Julian Saurin @ Free University Brighton |
Palestine and Israel
The most common story of Israel-Palestine is that it is a history of conflicting nationalisms, namely Jewish and Palestinian Arab. Whilst we shall examine this narrative, we'll also refer to other accounts and explanations.
Just as we have in previous sessions we'll build the session around a few key concepts, in this case history, peace and legitimacy. |
Class Four
|
fub_irome_4-17.pdf | |
File Size: | 1970 kb |
File Type: |
Videos
For an informed and careful analysis of the casualties of war arising from the broad Israel-Palestine and Arab-Israeli conflict see the interactive database produced by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
Readings on Palestine/Israel
Perhaps the Israel-Palestine conflict is not, after all, a highly complex matter but one that is shockingly simple ? Perhaps the Israel-Palestine can be summarised as follows : two peoples, two claims, one territory.
To spell it out : One group of people, whom we shall call Palestinians, having lived on a determinate area of land claim that that land belongs to them. A second group of people, whom we shall call Israelis, whose ancestors they claim lived on that land also claim that that land belongs to them. Neither group has given up their respective claim; neither group considers their own claim as lacking in legitimacy. All other policies flow from these basic positions. That's my story, my attempt to tell the short story of Palestine-Israel. Even that short story is open to numerous criticisms, rejections and refutations.
The suggested readings for this topic - drawn from an absolutely massive topical literature - tend to focus on questions of legitimacy and the manner in which different narratives (tellings of history) serve to legitimise or delegitimise various claims.
This piece from the Yivo Encyclopaedia on pre twentieth century Jewish population and migration in Eastern Europe is very useful. It can be helpfully read alongside pieces on the Jewish Labour Bund (see also this detailed piece on the Bund and its relationship to other revolutionary movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century), on the one hand, and early zionism on the other hand.
However disturbing it may seem to the newcomer student of Israel and Palestine, it would be wrong to diminish the importance of genocide to the story. Not only did Jewish nationalism emerge in reaction to an exterminatory trend in nineteenth century European politics, but it is also clear if contested in detail, that the foundation of the state of Israel was a reaction to the Holocaust. Insofar as colonialism was exterminatory then the wider Arab experience subject to European imperialism could, in modern terms, be described as one of genocide. This argument extends to the politics of 1948 and the 'naqba' or nightmare of the expulsion of Palestinians as the state of Israel was declared, and subsequent waves of Israeli settlement especially after 1967. Here you'll find a useful article in comparative genocide studies by Mark Levine and Eric Cheyfitz - both long-established scholars of genocide and imperialism - called Israel, Palestine and the poetics of genocide.
Their "... approach is to trace the political history of the term “genocide” in law and jurisprudence, and compare some of the contexts in which the practices to which the term refers have occurred, and where accountability has been pursued. We also consider where and why there are grey areas in its usage, and offer some thoughts about the political utility and detriments that accompany the charge of genocide."
To spell it out : One group of people, whom we shall call Palestinians, having lived on a determinate area of land claim that that land belongs to them. A second group of people, whom we shall call Israelis, whose ancestors they claim lived on that land also claim that that land belongs to them. Neither group has given up their respective claim; neither group considers their own claim as lacking in legitimacy. All other policies flow from these basic positions. That's my story, my attempt to tell the short story of Palestine-Israel. Even that short story is open to numerous criticisms, rejections and refutations.
The suggested readings for this topic - drawn from an absolutely massive topical literature - tend to focus on questions of legitimacy and the manner in which different narratives (tellings of history) serve to legitimise or delegitimise various claims.
This piece from the Yivo Encyclopaedia on pre twentieth century Jewish population and migration in Eastern Europe is very useful. It can be helpfully read alongside pieces on the Jewish Labour Bund (see also this detailed piece on the Bund and its relationship to other revolutionary movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century), on the one hand, and early zionism on the other hand.
However disturbing it may seem to the newcomer student of Israel and Palestine, it would be wrong to diminish the importance of genocide to the story. Not only did Jewish nationalism emerge in reaction to an exterminatory trend in nineteenth century European politics, but it is also clear if contested in detail, that the foundation of the state of Israel was a reaction to the Holocaust. Insofar as colonialism was exterminatory then the wider Arab experience subject to European imperialism could, in modern terms, be described as one of genocide. This argument extends to the politics of 1948 and the 'naqba' or nightmare of the expulsion of Palestinians as the state of Israel was declared, and subsequent waves of Israeli settlement especially after 1967. Here you'll find a useful article in comparative genocide studies by Mark Levine and Eric Cheyfitz - both long-established scholars of genocide and imperialism - called Israel, Palestine and the poetics of genocide.
Their "... approach is to trace the political history of the term “genocide” in law and jurisprudence, and compare some of the contexts in which the practices to which the term refers have occurred, and where accountability has been pursued. We also consider where and why there are grey areas in its usage, and offer some thoughts about the political utility and detriments that accompany the charge of genocide."