Suchergebnisse

This year Palestinians commemorate the 60thanniversary of the Nakba – the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell them. The rupture of 1948 and the 'ethnic cleansing' of the Nakba are central to both the Palestinian society of today and Palestinian social history and collective identity. This article explores ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba. It deals with the issue within the context of Palestinian oral history, 'social history from below', narratives of memory and the formation of collective identity. With the history, rights and needs of the Palestinian refugees being excluded from recent Middle East peacemaking efforts and with the failure of both the Israeli state and the international community to acknowledge the Nakba, '1948' as an 'ethnic cleansing' continues to underpin the Palestine-Israel conflict. This article argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practice a professional historiography; it is also a moral imperative of acknowledgement and redemption. The struggles of the refugees to publicise the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting the refugees' rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive.

Since the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Israel in 1967 radical Judaism has developed into a major force, with a considerable influence on the attitudes and votes of many Israelis. The new messianic fervour centres on the building of the Temple on the site of the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem. This article explores the rise of a variety of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel and its implications for community, nationalist and interfaith relations in the Holy Land. It examines, in particular, the social and political conditions under which these fundamentalist attitudes have evolved. It explores evolving attitudes towards the 'sacred geography' of Jerusalem and rights of occupancy, within the wider context of multifaith relations and comparative (Jewish, Muslim and Christian) perspectives.

In 1948 an official 'Transfer Committee' was appointed by the Israeli Cabinet to plan the Palestinian refugees' resettlement in the Arab states. Apart from doing everything possible to reduce the Arab population in Israel, the Transfer Committee sought to amplify and consolidate the demographic transformation of Palestine by: preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes; the destruction of Arab villages; settlement of Jews in Arab villages and towns; and launching a propaganda campaign to discourage Arab return. One of the Transfer Committee's initiatives was to invite Dr Joseph Schechtman, a right-wing Zionist Revisionist leader and expert on 'population transfer', to join its efforts. In 1952 Schechtman published a propagandists work entitled The Arab Refugee Problem. Since then Schechtman would become the single most influential propagator of the Zionist myth of 'voluntary' exodus in 1948. This article examines the leading role played by Schechtman in promoting Israeli propaganda and politics of denial. Relying on newly-discovered Israeli archival documents, the article deals with little known and new aspects of the secret history of the post-1948 period.

This study focuses primarily on two strands of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel: the Zionist nationalist 'messianic' camp and the ultra-orthodox rabbis and non-Zionist religious parties. It explores the doctrinal differences between these two concerning the 'messianic doctrine', their attitudes towards Palestinian Christians, and their impact on Israeli foreign and domestic policies. The two currents invoke the interpretation of the Jewish Law of Moses Maimonides to justify their respective attitudes towards the Palestinians. The essay explores the 'reinvention' of Maimonides by Jewish religious fundamentalists, who metamorphose him from being a rationalist and universalist philosopher—the most illustrious example of the Golden Age of Arabo–Islamic–Judaic symbiosis—into an anti-Arab religious zealot.