Palestinian Commemoration in Israel: Calendars, Monuments, and Martyrs

329 Pages·2015·1.599 MB·English

by  Tamir Sorek

Palestinian Commemoration in Israel
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
Palestinian Commemoration
in Israel
CALENDARS, MONUMENTS, AND MARTYRS
Tamir Sorek
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
©2015 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sorek, Tamir, author.
Palestinian commemoration in Israel : calendars, monuments, and martyrs / Tamir Sorek.
pages cm--(Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-9392-6 (cloth : alk. paper)--isbn 978-0-8047-9518-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Arab-Israeli conflict--Anniversaries, etc. 2. Muslim martyrs--Israel--Anniversaries, etc.
3. Palestinian Arabs--Israel--Anniversaries, etc. 4. Collective memory--Israel.
5. Memorialization--Israel. 6. Memorials--Israel. I. Title. II. Series: Stanford studies in
Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures.
ds119.7.s635 2015
394'.40899274--dc23
2015004813
isbn 978-0-8047-9520-3 (electronic)
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion
For Michelle, Tal, and Noah

CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Commemoration under British Rule 19
2 The Kafr Qasim Massacre and Land Day 41
3 The Political Calendar in the Twenty-First Century 67
4 Memorials for Martyrs, I (1976–1983) 87
5 Memorials for Martyrs, II (1998–2013) 101
6 On the Margins of Commemoration 119
7 Disciplining Palestinian Memory 139
8 The Struggle over the Next Generation 163
9 Political Summer Camps 181
10 The Quest for Victory 199
11 Latent Nostalgia for Yitzhak Rabin 217
Conclusion 233
Appendix 243
Notes 247
Bibliography 283
Index 301

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Percentage of Arab citizens who reported participating in
political events by year, 2003–2012 7
Figure 2 Cartoon of Lord Balfour holding his declaration on a map
of Palestine 27
Figure 3 Palestinian activist inviting dialog at the March of Return
in 2014 79
Figure 4 Memorial monument in Jat for the October 2000 martyrs 135
Figure 5 Jewish Israeli support for equality policies for Arab citizens,
2008–2009 140
Figure 6 Main sources of Jews’ and Arabs’ knowledge of the history
of the country 166
Figure 7 Mention of Zionist and Arab historical figures by main
sources of knowledge 167
Figure 8 The most frequently mentioned events by gender and self-
identification 207
Figure 9 The website Arab48 celebrates the sixth anniversary of the
2006 war 210
Figure 10 Sympathy for various politicians and depth of connection
with Jews, May 1996 226
Figure 11 Sympathy for Rabin among Jews and Arabs in 1996 and 2005 228
Figure 12 Sympathy for Rabin by level of pride in Israeli identity in 2005 229
Figure 13 Mention of Rabin by the extent that the definition
“Israeli” fits, 2008 survey 230