAPTER 6 ...................................................................................................................................................... 120 THE NATIONAL HERO MADE SACRED ............................................................................................................. 123 ‘‘Shahid’’: a tool in the national cause ..................................................................................................... 123 Sanctification ............................................................................................................................................. 125 Sacrifice and Competing Value Systems .................................................................................................... 127 The Impact of the Martyr Figure ............................................................................................................... 128 CHAPTER 7 ...................................................................................................................................................... 138 ARMED MILITANTS ......................................................................................................................................... 138 Reconversion of the Shabab ...................................................................................................................... 140 Acquiring a Social Position ....................................................................................................................... 144 Group Culture ........................................................................................................................................... 154 Slipping into Martyrdom: ‘‘Alive due to a Lack of Death’’ ...................................................................... 156 CHAPTER 8 ...................................................................................................................................................... 158 EXILE .............................................................................................................................................................. 158 Young Returnees ........................................................................................................................................ 159 Engineers ................................................................................................................................................... 166 Palestinian Students in Germany............................................................................................................... 169 CONCLUSION: A FUTURE WITH NO PROSPECTS? ............................................................................. 178 ANNEX: PALESTINIAN YOUTH, A ‘‘TERRAIN’’ LIKE ANY OTHER? .............................................. 186 FIELD STUDY .................................................................................................................................................. 186 SLIPPERY GROUND? ........................................................................................................................................ 187 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................. 191 5 Introduction Who could imagine the youth of Ramallah celebrating Valentine’s Day or taking an interest in the latest episode of a Lebanese reality TV show? And yet...! Palestinian society has without doubt been constructed by and around its conflict with Israel; but the