Palestine Versus the Palestinians? Writing Palestinians into History 

Workshop with Prof. Dr. Beshara Doumani

BASEL, 30 September – 1 October 2022

There is a tremendous tension between the historical evolution of the concept of “Palestine” as a territorial unit and of the concept of “Palestinians” as a people. Consider, for example, the irony that the establishment of a state called Palestine by the British after World War One was predicated on the erasure of Palestinians as a political community. Consider also the irony that the destruction of Palestine in 1948 became the seminal moment in the constitution of modern Palestinian peoplehood.
The paradox of Palestine versus the Palestinians cannot be fully explained by the three dominant paradigms that dominate knowledge production: national, relational, and settler-colonial. The national paradigm structures historical narratives as that of the conflict between two peoples over the same land; assumes a natural fit between territory, identity, and sovereignty; and focuses on national movements and states as the engines of historical change. The relational paradigm explores the ways that Palestinians and Israelis constituted each other, highlights internal contradictions, and recognizes the asymmetrical balance of power between them. The settler-colonial paradigm frames the destruction of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948 not as an event, but as global structural process of territorial dispossession, demographic displacement, and political erasure of indigenous societies. Each of these paradigms represents a different way of understanding the modern world, yet they share a common space/time/agency architecture that focuses primarily on the struggle over Palestine, not the experiences of Palestinians; that organizes time in a linear series of externally imposed ruptures (1917, 1948, 1967, 1982, 1993), not along developments within Palestinian society; and that locks Palestinians in a binary: either as victims of, or resisters to, forces beyond their control.

This workshop considers the politics and ethics of writing Palestinians into history and how that might reveal a rich archive of everyday agency that broadens our imagination of potential futures. Ultimately, it asks: What does it mean to be a Palestinian? What can the Palestinian condition teach us about the modern world? And why has it become a global symbol for ongoing struggles for justice, equality, and dignity?

Workshop Topics:
1 | Palestinians Before Palestine
2 | 1948 and the Shadow Years
3 | Exile, Occupation, and Settler Citizenship
4 | Potential Futures