Palestinian Citizens in Israel: A History Through Fiction, 1948-2010

241 Pages·2020·2.021 MB·English

by  Manar H. Makhoul

Palestinian Citizens
in Israel
A History Through Fiction, 1948–2010
MANAR H. MAKHOUL
ALTERNATIVEHISTORIES:NARRATIVESFROMTHEMIDDLEEASTANDMEDITERRANEAN
PALESTINIAN CITIZENS
IN ISRAEL
Alternative Histories: Narratives from the Middle East and Mediterranean
Series Editor: Sargon Donabed
This series provides a forum for exchange on a myriad of alternative histories
of marginalised communities and individuals in the Near and Middle East and
Mediterranean, and those of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean heritage. It also
highlights thematic issues relating to various native peoples and their narratives and
– with particular contemporary relevance – explores encounters with the notion
of ‘other’ within societies. Often moving beyond the conventional state-centred
and dominant monolithic approach, or reinterpreting previously accepted stories,
books in the series examine and explain themes from inter-communal relations,
environment, health and society, and explore ethnic, communal, racial, linguistic and
religious developments, in addition to geopolitics.
Editorial Advisory Board
Professor Ali Banuazizi
Dr Aryo Makko
Professor Laura Robson
Professor Paul Rowe
Professor Hannibal Travis
Books in the series (published and forthcoming)
Sayfo: An Account of the Assyrian Genocide
‘Abd al-Masih Nu‘man of Qarabash
Translated and annotated by Michael Abdalla and Łukasz Kiczko
Tunisia’s Andalusians: The Cultural Identity of a North African Minority
Marta Dominguez Diaz
Palestinian Citizens in Israel: A History Through Fiction, 1948–2010
Manar H. Makhoul
Armenians Beyond Diaspora: Making Lebanon their Own
Tsolin Nalbantian
Museums and the Art of Minorities: Cultural Representation in the Middle East and
North Africa
Edited by Virginie Rey
Shia Minorities in the Contemporary World: Migration, Transnationalism and
Multilocality
Edited by Oliver Scharbrodt and Yafa Shanneik
Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria
Deanna Ferree Womack
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/ahnme
PALESTINIAN CITIZENS
IN ISRAEL
A HISTORY THROUGH FICTION,
1948–2010
Manar H. Makhoul
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
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© Manar H. Makhoul, 2020
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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and printed and bound in Great Britain
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ISBN 978 1 4744 5929 7 (epub)
The right of Manar H. Makhoul to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
CONTENTS
List of Tables vi
Acknowledgements vii
Note on Transliteration x
Introduction 1
1 Palestinian Novels in Israel, 1948−1967 15
2 Postmodernisations, 1967−1987 67
3 Palestinian Novels in Israel, 1987−2010: United by Alienation 139
Reflections: Evolution of Palestinian Identity in Israel 208
Bibliography 214
Index 227
vi | palestinian citizens in israel
TABLES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1.1 Novels published between 1948 and 1967 64 I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Yasir Sulieman, my
2.1 Novels published between 1967 and 1987 135 supervisor at the University of Cambridge between 2007 and 2011, for his
3.1 Novels published between 1987 and 2010 203 involvement in the publishing of this book from its first stages as a doctoral
dissertation. Shukran, Yasir, for your support, patience and guidance during
the research period, and later for encouraging me to publish the book with
Edinburgh University Press.
I would like also to thank Dr Oren Barak, who supervised my work for
my MA thesis at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for his relentless sup-
port and encouragement. Professor Avraham Sela, who was my first lecturer
at the Hebrew University, has been a great role model in my early years in
academia. His stimulation and support during those years are unforgettable.
Dr Anat Lapidot was the person who encouraged me to apply to Cambridge
University. Her faith in me for so long was extremely motivating. I am grate-
ful for being able to work with her at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute after
my return. I would also like to thank Dr Shukri Arraf, a dear friend of my
family, who was always available for telephone enquiries from Cambridge,
generously offering his wealth of knowledge and expertise. Special thanks to
Sayyed Kashua, whose extraordinary writing has brought me to the study of
literature in search of identity. I have been following the writing of Sayyed
acknowledgements | vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Yasir Sulieman, my
supervisor at the University of Cambridge between 2007 and 2011, for his
involvement in the publishing of this book from its first stages as a doctoral
dissertation. Shukran, Yasir, for your support, patience and guidance during
the research period, and later for encouraging me to publish the book with
Edinburgh University Press.
I would like also to thank Dr Oren Barak, who supervised my work for
my MA thesis at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for his relentless sup-
port and encouragement. Professor Avraham Sela, who was my first lecturer
at the Hebrew University, has been a great role model in my early years in
academia. His stimulation and support during those years are unforgettable.
Dr Anat Lapidot was the person who encouraged me to apply to Cambridge
University. Her faith in me for so long was extremely motivating. I am grate-
ful for being able to work with her at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute after
my return. I would also like to thank Dr Shukri Arraf, a dear friend of my
family, who was always available for telephone enquiries from Cambridge,
generously offering his wealth of knowledge and expertise. Special thanks to
Sayyed Kashua, whose extraordinary writing has brought me to the study of
literature in search of identity. I have been following the writing of Sayyed
vii
viii | palestinian citizens in israel
since 1999, and my MA thesis on him led to the research proposal leading to
this book. Many thanks also to Hanan Musa for assisting in getting hold of
many of the novels when I did not have time to go back to Israel. Last, but
not least, I would like to thank Kath Farrell for her impeccable copy-editing
of the thesis under the tight timetable of the last few months.
The development of my dissertation into this book would have not been
possible without the support I received during my postdoctoral fellowship
at the Minerva Humanities Centre in Tel-Aviv University. I am grateful for
the enormous encouragement and support I received from Professor Rivka
Feldhay and Dr Raef Zreik. The project they are leading, Humanities in
Conflict Zones, and their respective research groups at the centre have been
fertile intellectual grounds for developing innovative research. It would be
impossible to mention every member at the centre, but I would like to par-
ticularly mention a few who had a profound impact on me. I am indebted to
my friend and colleague Dr Zahiye Kundos, who encouraged me to apply for
this fellowship. I have known Zahiye since our undergraduate studies at the
Hebrew University, and it is a great honour to partner with her professionally.
Dr Gal Hertz’s unceasing support for everyone in the project is an enormous
energiser. Gal and Zahiye are a great source of inspiration and hope. The
Programme for the Study of Jewish-Arab Culture at Tel-Aviv University
is another ground-breaking intellectual enterprise that I am proud to par-
ticipate in. Professor Galili Shahar has been a great mentor since I joined
the programme. Together with Dr Almog Behar we developed this research
project into a successful course in the Department of Literature, further
expanding the scope of its analysis. Also, thank you, Almog, for suggesting
my name to teach a course based on this research in Sapir Academic College,
back in 2015, becoming my first academic post after my graduation. My
gratitude also goes to Dr Maram Masarwi, Dr Yusri Hazran, Dr Tom Pessah,
Dr Manar Mahmoud, Dr Avital Barak and Dr Ran Segev.
Apart from the professional and academic support of all of the people
mentioned above, and many more, working on this book would have not
been possible without the unconditional support, love and encouragement
of my family: my father, Halim, who read each and every paper I ever wrote,
and to whom this book is dedicated; my amazingly loving and supportive
mother, Salwa; Dima, Ibn-Sina, Amid and Suha, Lubna and Jens (who also
acknowledgements | ix
read and commented on earlier chapters of the book); Reem, Steve – thank
you all for being there for me.
Indeed, my ‘Cambridge experience’ would have been completely dif-
ferent, and frankly unimaginable, without my dear friends there: Yonatan
Mendel, Ellah Yedaaya, Bruno De Nicola, Marta Dominguez, Ronald
Klingebiel, Jessica Johnson, Prajakti Kalra, Siddarth ‘Montu’ Saxena, Khaled
Hroub, Kholoud Amr, Heba Mostafa, Simon Ryle, Mariam Tanwir, Shahzad
Shafqat, Tarik Mouakil, Louise Burdloff, Therese Cregan, Sharif Hamadeh,
Tilde Rosmer, Ignacio Sanchez, James Weaver, Juliette Touma, Ghusoun
Bisharat (thank you also for lending me two books for more than four years),
Isabelle Humphries, Camilla Greene, James Greene, Nicky Sherrot, Clara
Vigdis, Layla Younis, Maha Younis and Antoine Raffoul.
Special thanks to my friends at home: Gideon Herscher, for his relentless
help with preparing the application to Cambridge. Without the generous
help of Gidi’s father, Dr Uri Herscher, who helped me secure funding for
the first year, landing in Cambridge would have been seriously difficult. I feel
indebted to both of you. Avi Krauz provided me with crucial mental support
for many years in Jerusalem and Cambridge. Special thanks are for my friend
and colleague Dr Wael Abu-Oxa. For many years, Wael has been a great
friend and a fierce opponent in innumerable debates. He has been a source of
great inspiration and motivation.
Thank you all.