As Palestinian sociologist Jamil Hilal pointed out, from the Nakba and until the mid-1960s there was no Palestinian national elite. This vacuum was largely filled by local leaders, mukhtars or tribal leaders (Hilal 2002: 29‒32). Despite this fragmentation and dispersal, in the decade after 1948 Palestinian “marginality” (to use Bell Hooks’ term) became “a site of resistance” (1990). From “below”, popular and refugee-led resistance and “Palestianism was a natural response to al-nakba, but it was the experience of social and political marginality that effectively transformed it from ‘a popular grass-roots patriotism’ into a proto-nationalism in the decade after 1948” (Y. Sayigh 1997: 46).
In the 1950s the absence of independent Palestinian leadership and representation was much in evidence: from the Nakba and until the establishment of the PLO in the 1960s Palestinians were in effect without formal political representation; they were also without a single territorially based cultural elite.
To compound things further, on anniversaries of the Nakba and on Israel’s Independence Day (15 May), the Israeli state actively encouraged the so-called “Israeli Arabs” to celebrate the Zionist settler-colonization of Palestine and the destruction of historic Palestine; this strategy scored some successes in the first two decades of the state (Cohen 2010). In Jordan a key priority of the Hashemite regime (which controlled the West Bank and ruled many Palestinians) was to keep the Palestinian refugee camps and Palestinians in the West Bank under close surveillance and prevent Nakba commemoration (Sayigh 1979: 111). Although Israel’s strategy of control, erasure of memory and Nakba denial, through the combination of military rule, repression, fear, segmentation and patronage, looked fairly effective in the 1950s, today it looks as though Israel’s efforts at encouraging the Palestinian citizens to embrace the Zionist ideological discourse of 1948 have largely ended in failure (Cohen 2010).
Today Palestinians commemorate the Nakba through Ihya‘a Dhikra al-Nakba, with its emphasis on collective togetherness, recovery and reconstitution, while the English term “re-membering” emphasizes group “membership” and re-uniting people. From the 1960s onwards, recovery and re-membering, re-linking and re-uniting the fragmented, exiled and colonized Palestinians through a range of cultural and artistic media and through collective, individual and shared memories of the pre-Nakba and post-Nakba periods, as embodied in fiction, novels, paintings and resistance poetry, was central to consolidating contemporary Palestinian identity. The trauma of the Nakba affected Palestinian national identity and memories in two contradictory ways. On the one hand the Nakba led to the destruction of much of Palestinian society and the dispersal and fragmentation of the Palestinian people. But, from the encounter with and rejection of neighbouring Arab states, the Nakba also led to the crystallization, re-membering and collectivization of a distinct and resistant Palestinian identity (Litvak 2009: 103‒111). While the formation of Palestinian national identity had taken root long before 1948, there is no doubt that the Nakba was a key event in the consolidation and reconstruction of a strong, clearly defined and vital contemporary Palestinian identity (Sayigh 1977a, 1977b).
INDIGENOUS MEMORIES AND THE CREATION OF A PALESTINE MEMORYSHARE PROJECT
The production and archiving of Palestinian social history and cultural memories, the documenting of the uprooting of the indigenous people of Palestine and the archiving of refugee voices, experiences and stories about places from their past ‒ that appear in films, recent oral history collections, autobiographies, novels, poetry collections, paintings and memorial books, electronic encyclopaedias, digital archives and refugee camp embroidery projects ‒ focus on both the symbolic and the emotional connections of Palestinians to the land and homeland, and to their former homes and villages (Al-Qalqili 2004). This rich production of oral memory is also the “documentary evidence” that proves their existence and legal right to the land of their ancestors.
These shared memories, with their affirmative narratives about the land, testify to the intimate and intense experience of everyday life on the land ‒ the names of the valleys, hills, tombs and shrines, streets, beaches, springs and water wells, cultivated fields and vineyards ‒ and the importance of all kinds of trees and other natural elements in visual memories of the past (Masalha 2005, 2012; Sa’di and Abu-Lughod 2007). In addition, hand-drawn maps marking the places of importance to the villagers, personal documents, personal memories and oral accounts all intertwine to create a larger picture and a collective narrative of life before the Nakba.
The heritage of the country and memory accounts of historic Palestine testify to the cultural richness and social multiculturalism of the country and the beauty of the countryside, mountains and valleys, religious shrines and historic sites. Memory accounts of Palestine before 1948 reflect the fertility of the land, the beauty of the landscape, the richness and diversity of culture and of village and city lives. One of the most famous Palestinian sites is the Dome of the Rock (Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah), located in the centre of a greater Muslim shrine, known as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) in the Old City of Jerusalem. Completed in 691 AD by the Muslim Umayyad Caliph Abdel Malik, the building is the oldest Islamic shrine in the world and also one of the most beautiful and instantly recognizable buildings.
People’s history projects are an essential tool for recovering the voice of the subaltern and ordinary people: peasants, the urban poor, refugee camp dwellers, Bedouin tribes, but also women. In Palestinian oral histories, gendered memory and verbal traditions (as opposed to male-written official and religious traditions) the storytellers are often refugee camp women.
Inspired by the BBC Memoryshare project, this work recommends the creation of a similar digital Memoryshare project in Palestine. This project would encourage ordinary people and people from all walks of life to share, record and upload pre- and post-Nakba stories and memory accounts ‒ old photos, documents, Sharia court records, drawings, maps, recorded voices or videos, or material evidence. This people’s history archiving project can serve as an anchor that connects communities in Palestine and the diaspora. It will be assisted and run by a team of volunteers and archivists based at several universities and cultural and community centres in Palestine.
In recent years we have seen a considerable expansion of Nakba studies internationally and some of the international programmes have developed oral history projects and archival collections. Several Palestinian digital film and newspaper collections and online archives have also been developed by Palestinian refugee networks and communities based in the diaspora. Two examples of these excellent web-based archives are:
•the Palestine Poster Project Archive which displays more than 4,500 Palestine-related posters from the late nineteenth century to the present;
•and the Nakba Archive: a video archive of oral histories of the Nakba, the creation of the Palestinian refugee diaspora displaced during the 1948 Nakba.
However, the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian people, their ongoing plight and trauma, have brought me to the conclusion that there is a need to nurture and establish an interdisciplinary subfield to be called Nakba Studies. This subfield would bring in historians, both literary and theorist, and scholars of trauma studies. It would continue documentation and expression of the embattled popular and cultural memories of Palestine as a liberating scholarly and ethical imperative.
NOTES
1http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/memoryshare/about.
2http://nakba-archive.org/?page_id=954.
3See Al-Azhari (1996), Yahya (1998), Shoufani (2001), Sa’di (2002), Al-Qalqili (2004), Humphries (2004, 2009), (Issa 2005), Gluck (1994, 2008), Sayigh (2007a, 2007b, 2011), Matar (2011), Humphries and Khalili (2007), Sa’di and Abu-Lughod (2007), Kassem (2011), Masalha (2005, 2008, 2012), Manna’ (2016).
4http://al-jana.org/programs-activities/active-memory/.
5al-Mashriq, http://almashriq.hiof.no/palestine/300/301/voices/index.html.
REFERENCES
Achcar, G. (2010) The
Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. London: Saqi Books.
Abdel Jawad, S. (2007) “Zionist Massacres: The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War”, in E. Benvenisti, C. Gans and S. Hanafi (eds.), Israel and the Palestinian Refugees. Berlin: Springer.
Abu Sitta, S. (1998) The Palestinian Nakba 1948: The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine. London: Palestinian Return Centre.
Abu Sitta, S. (2010) The Atlas of Palestine 1917‒1966. London: Palestine Land Society.
Al-‘Arif, A. (1958‒1960) Al-Nakba: Nakbat Bayt al-Maqdis Wal-Firdaws al-Mafqud, 1947‒1952 [The Catastrophe: The Catastrophe of Jerusalem and the Lost Paradise, 1947‒52], 6 Vols. Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon: Al-Maktaba al-‘Asriyya [in Arabic].
Al-Azhari, A. (1996) “Memories of Saffuriyeh ref”ugees with Israeli IDs”, Palestine-Israel: Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture (originally published in Hebrew in Ma’ariv daily, 15 October 1995, translated by Yael Lotan), 3(1).
Allen, B. and W.L. Montell (1981) From Memory to History: Using Oral Sources in Local Historical Research. Nashville: American Association for State and Local History.
Al-Qalqili, ‘A.F. (2004) Al-Ard fi Thakirat al-Filastiniyyun: I’timadan ‘ala al-Tarikh al-Shafawi fi Mukhayyam Jenin [The Land in Palestinian Memory: Based on Oral Histories in the Jenin Refugee Camp]. Ramallah, Palestine: Shaml-Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Centre [in Arabic].
Al-Qattan, O. (2007) “The Secret Visitations of Memory”, in A.H. Sa’di and L. Abu-Lughod (eds.), Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ankori, G. (2006) Palestinian Art. London: Reaction Books.
Busailah, R. (1981) “The Fall of Lydda, 1948: Impressions and Reminiscences”, Arab Studies Quarterly 3(2): 123‒151.
Childers, E.B. (1961) “The Other Exodus”, The Spectator (London), 11 May, http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/12th-may-1961/8/the-other-exodus.
Cohen, Hillel (2010) Good Arabs: The Israeli Security Agencies and the Israeli Arabs, 1948‒1967. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Dabbagh, M.M. (1972‒1986) Biladuna Filastin [Our Country, Palestine]. Beirut and al-Khalil: The Research Centre and Matbu‘at Rabitat al-Jami‘yyin fi-Muhafazat al-Khalil [in Arabic].
Darwish, M. (1987) Memory for Forgetfulness [Arabic: Dhakirah li-al-Nisyan]. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Darwish, M. (2000) The Adam of Two Edens. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press & Jusoor.
Darwish, M. (2003) Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems. Translations by M. Akash, C. Forché and others. Berkeley: California University Press.
Davis, R. (2007) “Mapping the Past, Re-creating the Homeland: Memories of Village Places in pre-1948 Palestine”, in A.H. Sa’di and L. Abu-Lughod (eds.), Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. New York: Columbia University Press.
Davis, U. (2003) Apartheid Israel: The Possibilities for Struggle Within. London and New York: Zed Books.
Esber, R. (2003) “War and Displacement in Mandate Palestine, 29 November 1947 to 15 May 1948”. PhD dissertation, SOAS, University of London.
Fierke, K.M (2008) “Memory and Violence in Israel/Palestine”, Human Rights & Human Welfare 8: 33-42.
Foucault, M. (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge. New York: Harper and Row.
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge. New York: Pantheon.
Gluck, S.B. (1994) An American Feminist in Palestine: The Intifada Years. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Gluck, S.B. (2008) “Oral History and al-Nakbah”, Oral History Review 35(1): 68‒80.
Guha, R., ed. (1997) A Subaltern Studies Reader, 1986‒1995. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Guha, R. and G.C. Spivak, eds. (1988) Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
Halbwachs, M. (1980) Collective Memory. New York: Harper and Row.
Hammami, R. (2003) “Gender, Nakbe and Nation: Palestinian Women’s Presence and Absence in the Narration of 1948 Memories”, in R. Robin and B. Strath (eds.), Homelands: Poetic Power and the Politics of Space. Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Land.
Heidegger, M. (2010) Being and Time. New York: State University of New York Press.
Hilal, J. (2002) Takween al-Nukhba al-Filastiniyya Mundhu Nushu al-Haraka al-Wataniyya al-Filastiniyya ila ma ba’da Qiyam al-Sulta al-Wataniyya al-Filastiniyya [The Making of the Palestinian Elite from the Eemergnce of the Palestinian National Movement until after the Establishment of the Palestinian National Authority]. Ramallah: Muwatin [in Arabic].
Hooks, B. (1990) “Marginality as a Site of Resistance”, in R. Ferguson et al. (eds.), Out There: Marginalisation and Contemporary Cultures. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
Humphries, I. (2004) “Palestinian Internal Refugees in the Galilee: From the Struggle to Survive to the New Narrative of Return (1948‒2005)”, Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal 3(2): 213‒231.
Humphries, I. (2009) “Displaced Voices: The Politics of Memory amongst Palestinian Internal Refugees in the Galilee (1991–2009)”. PhD diss., St Mary’s University College and University of Surrey, England.
Humphries, I. and L. Khalili (2007) “Gender of Nakba Memory”, in A.H. Sa’di and L. Abu-Lughod (eds.), Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory. New York: Columbia University Press.
Issa, M. (2005) “The Nakba, Oral History and the Palestinian Peasantry: The Case of Lubya”, in N. Masalha (ed.), Catastrophe Remembered. London: Zed Books.
Jawad, S.A. (2007) “Zionist Massacres: The Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War”, in E. Benvenisti, C. Gans and S. Hanafi (eds.), Israel and the Palestinian Refugees. Berlin: Springer.
Kanaana, S. (1992) Still on Vacation: The Eviction of the Palestinians in 1948. Jerusalem: Jeruaslem International Centre for Palestinian Studies.
Kanafani, G. (1998) Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories, translated by H. Kilpatrick. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Kanafani, G. (2000) Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories, translated by B. Harlow and K.E. Riley. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Kanafani, G., with R. Allen, M. Jayyusi and J. Reed (2004) All That’s Left to You. Northampton, MA: Interlink World Fiction.
Kassem, F. (2011) Palestinian Women: Narrative Histories and Gendered Memory. London: Zed Books.
Khalidi, R. (1997) Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press.
Khalidi, W. (1959a) “Why Did the Palestinians Leave?”, Middle East Forum 24: 21‒24. Reprinted as (2005) “Why Did the Palestinians Leave Revisited”, Journal of Palestine Studies 34(2): 42‒54.
Khalidi, W. (1959b) “The Fall of Haifa”, Middle East Forum 35: 22‒32.
Khalidi, W. (1961) “Plan Dalet: The Zionist Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine”, Middle East Forum 37(9): 22‒28.
Khalidi, W. (1984) Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876‒1948. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Khalidi, W. (1988) “Plan Dalet Revisited: Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine”, Journal of Palestinian Studies 18(1): 3‒37.
Khalidi, W. (1992) All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Khalili, L. (2005) Places of Memory and Mourning: Palestinian Commemoration in the Refugee Camps of Lebanon’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 25(1): 30‒45.
Khalili, L. (2007) Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Khoury, E. (1998) Bab al-Shams. Beirut: Dar al-Adab [in Arabic].
Khoury, E. (2006) Gate of the Sun. Brooklyn, NY: Archipelago Books.
Khoury, E. (2008) “For Israelis, an Anniversary. For Palestinians, a Nakba”, The New York Times, 18 May, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18khoury.html.
Litvak, M. (2009) “Constructing a National Past: The Palestinian Case”, in M. Litvak (ed.), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Manna’, ‘A. (2016) Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948‒1956. Beirut and Ramallah: Institute for Palestine Studies [in Arabic].
Mannes-Abbott, G. (2005) “Elias Khoury: Myth and Memory in the Middle East”, The Independent, 18 November, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/elias-khoury-myth-and-memory-in-the-middle-east-515728.html.
Margalit, A. (2003) The Ethics of Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Masalha, N. (1992) Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882‒1948. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies.
Masalha, N. (1997) A Land Without a People. London: Faber and Faber.
Masalha, N., ed. (2005) Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine-Israel and the Internal Refugee ‒Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said. London: Zed Books.
Masalha, N. (2007) The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine-Israel. London: Zed Books.
Masalha, N. (2008) “Remembering the Palestinian Nakba: Commemoration, Oral History and Narratives of Memory”, Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal 7(2): 123‒156.
Masalha, N. (2012) The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory. London: Zed Books.
Massad, J. (2005) “Conceiving the Masculine: Gender and Palestinian Nationalism”, Middle East Journal 49(3): 467‒483.
Massad, J. (2008) “Resisting the Nakba”, Al-Ahram Weekly On-line (15‒21 May), No. 897, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/897/op8.htm.
Matar, D. (2011) What it Means to be Palestinian: Stories of Palestinian Peoplehood. London: I.B. Tauris.
An Oral History of the Palestinian Nakba Page 5