Post 7: Perspectives on History and Place

The picture to the left is the one that Dalia Eshkenazi had hanging on her bedroom wall when Bashir Khairi came to visit her the first time. On a bedroom in a house that once belonged to Bashir's family, a house his father built, in a room that once belonged to him. The Life magazine cover is of an Israeli soldier -- the stereotypical sabra -- celebrating in the Suez Canal after the overwhelming Israeli victory in the Six Days War of 1967.

When Dalia's family arrived in Ramla, formerly known as al-Ramla, they moved into the Khairi house. The Eshkenazi's were told -- as were the rest of the new migrants to Israel -- that the former Arab tenants had chosen to leave their homes rather than live under an Israeli government. The homes were considered abandoned, and were given away to the new migrants to Israel from Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Yet all histories are partial, told from a particular perspective. In the case of Israel, the story of the forced expulsion of many Arab Muslims from their homes was hidden. Dalia, when learning the truth, is ashamed and tries to understand Bashir's anger and frustration -- at least within limits. Bashir, for his part, cannot understand the Jewish longing for a national state, or at least does not understand the longing for a national state in his land. He dismisses Dalia's family's claim to Palestine, and the yearning for aliyah in general, just as Israeli historical narratives spin un-truths about the Arab expulsion to justify their own appropriation of Arab land and homes.

One of the main issues that Bashir and Dalia cannot come to an agreement about is the "right of return," that is, the right for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel and have access to their appropriated stolen property. For Dalia, return is a right but can never be, practically speaking, put into place because of the suffering it would cause Israelis and its implication for the state of Israel. For Bashir, return is simply everything he has believed in and worked towards. In fact, the disagreements over the "one-state" or "two-state" solutions revolves around the right of return.

Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of reading The Lemon Tree is this: how can people be so divided, so unwilling to compromise -- on both sides? Are place and nationalism really that important in the long run? Even though we see two main characters, Dalia and Bashir, who can be "friends" and have civil conversations with each other, it sometimes seems like they are the only ones. Throughout the book, we see both sides creating and constructed their own historical narratives and cultural identities. From the perspective of the reader, it can seem like with each new generation that learns these opposing narratives, the gulf between the two sides becomes even wider.

In terms for the topics for these two weeks, migration -- forced or voluntary -- as well as refugees, statelessness, and nationalism, are not limited to Israel. Human populations have always moved, but the idea of statelessness is relatively new to humanity, because states themselves are relatively new to humanity. The idea of nationalism is even newer, a relatively modern concept that I wrote about last week, which goes beyond a "love for nation."

In some ways, nationalism and migration go hand-in-hand. Peoples wanting self-rule have often migrated to new places in order to get it (like European Jews to Palestine) and/or forced others of different ethnic or cultural groups out of one area to make room for settlement (Americans in the Western US), or to ensure a nation's ethnic and cultural homogeneity. States often break apart when nationalistic ethnic groups want their own self-rule (think about the former Yugoslavia, and the Balkans in general). The disintegration of states also often encourages, if not forces, people to move or take refuge elsewhere.

Terms and concepts from chapters 6-11 of The Lemon Tree:

Law of return/aliyah (Israel)

Israeli historical narrative (independence, expulsion)

Sephardim (mizrahi)/Ashkenazi

Tsena

Sabra

Holocaust survivors in Israel

Suez Canal Crisis of 1956

Arab Nationalism Movement

George Habash

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

Fatah

Yasser Arafat

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Straits of Tiran

Threat of annihilation

Six Days War (1967)

Boundaries of Israel after the Six Days War

The Green Line

Occupied/Administered Territories

Renewed Palestinian emphasis on armed struggle

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

Eretz Yisrael

UN Resolution 242"Two-State" solution

Supersol Bombing, Jerusalem

Fedayi/fedayeen

"armed struggle" vs. "terrorisim"

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)

Revolution Airport

Black September

Munich 1972

Camp David Accords

The Intifada

Hamas

Hezbollah

Seige of Beirut

Sabra/Shantilla Massacres

One-state vs. two-state solution

Arab minority in the state of Israel (not occupied territories)