Maha Nassar

Brothers Apart

Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Maha Nassar is Assistant Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 288
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. September 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 224mm x 150mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 388g
• ISBN-13: 9781503603165
• ISBN-10: 1503603164
• Artikelnr.: 47775891

Autorenporträt

Maha Nassar is Assistant Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
The Introduction opens with a recounting of the reaction that poet and
journalist Rashid Husayn encountered from Arab delegates at the 1959 World
Youth Festival. The encounter highlights the fraught relationship between
Palestinian intellectuals in Israel and their Arab counterparts during a
time in which the latter knew very little (and were extremely suspicious
of) the former. It then provides an overview of how the Palestinian
citizens of Israel came to be isolated in the aftermath of the 1948 war and
the strategies they developed to try to overcome this isolation. The last
sections discuss the role that textual production and circulation play in
these strategies of resistance; define who is an organic intellectual in
the context of this study; and lay out the concept of decolonizing
citizens.
1Strategies of Resistance
chapter abstract
This chapter lays out the major contours of Palestinian cultural and
intellectual history before 1948 by examining the lives of Hanna Naqqara,
Emile Habibi, and Hanna Abu Hanna, all of whom became important figures in
the Palestinian intellectual and cultural scene in Israel. They were part
of a newly mobilized group of nationalist- and leftist-minded Palestinian
Arab intellectuals who disseminated an anticolonial discourse rooted in
calls for social justice, sovereignty, and pan-Arab cultural pride. During
the interwar period, as British rule became entrenched and as Zionist
immigration increased, these intellectuals developed strategies of
resistance that included the dissemination of anticolonial discourses
through schools, books, the press, poetry, social clubs, and radio
programs. Examining these dynamics challenges the notion that 1948 was
solely a moment of rupture since many of the strategies laid out here would
continue to be used in the post-1948 period.
2Competing Narratives
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses cultural and intellectual developments during the
first few years after the establishment of Israel. By 1955 two competing
narratives came to dominate the local Arab public sphere. One narrative,
propagated by the Israeli government and establishment figures on the pages
of al-Yawm, demanded that Palestinian citizens be loyal to the state that
was undertaking the modernization of their society. The second narrative,
disseminated primarily by intellectuals affiliated with the Communist Party
of Israel (CPI) through al-Ittihad and al-Jadid, drew on the legacy of Arab
leftist discourses to adopt a more confrontationist stance that pushed back
against these Israeli demands. Drawing on tropes popularized in the
interwar period, they stressed that Palestinians in Israel were part of a
global struggle for social justice, decolonization, and national pride.
Once these goals were achieved, they argued, Arabs and Jews in Israel could
live together in harmony.
3Debates on Decolonization
chapter abstract
This chapter shows how regional debates between pan-Arab nationalists and
communists about the best means to achieve decolonization reverberated
among Palestinian intellectuals in Israel. After an initial spirit of
cooperation following the tragedy of the Kafr Qasim massacre, subsequent
rivalries between communists and pan-Arab nationalists in the region also
reverberated back home. This led to the rise of Arab nationalist voices on
the pages of the MAPAM-sponsored al-Fajr journal and the short-lived paper
of the al-Ard movement, both of which challenged the CPI's position as the
primary champion of the Palestinians in Israel. This chapter also
demonstrates the role that poetry festivals played in facilitating
expressions of belonging and solidarity with global decolonization
movements. This was especially true for a younger generation of poets,
including Mahmoud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim, who would soon become leading
spokesmen of the Palestinians.
4Palestinian Spokesmen
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses how Palestinian intellectuals in Israel drew on
global decolonization movements to challenge Israel more forthrightly than
before. Darwish in particular pushed a line of argument that tied Israel to
other settler-colonial regimes, notably France in Algeria. As a result of
such challenges, Darwish, Qasim, and other poets found themselves under
house arrest or in prison. In addition, the Ard group issued a memorandum
to international bodies in 1964 laying out the systems of oppression the
Palestinian community faced under Israeli rule, leading to greater
international awareness of their circumstances. Meanwhile, Palestinians in
exile began drawing attention to the ways in which Palestinians inside the
Green Line were resisting their ongoing physical and political isolation
both politically and culturally. Novelist and critic Ghassan Kanafani was
especially emphatic in situating the Palestinian "resistance poets" within
a larger temporal and spatial context of the Palestinian struggle for
justice.
5Complicated Heroes
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses the impact of the June 1967 War and the Israeli
occupation of the remaining Palestinian lands on the dynamics laid out
earlier. The occupation allowed Palestinians on either side of the Green
Line to reconnect with friends and family members after spending nearly two
decades apart. The war also led Arab intellectuals to look anew at the
Palestinian resistance poets, whose defiant verses inspired those still
reeling from the shock of the defeat. As a result, Darwish and Qasim were
celebrated by Arab delegates at the 1968 World Youth Festival in Sofia. But
their heroic image as resistance poets was complicated because they
differed from many Arab intellectuals concerning what Palestinian
resistance was and how it was to be achieved. Meanwhile, Israeli
restrictions on the ability of cultural producers to travel and meet with
one another led Darwish to self-imposed exile in Cairo.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
In addition to summarizing the main arguments of the book, the Conclusion
carries forward the story of the relationship between Palestinian
intellectuals in Israel and their Arab counterparts to the present day. The
1976 Land Day protests in the Galilee marked the first such protest to
feature solidarity actions by Palestinians and Arabs in the region. But as
Palestinians in Israel were identifying more closely with the Palestinian
national movement, Palestinian leaders in the late 1980s and 1990s largely
excised this group from the national agenda. This began to change in the
twenty-first century as Palestinians in Israel became more integrated into
the Palestinian national agenda, even as there continued to be
misunderstandings about them in the Arab world and as they continued to
face sanctions from the Israeli authorities at home.