Book contents
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Cambridge Middle East Studies
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Post-Oslo Period
- Part I The Textbook of Memory
- Part II The Landscape of Memory
- 4 Recreating and Reclaiming the Lost Homeland
- 5 A Past That Does Not Pass
- Part III Scoop on the Past
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
4 - Recreating and Reclaiming the Lost Homeland
from Part II - The Landscape of Memory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2021
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Cambridge Middle East Studies
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Post-Oslo Period
- Part I The Textbook of Memory
- Part II The Landscape of Memory
- 4 Recreating and Reclaiming the Lost Homeland
- 5 A Past That Does Not Pass
- Part III Scoop on the Past
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Summary
Through an analysis of the mnemonic activities of three leading civil society organizations – Baladna, ADRID, and Badil – Chapter 4 examines two collective mnemonic Nakba practices established in the wake of the Oslo Accords inside Israel and the West Bank: annual Nakba Day commemoration and collective returns to former Palestinian villages. By detailing the mnemonic symbolism and political goals of these commemorative activities, this chapter illustrates that the established forms of Nakba commemoration in the post-Oslo period articulate the urgent desire to further awareness of the Nakba among younger generations with the specific aim of encouraging the continuing struggle for the right of return (Arabic: haq al-ʻawdah). With reference to the organizations’ varying social and geographical focuses, this chapter also attests to the fact that Nakba mnemonics seek to resist ongoing marginalization while reflecting Palestinian communities’ contemporary political, economic, and cultural grievances and diverging historical mnemonic traditions. The theoretical focus on the confrontational and defensive nature of Nakba mnemonic practices does not denote that the exclusionary narrative unfolds overtly. The analyzed commemorative acts are not “sites” of a narrative collision. Nevertheless, the societal invocation of the Nakba as a “present continuous” – or an “ongoing Nakba” – does shed light on existing trends of marginalization discussed throughout the work, which hinge on a retaliatory screening out of any past suffering of the out-group.
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- A Tale of Two NarrativesThe Holocaust, the Nakba, and the Israeli-Palestinian Battle of Memories, pp. 159 - 190Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021