Heroes and martyrs palestine

Laleh Khalili0521865123, 9780521865128

Many decades have passed since the Palestinian national movement began its political and military struggle. In that time, poignant memorials at massacre sites, a palimpsest of posters of young heroes and martyrs, sorrowful reminiscences about lost loved ones, and wistful images of young men and women who fought as guerrillas, have all flourished in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine tells the story of how dispossessed Palestinians have commemorated their past, and how through their dynamic everyday narrations, their nation has been made even without the institutional memory-making of a state. Bringing ethnography to political science, Khalili invites us to see Palestinian nationalism in its proper international context and traces its affinities with Third Worldist movements of its time, while tapping a rich and oft-ignored seam of Palestinian voices, histories, and memories.

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Table of contents :
Cover……Page 1
Half-title……Page 3
Series-title……Page 4
Title……Page 5
Copyright……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
Contents……Page 9
Acknowledgments……Page 11
Abbreviations……Page 13
1 Introduction……Page 15
Nationalist memories……Page 17
Histories, memories, stories……Page 18
Approaching Palestinian nationalism……Page 20
The plan……Page 23
2 Transnational movements and discourses……Page 25
“A Brave Music”: the celebration of nations and their heroes……Page 27
“Preserved in anthems, in flags and at the bank”: domestication of heroes in states……Page 35
“Permanent battles of history”: transnational Islamist Heroism……Page 40
Trauma drama: the human rights/humanitarian victim subject……Page 47
Conclusions……Page 52
3 Palestinian lives and local institutions in the camps of Lebanon……Page 55
The Nakba (1948)……Page 56
After the exodus (1948–1969)……Page 58
The Thawra in the Palestinian camps (1969–1982)……Page 61
The years of war and destruction (1982–1993)……Page 66
After the Oslo Accords (1993)……Page 68
Silencing Palestinian pasts……Page 74
4 Forms of commemoration……Page 79
History-telling……Page 80
Images……Page 83
Pedagogy……Page 84
Paper and electronic media……Page 88
Naming……Page 93
Organization of time……Page 95
Organization of spaces……Page 96
Ceremonial gatherings……Page 100
Conclusions……Page 102
5 Contents of commemoration: narratives of heroism, suffering, and sumud……Page 104
Contents of commemoration……Page 105
Heroic narratives……Page 106
Narratives of sumud……Page 113
Tragic narratives……Page 117
Conclusions……Page 125
6 Guerrillas and martyrs: the evolution of national “heroes”……Page 127
Commemorating martyrs for international audiences……Page 129
Commemorative photographs and murals……Page 131
Naming of people, institutions, and events after martyrs……Page 136
Martyrs’ funerals……Page 138
Martyrs’ mothers……Page 141
Archetypal martyrs……Page 145
National cemeteries and memorials……Page 149
Quotidian memory places……Page 151
Martyrs as heroes, martyrs as victims……Page 153
Fida’iyyin as iconic national heroes……Page 156
From fida’yi to martyr……Page 159
Conclusions……Page 162
7 Between battles and massacres: commemorating violent events……Page 164
Battles as icons of militant nationalism……Page 165
Heroic defeats……Page 169
Shifting between battles and massacres……Page 173
Massacre as a metaphor for the Palestinian predicament……Page 178
Commemorating Tal al-Za’tar and Sabra/Shatila……Page 182
A palimpsest of massacres……Page 190
Polyvalent events: War(s) of the Camps……Page 194
Conclusions……Page 199
8 Commemoration in the Occupied Palestinian Territories……Page 201
The State’s biography of the nation……Page 204
Oppositional heroic narratives……Page 209
Victims in NGO and solidarity discourses……Page 218
Conclusions……Page 225
Form and content of commemorations……Page 228
Available transnational discourses and local political institutions……Page 232
Commemoration as performance……Page 236
Evaluating tragic, heroic, and sumud narratives……Page 237
The enduring resonance of national biographies……Page 239
Primary and Secondary Sources……Page 242
Index……Page 267
Cambridge Middle East Studies 27……Page 275