No Place for Grief: Martyrs, Prisoners, and Mourning in Contemporary Palestine

222 Pages·2016·1.86 MB·English

by  Lotte Buch Segal

No Place for Grief
THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF PO LITI CAL VIO LENCE
Tobias Kelly, Series Editor
A complete list of books in the series
is available from the publisher.
NO PLACE FOR GRIEF
Martyrs, Prisoners, and Mourning
in Con temporary Palestine
Lotte Buch Segal
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA
Copyright © 2016 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used
for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this
book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written
permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
www . upenn . edu / pennpress
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
on acid- free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4821-0
For Sune, David, and Elias
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Note on Transliteration x
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Th e Grammar of Suff ering in Occupied Palestine 26
Chapter 2. Domestic Uncanniness 48
Chapter 3. Enduring Pres ents 81
Chapter 4. On Hardship and Closeness 99
Chapter 5. Solitude in Marriage 124
Chapter 6. Enduring the Ordinary 143
Conclusion 167
Notes 177
References 183
Index 197
Acknowl edgments 207
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE
My time in Palestine has left me with a sadness that fl ows from the experi-
ences of the people I encountered there. Th e question of whether this infl u-
ences my interpretation of words, human beings, and situations is at best
rhetorical. Many times I did not know how to respond to the words, tears, or
gestures of the human beings at the heart of this book. How could I reply?
As a female researcher from one of the most affl uent socie ties of the world.
As a woman whose life is not imperiled by the systematic exhaustion of the
Palestinian occupation. As someone who feels empathy with the people
she meets without certainty that empathy is ever exhaustive or necessarily
the pathway to knowledge.
A student in my Psy chol ogy in Anthropology course asked me aft er hav-
ing read Chapter 2 of this book for class: “Do you understand these women?”
To this question I replied with a qualifi ed “Yes.” It is a yes only if we mean
knowledge in the sense of ac know ledg ment, which I off er here. I have done
my best not to simplify these women’s experiences, but I also know that I
could not entirely avoid it.
I feel compelled to act upon what I know, but I am not sure of the conse-
quences. I write. I tell. Who listens? Some do. Does it matter? I do not know.
João Biehl once asked me what I thought was the most power ful part of my
work. It took me an hour to dare to say that it may have been sitting down
and listening to those women, so at least they knew that I had heard their
stories. Th ey knew, and I knew. Now you know.