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Book Details
Abstract
The 1948 Palestine War is known to Israelis as 'the War of Independence'. But for Palestinians, the war is forever the Nakba, the 'catastrophe'. The war led to the creation of the State of Israel and the destruction of much of Palestininan society by the Zionist forces. For all Palestinians, the Nakba has become central to history, memory and identity. This book focuses on Palestinian internal refugees in Israel and internally displaced Palestinians across the Green LIne. It uses oral history and interviews to examine Palestinian identity and memory, indigenous rights, international protection, the 'right of return', and a just solution in Palestine/Israel.
Contributors include several distinguished authors and scholars such as William Dalrymple, Prof. Naseer Aruri, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Prof. Isma'il Abu Sa'ad and Dr. Nur Masalha.
Dr Nur Masalha is a senior lecturer and director of the Holy Land Research Project, St.Mary's College, University of Surrey. His books include: Imperial Israel and the Palestinians (2000) and The Politics of Denial (2003).
'In this remarkable book, twelve writers brilliantly evoke the spirit of Edward Said to tell the unvarnished truth about Palestine and Israel.'
John Pilger
'This is a work of enormous significance by distinguished scholars of singular courage and integrity. The spirit and legacy of Edward Said are embodied in these papers that seek to rectify grave historical omissions and distortions pertaining to the plight and rights of the Palestinians, particularly in their displacement and exile.'
Hanan Ashrawi
'A valuable source to construct a clearer picture of what actually happened to the Palestinian people in the chaotic years of 1947-9.'
Political Studies Review
'A wide-ranging collection of invariably interesting essays... the lesson of Catastrophe Remembered is that no two-state solution will be enough to give Palestinians in Israel the dignity denied to them for so long.'
Tom Hill, Tribune
'An excellent reader on the subject, bringing together as it does a wide range of essays... Israel's arguments against its critics often include the claim that it is the Middle East's only democracy. This book illustrates why that claim is so shallow, based as it is on a situation which denies full rights to a significant portion of Israeli citizens, denying them everything from adequate water supplies to the validity of their memories and history.'
Peace News
'Catastrophe Remembered makes a timely and useful contribution to an important and unfinished discussion.'
Neil Caplan, Midwest Jewish Studies Association
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover | ||
| About this Book | i | ||
| Table of Contents | v | ||
| Notes on Contributors | vii | ||
| Acknowledgements | x | ||
| Foreword • Naseer H. Aruri | xi | ||
| Notes | xx | ||
| Introduction\r | 1 | ||
| The Nakba, Oral History and Collective Memory | 1 | ||
| Categories of Internally Displaced Palestinians\r | 8 | ||
| Conflicting Estimates and Lack of Data | 10 | ||
| Israeli Policies, Indigenous Resistance and Peacemaking | 12 | ||
| Notes\r | 16 | ||
| PART ONE Evolving Israeli Policies and Indigenous Resistance\r | 21 | ||
| 1 Present Absentees and Indigenous Resistance | 23 | ||
| Israeli Policies During the Post-Nakba Period | 23 | ||
| The Struggle for “Return” of Kafr Bir’im and Iqrit (1948–2005) | 36 | ||
| “Politics from Below” and Direct Action: ADRID | 41 | ||
| Nakba Memory and Commemoration | 43 | ||
| Conclusion | 48 | ||
| Notes\r | 51 | ||
| 2 The State of Israel versus the Palestinian Internal Refugees | 56 | ||
| The Roots of the Problem and the Denial of Return | 56 | ||
| The Appropriation of Land: Legal Mechanisms | 59 | ||
| Landlessness: Stages in State–Refugee Relations | 60 | ||
| The Israeli State and the Uprooting of Refugee Identity | 62 | ||
| The Refugee Identity: Reawakening and Opposition | 65 | ||
| Notes\r | 69 | ||
| 3 Patterns of Internal Displacement, Social Adjustment and the Challenge of Return | 73 | ||
| Patterns of Displacement | 74 | ||
| “Refugee” Identity and Patterns of Adjustment in the Host Villages | 78 | ||
| In the Village of Origin | 89 | ||
| The Legal and Political Struggle for Return | 90 | ||
| “Rediscovering” the Village of Origin and Articulating Its “Narrative” | 101 | ||
| Conclusion | 105 | ||
| Notes | 106 | ||
| References | 109 | ||
| 4 Forced Sedentarisation, Land Rights and Indigenous Resistance: The Palestinian Bedouin in the Negev | 113 | ||
| Point of Origin: Zionist Policy in the Pre-state Period | 114 | ||
| Impact of the 1948 War and the Military Administration | 117 | ||
| The Expropriation and “Judaisation” of the Land | 120 | ||
| Forced Sedentarisation and Urbanisation | 125 | ||
| Non-recognition and Dismantling of Traditional Villages | 128 | ||
| The Bedouin Development Authority | 129 | ||
| The Bedouin Education Authority | 130 | ||
| The Green Patrol | 132 | ||
| Organised Community Resistance | 133 | ||
| “Final Closure”: Sharon’s Plan | 133 | ||
| Conclusion | 135 | ||
| Notes | 136 | ||
| References\r | 139 | ||
| PART TWO Palestinian Oral History and Memory | 143 | ||
| 5 “A Muted Sort of Grief”: Tales of Refuge in Nazareth (1948–2005) | 145 | ||
| Oral History and Reconstructing the Past | 145 | ||
| Coffee with Abu Nizar, Casa Nova Street, Nazareth, 6 September 2003 | 146 | ||
| Nazareth, 29 October 2000 | 147 | ||
| Tiberias, 1948 | 148 | ||
| What’s in a Name? | 149 | ||
| Halissa Neighbourhood, Haifa, 1948 | 150 | ||
| Nazareth, 1948 | 150 | ||
| Sulam Village, South of Nazareth, 1948 | 152 | ||
| Near the Ancient Well, Lands of Saffuriyya, 4 October 2002 | 153 | ||
| Saffuriyya, 1948 | 154 | ||
| Lands of Saffuriyya, 1 February 2002 | 155 | ||
| Nazareth, 2000 | 156 | ||
| The Cinema in the Old Souq, Nazareth, 8 September 2003 | 156 | ||
| Fear: Michel Khleifi’s Ma’loul Celebrates Its Destruction | 157 | ||
| Saffuriyya – The National Park – 4 October 2002 | 158 | ||
| “Cactus” Shop, Ruins of Roman Baths, Mary’s Well Square, Nazareth | 162 | ||
| Ma’lul, 1948 | 163 | ||
| “Cactus” Shop, Nazareth, 12 April 2003 | 164 | ||
| Notes\r | 165 | ||
| 6 Kafr Bir‘im | 168 | ||
| Note | 177 | ||
| 7 The Nakba, Oral History and the Palestinian Peasantry: The Case of Lubya | 178 | ||
| Oral History: From Classical Islam to Modern Methodology | 178 | ||
| Oral History and Rural Palestine | 180 | ||
| Social Life Disrupted by the Nakba | 182 | ||
| Memories of the Nakba and Internal Refuge | 191 | ||
| Notes\r | 194 | ||
| 8 Unrecognised Villages: Indigenous ‘Ayn Hawd versus Artists’ Colony ‘Ein Hod | 197 | ||
| First Encounter: Nir ‘Etzion (July 2000) | 197 | ||
| Second Encounter: ‘Ayn Hawd (April 2001) | 199 | ||
| Third Encounter: ‘Ein Hod (April 2003) | 208 | ||
| Notes\r | 212 | ||
| 9 The Nakba in Hebrew: Israeli-Jewish Awareness of the Palestinian Catastrophe and Internal Refugees | 214 | ||
| Introduction: A Tour of Another Place | 214 | ||
| Present Absentees and Nakba Memorial Day | 216 | ||
| Israeli-Jewish Attitudes Towards the Nakba | 217 | ||
| Zochrot | 219 | ||
| When Shadiah Meets Moshe in Al-Majdal | 222 | ||
| “Space of Uprising”: The Space is Disturbed, the Sign isRemoved | 224 | ||
| A Surprising Twist in the Plot: The Return of the Sign | 230 | ||
| Visiting the Real Areas of Ashkelon | 234 | ||
| Michel’s Foucault’s Heterotopian Space: New Relations Between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs | 237 | ||
| Notes\r | 239 | ||
| PART THREE Human Rights and International Protection | 243 | ||
| 10 The Real Road Map to Peace: International Dimensions of the Internal Refugee Question | 245 | ||
| The Palestinian Internal Refugees in Israel: A Conscience and Compass | 247 | ||
| The “Exclusion” Groups of the Palestine Peace Process | 252 | ||
| The” Fence”, Internal Displacement and “Ethnic Cleansing” | 255 | ||
| Edward Said’s Community of Consciousness and Future Prospects | 256 | ||
| Notes\r | 259 | ||
| 11 International Protection and Durable Solutions | 260 | ||
| Protection of IDPs During Displacement | 263 | ||
| Durable Solutions Protection | 270 | ||
| Mechanisms | 279 | ||
| Conclusion | 281 | ||
| Notes\r | 283 | ||
| Index | 292 |