In Army of Shadows (2008), Hillel Cohen reexamines the typical historical narratives about Palestinian perspectives prior to the Nakba. Much of the discussion pertains to the changes that took place within the mindsets of numerous groups of Palestinians during the British Mandate. It could be beneficial to compare the approach and methodologies of Hillel Cohen's book to Ilan Pappe's The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006) and his reassessment of Israel's historical memory. Pappe focuses on the planning and actions that were taken to ensure an ethnically cleansed Israel and places this in direct contrast with current perspectives of historical rhetoric. Both authors draw from a variety of sources in order to adequately examine the realities of Palestinian societies that often retract previously accepted historical memories.
Cohen analyzes what he terms “Palestinian collaboration” and how collaborators were seen from the nationalist leadership to be “traitors.” This has been less considered by historians from both Palestinian and Israeli narratives. Much of Cohen's discussion begins with the rise of nationalism in the early 1920s among Palestinian elites and how this movement was interpreted differently by different groups and ignored altogether by others. In the early days of Palestinian nationalism, Hajj Amin al-Husseini made “efficient use of his power to brand people as traitors in his struggle for leadership” (51). His attempts to Islamicize nationalist movements led to stigmatization of opposing groups. This can be seen in his vying for mufti of Jerusalem and for the head of the Supreme Muslim Council. Early on he was charging his opponents with collaborating with Jews and Zionists. During his campaigns against the Nashash...
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...divided Palestinians but also attempts by nationalist institutions to enforce solidarity in Palestinian society through the creation of norms, coercion, and rewards.
Another difference is in the purpose of each of the publications. Cohen's rhetoric is more open-ended than Pappe's emotional appeals. Cohen is attempting to dispel Palestinian narratives that claim that the Palestinians lost the war because of their incapabilities to respond to the superior Jewish forces. Here Cohen clearly demonstrates that a collapse in the overall nationalist movement played a major role in the shaping of events. Also, he is dispelling the Zionist narratives as well that attempt to show how the Palestinian Arabs were unified against the Jewish forces. Pappe addresses this along similar lines by demonstrating the strength of the Jewish forces and the implementation of Plan D(alet).
In Shadow House:The Gathering, by Dan Poblocki, he writes this book in 3rd person omniscient. He includes horrific pictures and events that happen in the book, so this book’s genre is horror and mystery. He makes the book nerve racking, engaging, and a terrifying adventure. This book includes 215 pages of non-stop thrills.
...m. A part of the problem today in this conflict is the people not willing to change or go along with what their leaders enforce and their ideas. There have been many acts of aggression from the Jews themselves because they didn’t feel Palestine’s should receive land. Civil disobedience and acting out is a cause to making the conflict last longer.
This marked the beginning of the Palestine armed conflict, one of its kinds to be witnessed in centuries since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War 1. Characterized by a chronology of endless confrontations, this conflict has since affected not only the Middle East relations, but also the gl...
But, as Sandy Tolan 's book, The Lemon Tree, seeks to explain, through Dalia’s longing for zion and Bashir’s belief in the arab right of return, that the main catalyst of the Arab-Israeli conflict is
Imagine being forced out of your own home by an intruder, and this intruder takes away everything you once called your own. Said’s assignment is a real-live example of this situation, he uses images of specific examples of the happenings in Palestine. Palestinian life went from being highly posted to becoming a disrespected minority where it once stood tall. The main idea of Said’s assignment is to see how one can portray their experiences as going from the majority to becoming the “other”.
“Death Marches”. Jewish virtual library everything you need to know about anti Semitism to Zionism. 2014 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise .Web. 7 February 2014.
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is an event that has been well documented throughout the course of Middle-Eastern history. The conflict dates back as far as the nineteenth century where Palestine and Zionist, will later be known as Israel, are two communities each with different ideologies had the same overwhelming desire to acquire land. However, what makes this clash what it is, is the fact that both of these up and coming communities are after the same piece of land. The lengths that both sides went to in order obtain they believed was theirs has shaped the current relationship between the two nations today.
Bourke, Dale Hanson. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tough Questions, Direct Answers. Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity, 2013. N. pag. Print.
Most interpretations of history are to some extend based on an arbitrary selection of events influenced by ideology. Accordingly, they can easily assume a mythical character, which can function to legitimize social and political practices or mobilize action or identification with a cause through anchoring of the present in the past and actualization of the past in the present. Through this mythologization, nations, social groups or set of individuals produce its collective memory and establish their distinctive identity (Wistrich and Ohana 1995: ix). In order to understand how the Zionist movement creates their specific view on the Diaspora, and how Gordon uses this view to establish a distinct identity for the Jewish people, we must understand the mechanics of collective memory.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is a complex movement, which stumbles from one setback to another. The PLO was riven with factionalism; it pursued revolution and diplomacy as if there were no contradiction between the terms. Then, at the moment of winning recognition from Israel, it seemed poised to lose its most precious asset - the support of the Palestinian people, whom it sought to serve. Barry Rubin wrote a history of the PLO in which he investigates and interprets its political circumstances, strategies, and doctrines from their inception in the late 1950s to the events of 1993 culminating in the Rabin-Arafat handshake on the White House lawn. His book aims to offer a general account of the organization’s history and politics. The task of illustrating the incompetence and corruption of the PLO and its leaders is not difficult, and Rubin seemed to have pursued this task with enthusiasm.
Gordon’s essays confirms that the Diaspora experience is a pivotal identity marker for the ‘true Israel’ in the Zionist view. As we have seen, the Diaspora experience is only ideological, not historical, as the experience was unlikely to have been as negative as represented by Gordon.
During the late 1790’s to the early 1800’s the entire notion of Zionism emerged. Zionism is the idea to pursue Judaism, and by doing so they must relocate to the Promise Land, which they chose to be Palestine. It is essential to keep in mind that Zionism is not a matter of judgment because if the Jews did not take such action they would have either had to assimilate to life in Europe (meaning religious views as well) or be killed by Hitler’s forces. The Jewish began migrating to Palestine and residing there and slowly began the process of Zionism with the help of the foolishness of Arabs who owned land in Palestine at the time. The state of Israel was essentially born out of the greed of Arab and Turkish landlords and Zionists plans of coming to existence. The Turkish landlords of Palestine were at the top of the pyramid, ranking as the wealthiest while right below them were the Arab landowners who did not even live on the land but did own villages. The bottom of the...
The beat-up Arab minivan slowed tentatively under the scrutinizing gaze of the Israeli soldier on duty. The routine was simple. About halfway between Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem and Ramallah, the West Bank commercial center, the driver, blaring Arabic music on his radio, maneuvered around the dusty slabs of concrete that composed the Beit Haninah Checkpoint. He waited for a once-over by the Hebrew-speaking 18-year-old and permission to continue. Checkpoints-usually just small tin huts with a prominent white and blue Israeli flag-have become an integral and accepted part of Palestinian existence under Israeli occupation. But for me, a silent passenger in the minivan, each time we entered the no man's land between Israeli territory and the West Bank, my hea...
Edward Said “States” refutes the view Western journalists, writers, and scholars have created in order to represent Eastern cultures as mysterious, dangerous, unchanging, and inferior. According to Said, who was born in Jerusalem at that time Palestine, the way westerners represent eastern people impacts the way they interact with the global community. All of this adds to, Palestinians having to endure unfair challenges such as eviction, misrepresentation, and marginalization that have forced them to spread allover the world. By narrating the story of his country Palestine, and his fellow countrymen from their own perspective Said is able to humanize Palestinians to the reader. “States” makes the reader feel the importance of having a homeland, and how detrimental having a place to call home is when trying to maintain one’s culture. Which highlights the major trait of the Palestinian culture: survival. Throughout “States”, Said presents the self-preservation struggles Palestinians are doomed to face due to eviction, and marginalization. “Just as we once were taken from one habitat to a new one we can be moved again” (Said 543).
Cheshin, Amir S. Separate and Unequal, the Inside Story of Israel Rule in East Jerusalem. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999.