A
S
TORY
W
ITHOUT
E
ND
Collective Memory and Identity Construction Among Young Palestinians in
Nablus
Student name : Branka Dasović Student number : 6188303
Master Thesis Political Science, International Relations 2013-2014
Research Project : Power & Resistance in the Middle East Supervisor & 1st reader : Dr. Anne de Jong
2nd reader : Dr. Vivienne Matthies-Boon Date Completed : June 27, 2014
For Ismat, Sa’ed, Kifaya, Wedad and their Palestinian contemporaries. And for my grandmother Jo, whose believe in me never wavered. Through our memories, she will always have a place in the present.
L
IST OF
F
IGURES
1. ‘Handala’, drawn by Naji Salim al-Ali, source: handala.org 1 2. The city of Nablus seen from the north side, Nablus, April 2014 17 3. Students playing soccer on the New Campus, April, 2014 36 4. People waiting in line at Qalandia checkpoint, source: nbcnews.com 38 5. Two Palestinian men passing through Qalandia checkpoint, source: npr.org 38 6. The An-Najah University Old campus, Nablus, April 2014 49 7. The An-Najah University, New campus Nablus April 2014 49
Photographs appearing in this thesis, except for figures 1, 4 and 5 are made by myself.
T
RANSLITERATIONS
(Al-)Nakba - (the) catastrophe
Intifada - shaking off
Haq al awda - the right of return
Watan - homeland
Nargile - flavored tobacco water pipe
Idari - administrative detention
Jeel - generation
Jeel Filastin - generation of Palestine
Hawiyya - identity
Wataniye - nationalism
Jeel al-Aqsa - second intifada generation
P
REFACE &
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the summer of 2012, I traveled to the West Bank to participate in a volunteer project organized by the international exchange program Zajel and the An-Najah National University in Nablus. My time there gave me the opportunity to engulf myself, though only for a short time, in a specific place, within a context that gave me unique access to the lives of young Palestinians. One of the things that made an impression was how, in conversation, and talking about oneself, these young Palestinians reproduced stories of Palestinian history structured by the memories and stories of former generations, intricately weaved together with their own personal stories. Some of them spoke of these familial memories as if experienced by themselves, though few were alive to do so, or still very young. The story told by these youngsters was centered on the Palestinian struggle, their connection to Palestine 1948: the house and land where many generations ago their families lived. In many cases it was used it seemed as a tool to explain the claims to rights and land, to underscore the felt unjustness of the occupation, or to give weight to the own, personal feelings and experiences surrounding the conflict. In these stories, the young Palestinians communicated who they are and what they stand for, and more urgently, what they hoped for the future.
In the early process of writing this thesis, a final choice for the subject had to be made. It was a process that was neither very lengthy nor difficult. My journey to the West Bank had left a deep and abiding impression and a feeling of connectedness to the Palestinian people and lands. It was the subject of Palestinian identity and memory that was going to be the pièce
de résistance of my five-year long journey at the University of Amsterdam.
Choosing this subject would entail traveling back to Palestine to do fieldwork, a prospect that gave me simultaneously feelings of great joy and anxiety. Joy, for I would go back to the places and people I felt so profoundly connected to, and anxiety because doing fieldwork is never without difficulty and I only had sparse experience in this area. Still, it was a challenge I wanted to confront head on. Supported by my research advisor dr. Anne de Jong and confident of my belief that taking on this challenge could bring something amazing to this thesis, the planning began.
Looking back on the fieldwork in Nablus, I can say that I am proud, surprised and happy that I chose to venture out of my comfort zone. First and foremost it was an
immeasurably valuable and learning experience as a (beginning) researcher. Doing research meant being confronted with yourself: your own capabilities and limitations, finding and
perfecting the way you conduct interviews or ‘hang out’ with the locals. Being surprised for realizing that even though you never imagined it, doing fieldwork is actually something you thoroughly enjoy. Being happy to be there and proud for taking the leap and proud at what I have accomplished there.
After my fieldwork I feel even further connected to Palestine, its people and lands. The Palestinians in the West Bank have faced and are still facing times that are extremely contested, difficult and not without hurt and loss. Nevertheless, if one thing seems true it is that they are a resilient people, and more than that, agents of the past, present and future, capable of immense strength. They are not passively surviving their fate they are connoisseurs in surviving: they resist, imagine, create, invent and dream.
Finally, I am endlessly thankful for all the help and most importantly the unbounded support from my friends and family, both from The Netherlands and from Palestine. My mother Hannie, sister Anna, aunt Marianne and friends among which especially Maartje, Judith, Jan Willem, Heidi and Ken who all helped me in different ways, but were all very important in making this journey. Most importantly, I want to thank my friend Ismat to whom I am enormously grateful for his guidance and support before, during and after my fieldwork. Without him this thesis simply would not exist. He is the best guide a person could wish for. Ismat, Sa’ed, Kifaya, Wedad, Ibraheem, Lama, and many others have welcomed me as a friend in Nablus and have openheartedly shared their stories and memories. With this thesis, I hope to honor them and contribute to the ever-growing body of knowledge about Palestine and its people.
T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS
List of Figures 4
Transliterations 4
Preface & Acknowledgments 5
Introduction 9
Research Questions and Objectives 10
Relevance 12
Chapter One: Methodology
1.1 Strategy and Design 13
1.1.1 Ethnography 14
1.2 Research Field 15
1.2.1 Reflections on ‘Hanging Out’ 18
1.2.2 Dilemmas and Limitations 19
1.3 Fieldwork Approach and Theory 21
Chapter Two: Theories on Memory and Identity
2.1 Literature Review 22
2.2 Theoretical Framework 23
2.2.1 Connecting Past and Present 24
2.2.2 Narrative Inquiry 25
2.2.3 Memories 28
2.2.4 Identity 29
Chapter Three: The Context of Life in Nablus
3.1 Practicing Normalcy 35
Chapter Four: Framing Past and Present in Nablus
4.1 The Nexus Between Past and Present 40
4.2 Narrating Identity 45
4.3 Different Past and Identifications 48
Chapter Five: Resistance and Agency
5.1 Political Participation in Nablus 55
5.2 Views on Local and National Politics 56
5.3 The Counter Narrative 58
5.4 Future Views 61 Conclusion 64 Bibliography 68 Appendix One 74 Appendix Two 75 Appendix Three 81 Appendix Four 95
I
NTRODUCTION
‘The past is never dead’, wrote William Faulkner ‘it’s not even past’ (Faulkner, 1951: 92). Faulkner wrote this as a part of a play about dealing with a violent and turbulent past. It proclaims that time is not always experienced in a linear fashion, as one event that succeeds the other. As events are experienced and recalled into memory, they become a part of who we are and how we see and understand the world around us. It can be understood metaphorically as how the past stays with us through remembering it in the present. This correlates directly to the theme and objectives of this research.
Al-Nakba, the Arabic phrase meaning ‘the catastrophe’ relates to a long history of
dissention, turmoil and war that led to the disintegration of Palestinian society and the founding of a new one: the state of Israel in 1948 (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 3). This year, 2014, marks sixty-six years since ‘a country and its people disappeared from maps and dictionaries’ and Palestinians from that time on would be stateless ‘refugees’ or usurped into the newly founded Jewish state as ‘Israeli Arabs’ (Sanbar, 2001: 87). Although many years have past, 1948 is still a fundamental year in the Palestinian memory and has for many come to stand as a symbolic apogee in the Palestinian struggle (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 3; Allen, 2005: 3). It is a year of an abrupt and tragic break with continuity in the Palestinian history, both in place and in time. Thus, in Palestinian history and memory it is ‘the
demarcation line between two qualitatively opposing periods’ that marks the beginning of a continuous process of land expropriation, oppression and displacement (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 3). The Nakba is a catastrophe that has for many Palestinians left living a normal life out of reach and countless stories untold. The repetition of events since the ‘48 Nakba marks the past and present: house demolitions, killings, arrests, land appropriations, spatial isolation and collective punishment of a people.
1948 is upheld as an anchor to the past; however, ‘its relevance as a political and cultural tool’ is subject to change (Allen, 2005: 3). The act of remembering and narrating historical events by Palestinians today involves a process that intertwines history with present, or as Allen notes in The Role of Oral History in Archiving the Nakba: ‘a codified, traumatic history is being ceaselessly re-filtered through the radically unstable lens of the current situation’ (Allen, 2007: 11). The bedrock of this thesis lies in the act of re-filtering the past.
In this ethnographic study, fourteen Palestinian students from different villages and cities and with different social, economic and political backgrounds were interviewed. The
students demonstrated themselves to be active agents in recalling and reconstructing collective memories in their life stories, while connecting specific collective memories to personal experiences and notions of the ‘self’. Many students view recalling the Palestinian (oral) history as a national duty, presenting and sharing a past that seems forever to compete with the Zionist narrative, and that is actively used by the students as a counter narrative to the dominant version of history.
In line with Faulkner, I realized that for these Palestinian youngsters the past is indeed never dead, or even in the past. Palestinians today still live the story of their ancestors, since it is a continuous Nakba: a story without end. The way that the past - individually lived yet collectively remembered - is referenced and used, compelled me to consider how this affects their sense of self and, by extension, their actions and ideals.
Memory and identity are the main focus of this study. I take a point of departure in anthropological understandings of identity, place and memory and explore these in context to the political conflict. I will examine collective and personal memories, how these are
expressed in narratives (oral stories or histories), and how they relate to identity construction amongst young Palestinians. In my fieldwork, I have surveyed the premise that young Palestinian adults not only reproduce the narratives of former generations, they also employ the past to frame their own and other’s identity, and to make sense of their present and future. The collective past is, however, not the only or necessarily the most important frame upon which identities, views and actions are built. The personal past and memories prove to be equally powerful and have influenced these youngsters’ lives and sense of self in a profound way. So rather than only focusing on the remembered past, this thesis examines what frames of meaning are used by the students. In this respect, this thesis is not concerned with the actual events of 1948. It focuses instead on why the past is important to the students’ sense of self and in what way the past is recounted in the personal narratives.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES
With many studies related to this topic focused either on the first generation narration of the ’48 Nakba or on the identity and collective memory of Palestinian diaspora outside the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), a logical next step in academic research is to examine narratives and identity construction amongst Palestinians currently living in occupied Palestine. Living in an area that is involved in a conflict, and occupied by a hostile state, has dramatic effects on how people develop their sense of self and of others. considering these are
the people that have endured, and are still enduring, the circumstances engendered by the ’48 Nakba, looking at how identity is formed by the past and present can provide important insights.
The related research question this thesis tries to answer is:
What is the relationship between collective memories of the Palestinian struggle and the construction of identity amongst university students in Nablus?
This question is concerned with two aspects: the first entailing collective memories of the Palestinian struggle and the second being identity construction amongst a specific group of Palestinians living in the West Bank. The focus is on the question of the relationship, rather than on the premise that collective memories do in fact influence identity construction. Certainly, it may be posed that a connection is likely, but research is in its foundation an undertaking that looks to empiricism before stating truths. The Palestinian struggle refers to all the events that have transpired since the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and the
contested reality in which Palestinians in the West Bank currently live. Both factors will be addressed in the coming chapters.
The main goal of this thesis is to understand in what way the personal identity is linked to a collective identity and in what way collective memories influence this process of identity formation. To answer the main question, a thorough examination of key concepts concerning the subject of this study is necessary. To this end, the following questions are formulated that relate both to fieldwork specific inquiries as well as to the broader subject of collective memories and narratives among the young Palestinians:
1. Which collective memories and narratives are recalled by the students, and in what way are these employed?
2. In what way do the students link collective memories to the personal self: to personal narratives and experiences and their personal identity?
3. To what extent do students feel it is their national duty to reproduce the collective Palestinian memories and narratives?
4. In what way do the students feel the reproduction of the Palestinian narrative is a means of producing a counter-narrative to the Zionist narration of history?
5. Which differences or similarities are evident in the narration of the Palestinian struggle between the young Palestinians and older generations?
6. In what way does the environment of the students contribute to the incorporation of one narrative above the other?
7. In what way does the environment of the Nablusi students influence their identity construction?
These questions will lead to a better understanding of how, why and in what way memories, both personal and collective, influence identity construction amongst the students. These questions require investigation into what other factors are relevant and in what way the student narrative differs from that of other, older generations. I will address these questions through a multi-pronged approach consisting of a literature study, fieldwork and analysis.
RELEVANCE
As mentioned, other research has been conducted on the collective remembering of the ’48 Nakba, mostly among refugee communities and diaspora outside the oPt. As the aim of this study is to examine the link between collective and personal memories and identity
construction among young Palestinians living in the West Bank, this thesis hopes to contribute in two ways. First, to add to the growing body of knowledge, both to scholarly studies on Palestine and to projects aimed at collecting the (his)stories of Palestinians. Second, this study is adding to a relatively new discussion. This discussion situates itself within the occupied territories among a generation that has lived through the more recent events of Palestinian history, but who continue to carry with them the events of the past. The relative novelty in this project further lies in its examination of the influences memory practices have on the construction of identities in the West Bank and on its focus on the intersection between personal and collective memories. This study goes beyond the specific case and is situated in the domain of identity and (cultural) memory studies, as well as in the political arena for its contextualization within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Finally, I argue that understanding these connections and practices can give us
important insights into what is most important to this young generation and what is relevant in the construction of their identity. By extension, considering these two factors, we can gain insight into their views, ideals and actions within the broader context of a protracted, complex and violent conflict.
C
HAPTER ONE:
M
ETHODOLOGY
This chapter introduces the research methods used in this study. In the research strategy and design, views on examining the social world and the choice between qualitative or
quantitative research will be questioned. A more detailed examination of research methods will be discussed in the paragraph on ethnography, concluding with the reflections, dilemmas and limitations of the fieldwork in Nablus.
1.1 STRATEGY AND DESIGN
This thesis is aimed at examining collective memories that are expressed in narratives and understanding the connection to identity construction amongst young Palestinians. Specific attention is given to the way in which the environment of the students influences the perception and incorporation of (competing) narratives into the personal story.
As research methods should always be appropriate to the questions a study wishes to answer (Bryman, 2008: 395), it is argued here that only by going into the field and by observing and talking to students face-to-face, can the relationship between identity construction and collective memories be explored. My observation of the environment informs my understanding of what is relevant to the young Palestinians and subsequently what questions to ask during the interviews. As such, this study is mostly rooted in qualitative methods. The theoretical framework, which will be discussed in detail in chapter two,
provides a frame with which I am able to understand the data in a broader context and places it in the entirety of this study. A triangulation process will be implemented, using multiple sources of data that will secure the internal validity and reliability of the study and its conclusions (Bryman, 2008: 32). This study aims to provide in-depth analysis and
examinations, as opposed to studies based exclusively on qualitative methods, using methods like questionnaires, to approach the subject.
As identities are ‘negotiated through interactions with the environment’ (Low en Lawrence-Zuniga, 2007: 14) the places wherein these negotiations take place become an important part of the research. It is in space where social identities are constructed, where the lives of these youngsters take place, in which personal experiences and trans-generational memories are framed. To borrow the words of Clifford Geertz (1996):
To study place, or more exactly, some peoples or other's sense of place, it is necessary to hang around with them - to attend to them as experiencing
subjects, as responsive sorts of beings for whom [...] the world comes bedecked in places. (1996: 260).
Research on this particular group (Nablusi students) will not be possible using only secondary data. There has until now not been a study on trans-generational memories and identity
construction that looks at young Palestinian that grew up and are currently living in the West Bank, nor at Palestinian students specifically. The focus is on process and change, not static ‘truths’ or the relationship between variables. Key to this position is the assumption that things change (over time) and are not static or stable. The inter-generational differences and similarities will provide rich information on (a) how things have changed and in what way this young generation experiences and views things in another ways, and (b)
cross-generational consistency in the narratives. The focus is thus on Verstehen, on grasping which meanings are given to experiences and memories and why.
The research approach is thus based on the belief that in researching the social world, one must enter this world and submerge oneself (even if only for a short time) in the specific locales of your subject. Social practices, relationships and narratives are best explored by first hand experience and interpretations. Social scientists should explore what Erving Goffman calls the ‘backstage’ and venture beyond the cover of a book (Goffman, 1959: 114). The principal requirement in fieldwork is to take part as much as possible in the social life, to enter ‘as deeply as possible into the social and cultural field’ of the research (Eriksen, 2001: 26).
On an epistemological front, this study maintains an interpretivist view that an understanding of the social world is only gained though examining the subjective meanings the participants of that world assign to their actions and beliefs (Bryman, 2008: 16).
Ontologically, I pose that properties of the social world are not phenomena that are external to individuals, separate from the social world as objectivists would state, but rather are
constructed by people and are the result of interaction between individuals (Bryman, 2008: 366). ‘Hanging around’ was thus an important part of this study, as the analysis of the primary data will show in the coming chapters.
1.1.1 ETHNOGRAPHY
Ethnographic approaches, according to Saloul (2009), can ‘unearth concrete evidence and information’, but fall short in telling us about the correlation between central events in the Palestinian history and the narratives produced by Palestinians and how these become meaningful in everyday life (in the exilic Palestinian identity) (2009: 2, 174).
It is my view, however, that the malleable and ever subjective meanings that are given to collective memories of the ’48 Nakba and subsequent poignant events and their relationship to everyday life and identity must first and foremost be located through ethnographic inquiry. The field of anthropology has always been concerned with ‘the connections between the various aspects of our existence’ (Eriksen, 2001: 1). To ‘unearth’ these connections, to use Saloul’s verbiage, together with understanding these social and cultural interrelations between history and identity, we must look to empiricism. The realities ‘on the ground’ will inform us about what meanings are given and how life is seen through the eyes of young Palestinians. They are to be found in the experiences and intricacies of their daily life in the West Bank.
I join Sa’di and Abu-Lughod in the belief that memories can contribute to the reconstruction of the past, but the value in examining memories lies in what they can tell us about the present (2008: 2). Through examining the ‘ethnographic present’, as Eriksen calls it, we can, contrarily, observe how history has formed the present and how the subjective
viewing and preserving of the past weaves its way through many aspects of social life (Eriksen, 2001: 32). The moment in time (the month or year) this study is carried out, is relevant primarily to account for change, to view them within the context of events that have transpired and influenced their lives thus far. In making a temporal, ‘synchronic snapshot’ (Ibid) of the lives of young Palestinians in the West Bank, I hope to contribute to a wider and comparative understanding and knowledge of collective memory practices and processes of identity construction, and taking a wider view, of social life in the West Bank.
1.2 RESEARCH FIELD
The fieldwork was conducted in Nablus, currently the third largest city in the West Bank, and took place from March 26 until April 18, 2014. The focus of my research is on young
Palestinians, sometimes referred to as the third post-Nakba generation (Saloul, 2009), and I have chosen to delineate this further to university students. My main research site was the university campus, and nearby places such as café Sevean, or Alaa Raseef. The An-Najah National University is a public, non-governmental university established in 1977. It is the largest Palestinian university that has over 22.000 students and 300 professors in 19 faculties spread over two campuses: the ‘New’ and ‘Old Campus’1.
There are multiple reasons for choosing this specific group as the focus of this study. First, these young Palestinians act, through simultaneously reproducing narratives and
producing their own narrative, at the intersection of the past and the present. Examining earlier generations of ‘refugees’ would have given rich data into the memories of events like the ’48 Nakba. However, the nexus between collective memories that are transferred through generations and identity construction would remain elusive. For this reason, young
Palestinians are most suitable for this study. Second, students are at a stage and in an environment where they have greater possibilities for agency and development than ever before. They are actively searching for who they are and what their place is in this world. Through their studies at the university, they come in contact with people from different places and socio-economical classes, people with different (political) ideas and experiences. At the same time, most of the students still live at home and are very much connected to their family group. The students give voice to their own views and experiences, from perspectives
influenced by different social groups.
Focusing on a specific group in my fieldwork will permit me to examine specific places. In Power Plays, Power Works, Fiske (1993: 11, 12) persuasively points to the significance of bottom-up, small-scale locales in which people construct their identities. The examination of locales provides us with fertile information about aspects of the social lives of Palestinian students. In addition, by limiting the fieldwork, locales can inform us about the way in which the environment, such as the university, or in the city of Nablus, play a part in which collective memories are recalled and employed in the personal narrative, and how this influences identity construction.
Selecting Nablus for my fieldwork is based primarily on familiarity and access. The fact that I have been in Nablus before, know my way around the city, and know people who live in or around Nablus, make it the preferred location for fieldwork. This choice is also made with consideration to the limited time and resources I have to undertake the fieldwork. In addition, Nablus is a city that was very much affected during the first and second Intifada (which in Arabic literally translates into ‘shaking off’) and has a large refugee population. The residents are confronted with many realities of the occupation, which at times severely limits their freedoms or confronts them with actions of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). These factors increased the probability that the students are well suited for the field research.
Figure 2, the Nablus valley seen from the north side.
Prior to the fieldwork in Nablus, I have used ‘purposive sampling’ in my choice of research participants (Bryman, 2008: 415). In this sampling process of choosing which students to include in the study, I looked at two factors: (a) those included are relevant to the research questions and the goal of the fieldwork, and (b) there is a variety or differentiation between the research participants.
The first factor meant that I only include Palestinians living in the West Bank who are students and who are attending the An-Najah University in Nablus, and only those relevant to my study. The latter requirement of the first factor and the second factor are more
complicated, as fieldwork doesn’t always allow you to be very specific in whom you choose for your study. While conducting fieldwork, many researchers are confronted with obstacles to gathering data or access to locations or participants. I will shortly recount the process of sampling as done in Nablus.
Five of the students I knew from my time there in 2012, and the rest were accessed through ‘snowball sampling’ (ibid: 184). Snowball sampling entails making contact with a small group of people relevant to the study, and then ‘using’ those to establish contact with others (ibid). This means that the sampling was not random. I had to depend heavily on my own capacity to build networks in using existing contacts to find other students.
In the end, the 14 students are a differentiated group, though males are
overrepresented (nine are male), with different social, economic and political backgrounds. The student interviews will provide the primary source of data in this case study thesis and will be complemented with an examination of secondary literature.
1.2.1 REFLECTIONS ON ‘HANGING OUT’
The aim of ethnographic research as Nilan (2002: 364) and Bryman (2008: 367) argue, is to observe the phenomena relevant to the research question in a natural way. Naturalism stresses that the social reality should be understood in ‘its own terms’, by observing people, and if relevant, providing descriptions of people and the interactions between them in their natural setting (Bryman, 2008: 367). This means that not only should social phenomena be researched locally, as argued above, but also that ‘events and accounts derive primarily from the
intentions and actions of local participants’, not from the interventions of the researcher (Nilan, 2002: 365). Immersing oneself in a group, situation or society thus partly involves letting go of control over one’s research field and subject to achieve ‘effective ethnographic’ research (ibid: 364).
Upholding a natural kind of progress, the interviews had a relatively open character, allowing the students at times to branch into topics of their choosing. Yet the interviewer will have to guide the conversation to reach the specific purpose of the interview (Spradley, 1976). For this purpose, the interviews were structured by overarching themes, which were
introduced at different times and in multiple ways. In this way, the semi-structured interviews granted ample freedom to the students, while at the same time affording opportunity to inquire into relevant topics or themes. Which questions were asked depended on the student and the process of the interview. It was important to avoid asking too many questions (within a short time) in order to not disrupt the ‘natural’ flow of the conversation and to avoid an overly formal, ‘interrogation-type’ interview (Nilan, 2002: 365).
As a result, the interviews provided rich data, both structured by specific themes, while it represents the personal perspectives of the students. Since it is the goal of this study to gain an insight into the perspective of students on certain events to locate the ‘self’ within the narrative, this type of interview was highly conducive to the main purpose of delving into the topics and different aspects of this study.
Outside the interviews, there were at times little to no possibilities to insert control over what was happening and said. The research plan called for blending in as unobtrusively as possible to be a part of, observe and explore the ‘taken-for-grantedness of local routines, rituals, procedures and assumptions’ (ibid: 365). This meant accompanying the students to many places and events: classes, workplaces, the presentation of their graduation projects, family homes for breakfast, lunch or dinner, hanging out at their favorite spots on the campus,
in cafés and elsewhere2. It was at these times that I felt most a part of their in-group (Tajfel, 1974), where I could observe and participate in their lives in a most direct way, and where I could build trust and rapport. It provided me with valuable information about their daily lives, their social groups, what interests them and how they view themselves and others.
1.2.2 DILEMMAS AND LIMITATIONS
Trust is always necessary between interlocutors and the researcher. The success of any
fieldwork study is based on participants’ willingness to share and open up. When working in a contested area that is involved in a complex and at times violent conflict, and researching the topic of identity and the past, the act of sharing can have serious consequences. Trust, in these conflicted areas, gains even greater significance. Before or during interviews I made a point of assuring the students that I would protect their stories and anonymity. Fears of being arrested by either the PA or the IDF are shared by all the students I talked with. This fear translated itself into hesitance to speak about certain topics, in particular related to politics or resistance, and leaving out names of others in the narrative. For Wade, an engineering student, this meant not giving me his real name and only divulging limited personal details about his life and views. Therefore, some details or stories are left out of the discussion, and some names are replaced by pseudonyms according to the wishes of the students. The constraints on time and resources further limited the scope of this study. Nonetheless, as O’Reilly (2009) and Silverman (2004) argue: the value of ethnographic studies is not defined on the number of participants and their representation, but on the contribution of information (to an existing body of knowledge).
Besides issues related to trust between the interlocutors and the researcher, researchers are often confronted with complex questions about their own academic and political position towards the situation in which their subjects are located. As De Jong (2012) notes: accusations of bias are common when dealing with and researching either or both Israel and the
Palestinian Occupied Territories (De Jong, 2012: 198). It is not the goal of this thesis to present the ‘Arab’ side in this conflict; nor will I present ‘plural narratives’ (i.e. Palestinian narratives as well as Israeli narratives). I will shortly elaborate on this ‘ethical dilemma’ (ibid).
The position of a researcher in the field towards the ‘interlocutors, area and theme’ (ibid) of the research are relevant. This will influence the data collection, interpretation and
analyses of the study and all its materials. The difficulties with doing research in a conflicted area were two-fold: my political position towards the conflict and as De Jong (2012) also notes, my academic or theoretical positioning in approaching the conflict. In this case, both include questions about my stance, or rather my neutrality or bias, towards the Israeli
occupation, their acts and their narratives and the experience of occupation on the Palestinian side. I considered these questions about ‘taking sides’ before starting my fieldwork, as well as in the field and during interviews. A brief reference to my experience with Palestine is
necessary to understand my position in these matters.
In 2012, I visited the West Bank for the first time as part of a project that was focused on observing and understanding the effects of occupation on the daily lives of Palestinians and on the society at large. During this time, I formed a view of the situation there based on visits to places and meetings with people in the many villages and cities where Palestinians suffer because of the occupation. Many of those people had lost family members and friends during either the ’48 Nakba or the Intifadas, and I saw for myself the many walls, fences and checkpoints by which Palestinians lives are so severely affected. As said, every researcher in the field finds themselves a ‘doubly marginal’ person (Evans-Pritchard, 1983: 243),
positioned between two different societies. This made me, as a person living in a sovereign, conflict-free country, shocked by what I saw there, and my time there made me (albeit limited) experience what life under occupation is like.
The past experiences of the researcher are relevant. In my case, my experiences in the Zajel program made me highly aware and attuned to the suffering of Palestinians in the West Bank. To state that I am completely unbiased would be a misrepresentation. I have my own views and opinions about the occupation in the oPt. Rather than this being an obstacle for my fieldwork and the analysis in terms of bias and reliability of my interpretation, I will state two things about this. First, my previous experiences have made me more aware and
knowledgeable of the intricacies of the situation in the oPt, which in turn has made it possible to put into context and thus understand more fully what I observed and the data I gathered during my recent fieldwork. Second, the fact that I empathize with Palestinians living under occupation, made me more receptive to the narratives told by the students and made my ‘hanging out’ between these youngsters possible and easier. As Carspecken asks, ‘how does an outsider gain an insider’s view?’ (1996: 17). In many cases, this is gained through shared experiences that allows for a common ground upon which understanding is built.
Finally, even though I can never be entirely objective and separate from my own ‘cultural baggage’ nor from my empathy towards the suffering of Palestinians living in the
West Bank, as a researcher it is paramount to distance yourself from your own views and feelings. The benefit of this is twofold: it makes it possible to immerse yourself in another society and provides the necessary objectivity to interpret your own experiences and the collected data of the fieldwork.
1.3 FIELDWORK APPROACH AND THEORY
As is the case in many fieldwork studies, the research process is not linear. Instead it is an iterative process. Conducting the research will often inspire new ideas or expose practical and conceptual issues that require you to reconsider research choices. Practically, this means that the data I gathered in Nablus has continually informed the successive data gathering. This continuous analysis approach has afforded me the advantage to go back to the field, refine my questions, develop hypotheses and turn to new research paths along the way.
A thorough embedding in the literature will provide the basis for a comparative examination of Nablusi students and other Palestinians, differentiated by age, location, class etc. Furthermore, the analysis of the data will be placed within the theories and approaches on identity, memory, agency, narratives, and within the cultural and political context. I want to use as much as grounded theory as possible; analyzing from the data I gather, not from theory. With my ‘thick’ analysis (Geertz, 1973) approach, I hope to safeguard the quality of my data. Deduction is still part of the process as theory is applied to data and theoretical frames are used to understand the data I collected.
While analyzing the interviews, four main themes appeared. The further analysis has been subdivided into these themes, and later specified to the end of answering the research questions. The four main themes, with a rough sketch of what data falls under these themes are: (1) identity: personal, collective, local, (2) memories: collective, personal, relational (3) resistance: counter narrative, historical narrative, national duty, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and (4) political participation: voting, views on national and student political parties, divisiveness, taboos.
In this chapter, I outlined the methods and approaches of this thesis and discussed the aspects of the different stages of my fieldwork in Nablus. This thesis is based both in
empiricism and on theory: a combination that allows for an examination of the subject, while still making possible an analysis linked to relevant theories. In the below chapters, the
theoretical framework will be defined, following with the discussion of the data organized into themes and subjects in order to answer the questions of posed in this thesis.
C
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This chapter outlines the theories and approaches that together form a framework within which I will analyze and interpret memory and identity in the collected data. The framework provides conceptualizations to aid understanding of the way students’ narratives communicate personal and collective identifications based on personal, familial and collective memories. Below, I will start with a literature review concerning Palestinian collective memory and narratives.2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW
The starting point for my research into this topic is the collaborative work titled Nakba:
Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory, edited by Ahmad Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod
(2008). The volume does not aim to recount history. Through literature, interviews, life stories and film, the work explores the act of remembering the Palestinian catastrophe throughout generations. It sets out to understand how memories are produced, what forms they take, and the influence these have on the collective identity of Palestinians (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 2, 3). Beyond this the work connects memory acts to the context of uneven power relations, as the Israeli narrative holds great sway over the public view of the past. Along the lines of gender, location and generation, the experiences of Palestinians are fractured and are always contested, as their narratives challenge the legitimacy of the current Israeli occupants on their lands and in their houses. These stories question why their claims to nationhood and their right of return have not been supported, and in this, the volume looks at the power of memories against the ‘official’ narrative.
Like The Claims of Memory, the main focus of many studies on Palestinian collective memories narratives is the Nakba, the 1948 expulsion of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland and the simultaneous tumultuous establishment of the state of Israel3 (Pappé, 2006: 7). The displacement of over half the Palestinian population at that time, and the destruction of hundreds of villages remain the cornerstone of the Nakba story (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 5). The Nakba is not only about a people that were forced out of their homes, of their lands and the loss of a nation, but also about becoming lifelong refugees – a fate that has been passed on through generations, and for many living from that point on, under occupation of the IDF (Pappé, 2006: 7).
3 For a more thorough examination on the history of Palestine and Israel, see IIan Pappé’s A History of Modern
The work of Erni (2013), problematizing the personal and national identity is relevant for my study, but like Sayigh’s (2012) study into self-identifications along the lines of
location, class position, politics and ideologies, it concerns Palestinians in refugee camps or otherwise in diaspora outside the oPt. As Fiske (1993) notes, social identities, histories and relations are formed locally, and thus may still vary significantly. Of the studies on
Palestinians living in the oPt, a start is made with Janette Habashi’s (2012) study into changing collective memories among children and Zarefa Ali’s (2013) account on
intergenerational differences of the narration of the continuous Nakba provides a basis for the examination of transgenerational narratives, although she exclusively examines exilic
narratives of refugees.
To examine narratives in a specific locale, these narratives must first be outlined. As Ali (2013) points out, ‘within the Palestinian narrative some narratives are more prevalent and dominant than others’ (2013: 6). The narratives that will be examined here relate to the
specific context of the Nablusi students, but the influence of dominant Palestinian narratives, like the ‘semi-official’ Palestinian narrative put forth by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be examined as well (ibid).
Ihab Saloul, in his comprehensive dissertation titled Telling Memories (2009),
combines a vast body of literary sources with a short fieldwork he conducted in Gaza in 2004 to examine the relationship between memories of historical events around 1948 and the construction of what he calls the ‘exilic identity’ of first generation ‘post-Nakba’ Palestinians (2009: 1). His work is of particular interest to this study for the numerous secondary sources of narratives and his examination of the unequal power relations in narrating history. Now, ten years after his fieldwork, much has changed in the oPt. The second Intifada has long since ended, with many changes as a result, specifically to the daily lives of Palestinians living in the West Bank. It is the goal of this thesis to complement the existing body of knowledge with a critical examination of studies and literature.
2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In the coming paragraph, the research and topic of this study are contextualized. Following, the conceptualization of the key theoretical aspects: narratives, memories and identity will be outlined.
2.2.1 CONNECTING PAST AND PRESENT
Understanding which events are placed central and why is key to identifying what influences how individual memories and views are framed within the students’ narrative and the
influence this has on the construction of identities. Therefore, the ‘chosen traumas’ of Palestinian youth will be researched during the fieldwork in Nablus (Volkan, 2001: 79). Volkan (2001) posits that virtually every large group shares a ‘representation of a traumatic past event during which the large group suffered loss and/or experienced helplessness, shame and humiliation in a conflict with another large group’ (2001: 87). Although individuals have their own identities and ‘reaction to trauma’, Volkan argues that the members of the group share representations of these tragedies, which are ‘deposited into the developing self-representation of children in the next generation’ (ibid: 87, 88). This depiction of
transgenerational memories, or ‘traumas’, aligns with the literature and studies on collective memory amongst Palestinians (see for instance: Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008; Saloul, 2009; Habashi, 2012 and Ali, 2013).
Volkan continues this line of thought to suggest that with time, the chosen trauma will change in function (Volkan, 2001: 88). No longer will the historical truth of the event be of importance, but rather the fact that the chosen trauma links members of the group together (ibid.). The latter presumption has undoubted merit, for sharing a collective past is what binds members of societies together. Specifically in the case of Palestine, this has created a
collective identity predicated on that collective and traumatic past (Ali, 2013, Erni, 2013). The former is less clear. The historical truth remains to this day a contested issue in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and it is to the past that claims to land, state sovereignty and identity are based on. As Ali (2013), Sa’di & Abu-Lughod (2008) and others state, recollections of the past and the power to tell one’s own story is in fact very poignant in the continued conflict. On the other hand recounting the past or telling one’s own story, always involves a process of negotiation of the facts, and is thus always subjective.
Volkan nevertheless provides us with a pointed discussion of collective trauma and transmission through generations. As will be discussed below, research into remembering the past in the present has shown that this process can have a compounding effect (Allen, 2007). Volkan adds to this realization that during ‘stressful and anxiety-inducing circumstances, a ‘time collapse’ can occur (Volkan, 2001: 89). This time collapse magnifies the current conflict and the enemies involved in that conflict. It can bring an event long since in the past, ‘be felt as if it happened yesterday’ (ibid.).
The intergenerational remembering of past events can become problematic as time passes. While the first generation of refugees, also called the ‘generation of Palestine’ (jeel
Filastin) is slowly becoming extinct – along with the memories they carry with them of
Palestine before 1948 – the 1948 war and the expulsion of their lands disappear with them. The young generation is losing a link to a past that was only ever reproduced in stories (Ali, 2013: 65-77). As such, the memories of the 1967 Naksa and the first Intifada will become the only intergenerational memories the students have direct access to. The second or ‘Al-Aqsa’ Intifada are events that ring closer to home. Most of the young students have personal memories of the second Intifada, and these memories, alongside experiences with life under occupation have according to Ali, a compounding effect (ibid: 66; Allen, 2007).
This ‘intergenerational continuity of loss’, that is to say the culmination of stories and experiences that can all be placed in the broader master narrative of Palestine, can work to reinforce both memory and experience of past and present (Saloul, 2009: 13). Ali (2013) points out the ‘public memory’ of past events usually have a starting point (2013: 6). For many Palestinians the year 1948 is this point of departure in reproducing memories of what has since been called the Nakba (Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 3; Ali, 2013). The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 led to the devastation of Palestinian society and the founding of a new one: the state of Israel. In an ethnographic study into children as the authors of collective memory, Janette Habashi found that protecting the collective memories of the Palestinian history and struggle, has become a national duty and is integral to the identity of young Palestinians (Habashi, 2012: 10). The collective memory ‘is the glue that preserves the Palestinian legacy’ and reunites a people scattered since the expulsion of their homeland in 1948 (Habashi, 2012: 9; Sa’di & Abu-Lughod, 2008: 2). Refusing to forget and protecting the story against oblivion seems not only a goal, but also a consequence of the collective narrative.
Studying the correlation between collective memories and identity construction is therefore very poignant in understanding the conflict today. Identity informs everything people do: how they act, how they feel, their ideals and political views.
2.2.2 NARRATIVE INQUIRY
I have chosen a narrative approach to my subject because narratives punctuate discourse and the story as the primary way in which meaning is given. In this I follow Gerd Baumann (2001) that the giving of meaning is social and identities dialogical and with that ‘intrinsically situational, flexible and contextual’ (2001: 278). The narrative analyses in this study focuses
on the way meaning is assigned, in an effort to locate the dialogical relationship between narratives, memories and identity construction. Narratives can be viewed through the lens of many different traditions, chief among those is linguistics, but others include feminist studies, political science, sociology, anthropology and philosophy. Among the approaches in narrative inquiry, two are particularly noteworthy for the purposes of this study. The functional
approach, spearheaded by Jerome Bruner (1991), focuses on the role that narratives serve individuals. Narratives are viewed as a medium through which people appoint meaning and make sense of their lives. William Labov’s thematic or biographical approach to narratives is aimed at understanding the life of the narrator, specifically, the events that are deemed significant for the narrator and how these events influence the experiences and the identity of the individual. At the core, narratives are an account of events that occur over time (Bruner, 1991: 6), they are a mode of communication, representing a ‘fundamental human capacity to transfer experience from one person to another’ (Labov and Waletzky, 1997: 3). However as narratives are stories of events that have occurred, ‘narratives are temporal productions’ (Denzin, 1989: 37), and not fictions (Saloul, 2009: 173).
Narrative research can obtain insights in the subjective experience of individuals and gain an understanding of social phenomena such as self-image, memory or emotions (Smith, 2000: 332). Advocates for narrative analysis argue that the narrative can provide information that is not accessible through any other method, especially concerning phenomena that are ‘more reflective of an individual’s construct and contextual organization of experience’ (ibid: 314). Narratives can be found in novels, film, histories, folk tales, interviews, oral memories, prose or poetic writings, although some think that narrative inquiry can or should only deal with oral accounts (Smith, 2000) and can be both collective and individual.
The ‘contextual organization or experience’ (ibid: 314) involves both personal and collective narratives. Thus, let us examine the tools with which we are to understand and analyze these life stories. Narratives, as it is used here, are more than an account of lived events or events that are experienced first-hand by the narrators. They are also built out of memories of events that are external to the narrator. As stories are told by others, individuals can internalize them into their personal (his)stories. Charlotte Linde (2000) calls this
‘narrative induction’, the process by which another’s story and memories become a part of one’s own story, are internalized. Linde uses the term ‘non-participant narratives’ (NPN) to denote the oral stories told by someone not present at the events that are being narrated (2000: 609). While inducing foreign memories and stories as one’s own, the own identity, the self, is viewed through these stories and thus is key in identity acquisition and self-identification
(ibid.). The story-teller can be a gifted person in narration, adding emphasis and fiction, using language in a manner that attracts listeners and builds up to key moments in the story (Labov and Waletzky, 1997). The storytellers in this study are not gifted or known for their creative use of language or linguistic elements in telling their story. They are ordinary people, people living their lives not unlike you and I live our lives. They told their story in an attempt to impart in a most simple and serious way principal experiences of their lives. These stories are not widely known, on the contrary, often they had only been told a few times, and in other cases they were even shared for the first time. The narratives in this study concern very serious and major events: experiences with violence and death, occupation, humiliation, societal taboos, family histories and trauma’s, but also deal with resistance and dignity, faith, courage and hope for a better future. The ‘truth’ of narratives is more a question of
verisimilitude rather than verifiability (Bruner, 1991: 13), and is in this study moreover judged by what is significant to the narrator.
The oral memories, as narrated in life stories by these youngsters can tell us what is most important in their lives. In narrating their story, they give meaning to their memories and experiences and ‘perform’ their personal identity. As Langellier notes (2001: 699, 700):
[…] diverse sources converge on stories of experience, indicated by the term narrative, and the performance of identity, as indicated by the term personal. Embedded in the lives of the ordinary, the marginalized, and the muted, personal narrative responds to the disintegration of master narratives as people make sense of experience, claim identities, and ‘get a life’ by telling and writing their stories.
Interestingly Langerllier opposites master narratives to personal narratives. The master narrative is comprised of Palestinians’ collective memories and the ‘official’ narrative propagated by the PA, PLO, official charters from political parties like Hamas or Fatah, and Palestinian political, literary and academic notables like Yasser Arafat, Ahmad Yassin, Mahmoud Abbas, Edward Said, and Mahmoud Darwish (Ali, 2013).
Contrastingly, the personal narrative has different sources and relies primarily on (oral) accounts from individuals. In analyzing the stories, I ask myself an array of questions: how did the narrator make claims to identity in the story (personal, national, local etc.). In what way are others included in the story and how does the narrator relate to these others? In what way do social, economical and historical structures influence the narrative? These questions focus both on the content of the story, and on the choices made by the narrator (the act of telling).
The narrative inquiry that combines a functional and a thematic approach as it is used here allows us to differentiate between ‘normal’ experiences or observations of events and those that have entered into the biography of the students (Labov, 1997: 408). This way, we can examine in what way they are informed by the social world, and in turn in what way these inform their social understandings, primarily of themselves. Biographical experiences
distinguish themselves by a process by which they are emotionally and socially evaluated, transformed from ‘raw experience’ into events that have been assigned significance and meaning, and thus have become a part of the personal narrative (ibid).
2.2.3 MEMORIES
Memories, like narratives are an act of transfer, both an active and ongoing process that creates meaning. Memories of the past are collected, sometimes as continuous stories, other times as fragmented pieces that have yet to be assigned a place in the whole. Memory, as Saloul (2009) states, ‘is a volatile concept’ that is hard to grasp and inherently contradictory (2009: 3). Memories, like narratives are grounded in social life, and are, according to Olick and Robbins, ‘essentially contested’ (1998: 126). Practices and sites of memory are likewise ‘central loci for ongoing struggles over identity’ (ibid.). Memories in this thesis are thus not about the objective process of remembering factual events, nor about a static past that is stored in the mind. It is viewed as a process of selection, interpretation and permanent reconstruction, which involves, ironically, both remembering and forgetting. Knowingly or not, the construction of a collective memory, of a collective narrative, is always an attempt to convey a specific viewpoint and sentiment. By that definition, collective memories are always subjective and mediated.
Memories are both individual and collective. Personal memories are defined here as any form of remembering that involves the link between the individual and events of the past. It takes a broad perspective on what sources for personal memories are relevant (and valid), and thereby sidestepping common problems associated with recounting memory, referring to the earlier mentioned process of mediation. The memories do not have to be witnessed first-hand, and the source of their stories is not always relevant. This study focuses on the act of remembering, of storytelling, and with that, captures a greater diversity in memory and narration acts. Similarly, questions of ‘playing to the gallery’ do not pose a disadvantage or problem. Contrary, what the students tell us, which memories they share, and even how, gives us vital insight in where they assign meaning and relevance to their past.
Personal and collective experiences, myths, popular narratives and folktales are tied intricately together and all find their way into the memory of an individual (Saloul, 2009: 3). Collective memories and narratives are regarded as all those that have been transferred: transgenerational memories, official narratives, and the collective Palestinian narrative.
Without being an active observer, through (collective) stories, film, literature and other mediums, the past roots itself into the personal narrative of the individual. The giving of meaning is thus not only predicated on memories that are unique to individuals, they are shared by many people, and interpreted in many different ways. However, assigning meaning, where and why, is still unique to the individual and depends on the total of memories (and experiences), on the cultural filters through which memories are experienced and recalled, but also on other factors like age, gender, class and political affiliation.
Maurice Halbwachs believed that the act of remembering is an inherently social process and that this act of remembering frames identity (1992: 40). Maurice Halbwachs, a student of Durkheim, was a sociologist who in 1950 introduced the term ‘collective memory’ in the social sciences (ibid.: 1). Halbwachs argued that individuals not only place themselves in the perspective of the group by remembering, the memory of the group is also manifested in individual memories (ibid.: 40). He took the social nature of memory further by rejecting the individual approach to memories, as for him, memories are always recalled and made sense of externally, to the group, and thus are always social (ibid.: 38). Seen from this
viewpoint, the process of remembering becomes dialectical, a relationship between individual and group. Although this study mostly attests to this view, the inherent social nature of
memories, as posed above by Halbwachs leaves something to be questioned. Memories can be social, are perhaps mostly social, but I do not reject the individual perspective or individual agency. Moreover, within the group with which individuals have a dialectical relationship, memories can also be contested. Even between groups of which individuals are a member, can there be conflict, for there is always more than one. As is the case in this study, the
students can see themselves as a part of the family group, the student group, the Nablus group, and the bigger Palestinian group. As the process of remembering may vary greatly between groups, the social nature, relevance, and weight of collective memories may differ.
2.2.4 IDENTITY
For Palestinians living in the oPt, identity is at the bedrock of the decennia long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Identity engenders discrimination, humiliation, depravation of rights and
often-severe violence. However, identity is at the same time the single thing that allows Palestinians to claim rights and their unity, even their existence, as a people. The notion of identity is thus essential in the imaginings of the future. Hence, to be able to analyze the construction of young Palestinians’ identity and how they interpret and enact their identity, the following paragraph will outline a few concepts that are relevant for the coming analysis.
The notion of identity in the social sciences is a controversial term with numerous definitions (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000). What identity is exactly, and how this is formed, if it is something discernible, conscious or unconscious are questions that are central in academic discussions. My point of departure vis-à-vis identity is the assumption that it is a social construct. Before we elaborate on this, let us first illuminate the discussion on identity and identification, starting with the distinction between categories of social and political practice and categories of social and political analysis. I use Brubaker and Cooper’s (2000)
understanding in Beyond “Identity” of these two different realities delineating the difference between categories of practice, akin to everyday social experience, constructed and employed by ordinary social actors, and categories of analysis, used by social scientists in analyzing and describing behavior and identifications made by social actors (2000: 4). Like Brubaker and Cooper, I prefer the former, and for two reasons. First, in this way we distance ourselves from realist, essentialist and reified notions on identity and other categories like nation, race, ethnicity or class. We do not have to posit that identities or nations as reified and putative notions exist to be able to examine the way in which people make claims of nationalism or express their identity in social and political life. As Clause Lévi-Strauss posited, identity is ‘a sort of virtual center to which we must refer to explain certain things, but without it ever having a real existence’ (1977: 332).
To put it differently I raise the question, as others have done before me (Said, 1978) of who has the right to identify whom. So secondly, in this I take the position that the analysis of identity should be based on identifications made by the social actors who are the subjects of the studies, not the scientists. This is related to the discussion of ethnocentrism and just as groups or cultures should not be judged by the norms and values of an outsiders’ position, should the analysis of categories like identity or nations be understood from the so-called ‘native’ perspective.
Still, notions like race, class and identity are both categories of practice and analysis in the social sciences (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000: 4). But opposed to essentialized categories of analysis being the starting point (people ‘have’ an identity or ‘are’ a certain ethnicity), we must distinguish between the reifications that are used by the interlocutors, and those used in
the analysis. We should therefore use caution in reproducing and reinforcing reifications from the social world we study, and seek to clarify the process by which identity (and other
categories of practice) can become ‘crystallized, at certain moments, as a powerful, compelling reality’ (ibid.: 5).
Here I come back to the starting point of this paragraph that identities are social constructs. George Herbert Mead provides us with a percipient remark on the subject:
The self is something which has a development; it is not initially there, at birth, but arises in the process of social experience and activity, that is, develops in the given individual as a result of his relations to that process as a whole and to other individuals within that process (2009[1934]: 135).
The self is thus constructed in a social process that is not static, but changes according to the relationships individuals form with others, as Erikson notes as well (2001: 54). These ‘others’ are both people belonging to the in-group, those who individuals identify themselves with, and those who are seen as a part of the out-group (Tajfel, 1974). Any individual is a part of a number of groups to which he or she feels a sense of belonging (Erikson, 2001: 76). From the nuclear family, friends, collogues, political groups and the nation, or, as seen from a
geographical sense of belonging, to a home, neighborhood, city, province and nation. The social identity of an individual is, as Tajfel (1974) states a part of ‘an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the emotional significance attached to that membership’ (p. 69). The process of identity construction is thus a social process that unfolds both between individuals (in interaction), and as a inter-personal process that is predicated on the social relationships of any individual. Furthermore are constructions of identity inherently social for they are created within (existing) frames of meaning that are both historically, culturally and socially produced.
What constitutes an honorable, ‘good’ man or woman may very well vary between groups, specific locales or societies. The social system (the total of social relationships) is situated in the social structure of any given group or society and individuals both make up and conform to that structure (Eriksen, 2001a: 73-76). Put in another way: self-understandings, personal and group identifications are produced within an existing structure, but the structure itself is a product of acting, social individuals. In the academic debate (see for example Erikson, 2001: 73-79) on the self versus structure, a common theoretical query posed is what is more important, or which constitutes what. Is the individual greater than the sum of its parts, or does the structure always surpass the individual? For the purposes of this thesis, the answer is not very relevant. Instead, it focuses on how the individual relates to the self, group
The self is thus constructed in a social world that is a product of the actors situated in it. However, stating unequivocally that identities are inherent to social life would bring us falling back into the essentializing pit of categories of analysis, for ‘identity’ is not something tangible, something you can point to and distinguish as stable or really something that
‘exists’. It is the process of identification of oneself and others that is inherent to social life (Brubaker & Cooper, 2000: 14). Still, using the term ‘identity’ does allow us to refer to the delineated identifications interlocutors construct and claim in everyday life. ‘Palestinian’ is such an identification. So, contrary to Brubaker and Cooper (2000) in the below examination of identifications, ‘Palestinian identity’ and others like it are here used to refer to such defined categories of practice. Identities are used by people to make sense of themselves, their actions, what they believe in, what they share with others, and how they differ from others. Self-understandings are thus based on a process that involves the social world, the social ‘other’ and refers to shared identities individuals claim. These shared identifications can be
characterized as:
[…] (T)he emotionally laden sense of belonging to a distinctive, bounded group, involving both a felt solidarity or oneness with fellow group members and a felt difference from or even antipathy to specified outsiders. (ibid: 19).
Self-understanding involves a sense of who a person is, his or her social location and, as an extension of the first two, in what way people act and why (ibid: 17). When a student in this study is saying ‘I am a refugee’, the analysis of the statement goes towards comprehending the self-understanding of the student as a refugee, what this means specifically to this specific student. Shared identifications are examined in this thesis, and are called collective identities. When people identify with a specific group that aligns itself with, and communicates a (collection) of specific identifications, name (e.g. Palestinian, refugee) of that collective identity is used.
These collective identifications can be either ‘tight’ or ‘loose’ depending on the ‘categorical commonality and an associated feeling of belonging together’ (ibid: 21). The feeling of belonging to a group may vary according to the degree to which people have shared attributes, relational ties or distinctive solidarity. The weight identities are given informs us how the students identify themselves and what is most, and with that also what is less important.
A further delineation concerning identification are ‘strong’ and ‘soft’ identities that are both used in practice and in analysis (ibid.: 10). The former is used to denote more essentialist notions that highlight homogeneity, a sameness over time, space and persons, while the latter
