Two new books on Palestine present a strong feminist viewpoint on current events concerning Palestine. They construct a larger view, drawing on global events and intersecting with other interests such as feminism and indigenous cultures.
Imagining Palestine - Cultures of Exile and National Identity. Tahrir Hamdi. I. B. Taurus, (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc), London, 2023. [1]
In her recent work, "Imagining Palestine", Tahrir Hamdi has made an intriguing, thought-provoking, and challenging discussion on the idea and reality of Palestine. Imagining Palestine is the ongoing process of remembering and living the ongoing tragedies of the nakba - and keeping alive the culture, geography, and ideals of the Palestinian people. There are two main themes that stand out throughout the 'imagining' process: the ideas of exile and the necessity of violent resistance.
Exile
Throughout the discussions of the various Palestinian writers and artists is the recurring theme of exile. Two other terms are used frequently - of dispossession and of dispersion. This refers to the physical/geographical displacement of the refugees, internal and external, in the many refugee camps in Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan as well as the refugees living farther abroad in many countries around the world. Internal exile includes the many apartheid bantustans, the hundreds of checkpoints, the 'wall', and all other Israeli initiatives to limit travel of any kind - medical or agricultural or family - within occupied Palestine (being the whole).
Exile also includes the culture and ideas creating a Palestinian narrative - the attempt by the colonial settler Zionists to eliminate the elements of Palestinian life ranging from the destruction of libraries, the expropriation of agriculture, to the destruction of the olive trees. Many of the latter are over one thousand years old and represent family, the past, and the future; they highlight both ecological and cultural violence against the Palestinians - a bitter leaf with life-giving properties.
Behind the idea of exile is of course the right of return
The United Nations General Assembly adopts resolution 194 (III), resolving that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."[2]
The symbols of Palestinians' right of return are characterized by the deeds to land and the keys to houses stolen or destroyed by the Israeli military during the 1948 nakba. Until all Palestinians are free to return home, those few that do, as discussed by Tahrir, are not truly returnees, but remain in exile within their homeland.
Violent resistance
As recognized by the writers reviewed in Imagining Palestine the idea of resistance is paramount, "the colonized must liberate themselves by 'use of all means, and that of force first and foremost.'" International law allows for an occupied people/territory to legally resist the occupying/colonizing power. For those imagining Palestine, culture comes first then the resistance struggle - signifying a unity of purpose, an inclusiveness and not a mixture of individualized ideals.
In other words, by dividing the Palestinian people into apartheid regions, into different 'terrorist' organizations, into different levels of control superseded by the Palestinian Authority acting as security police for Israel, the Israelis - and factions within Palestine itself - preclude an organizing, organic whole necessary for successful resistance against an occupying force. A "collective national identity" is necessary first before a resistance can be successfully implemented.
As expressed by Tahrir,
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