The importance of the everyday for female Palestinian students under Israeli occupation

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The Importance of the Everyday for Female Palestinian

Students Under Israeli Occupation

Freya Wordsworth

University of Amsterdam

Source: Author (2017)

Student Number: 11941782

Master’s Degree Course: Political Science: International Relations Track Thesis Track: Protracted Violence, Wellbeing and a Search for Peace in International

Relations

Primary Reader: Dr. Nel Vandekerckhove Secondary Reader: Dr. Vivienne Matthies-Boon

June 2019 Word Count:1812

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ii 5.4. Sampling strategy…….………...……….………...………….28 5.5. Data analysis…….………...……….………...……….29 5.6. Limitations…….………...……….………...………29 5.7. Ethical considerations…….………...……….………...……...30 6. Results…….………...……….………...……….………31

6.1. Results reflecting the role of educational spaces for female Palestinian women….31 6.2. Results reflecting the role of social encounters for female Palestinian students…..34

6.3. Results reflecting the role of culture and creativity in the everyday lives of female Palestinian students…….…...………....37

6.4. Results reflecting the role of social media in the everyday lives of female Palestinian students…….………...………..42

7. Conclusion …….………...……….………...………..45

Bibliography…...……….………...……….………52

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Figures

Figure 1- The Ecological Framework………24

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Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank Rami Khader and Peter Downey for helping me to get the opportunity to work in Bethlehem where I met the lovely women that helped me with my interviews. These women, of course, deserve huge thanks for their contribution to this thesis: chatting to me about their everyday lives and, further, giving me access to speaking to their peers from university. I would like to thank my partner, Toby Withers for his support throughout. Finally, I would like to thank my thesis advisor Dr. Nel Vandekerckhove for all her guidance and patience throughout my study and process of writing this thesis.

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Abstract

The Palestinian conflict has spanned for over a century, but generations of Palestinians have continued their lives throughout. This thesis critiques homogenous, mainstream and dominant discourse, literature and media that write about Palestine, arguing that they consistently politicise the lives of Palestinians. In doing so, I suggest that key elements and mechanisms involved in the framework of the conflict are neglected and ignored. This thesis looks at the seemingly mundane and normal everyday activities of female Palestinian students, recognising the power that educational spaces, social encounters, culture and creativity and social media can have in fostering collective resilience in this population. I draw from data I collected through in-depth interviews with eight female Palestinian students living in the Bethlehem Governorate, to demonstrate how their own narratives can provide a contrary representation of themselves to the dominant and mainstream.

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1. Introduction

Conflicts and wars continue to occur throughout history, with consistent competition between populations over material resources, competition over land or political

representation (Brock, 2011). Edward Azar (Azar, Jureidini and McLaurin, 1978; Azar, 1983; Azar, 1985; Azar, 1990), a Palestinian scholar, writes about the impacts that these conflicts can have when they become protracted. Generations endure these hostile environments and societies and cultures can become relevantly shaped (Azar, Jureidini and McLaurin, 1978). This notion will be the golden thread that runs throughout this thesis, as the environment engendered by the century long Israel, Palestine conflict, coupled with global perceptions and representations of the Palestinian population, render certain Palestinian groups to be silenced and ignored. I will explore the everyday lives of female Palestinian students to attempt to present an alternative discourse on the activities of a group that are particularly ignored. Dominant mainstream media,

discourse and literature overlook these normal and unpolitical everyday activities through the fetishization of violent events in Palestine. It fetishizes the political context they live in and in doing so, the importance of their everyday lives that are separate from direct political engagement are overlooked. Only political acts become recognised, such as violence, political activism and rebellion against the Israeli occupation.

While the normal, mundane everyday activities of female Palestinian students tend not to be directly political on an individual basis, I will argue for a collective ability for these activities, encounters and experiences to play a crucial role in the framework of the Israeli, Palestinian conflict. I will describe how educational spaces, social

encounters, culture and creativity and social media can collectively develop a society though the strengthening of individuals and collectively, communities. These processes, while simple on an individual basis, can collectively alter the power dynamics between Israel and Palestine. Furthermore, while seemingly unpolitical on an individual basis, it is the collective of these that becomes political and affects the framework of the

conflict. By presenting an opportunity for these women to narrate their own

representation, they can be given the chance to highlight the salient events in their lives that they decide represent their own identity. This will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how these women navigate their lives throughout a complex political,

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2 cultural and social arena. with everyday activities acting as their tools aiding them in resistance, purpose and hope.

In this vein, throughout this thesis I will critique the dominant, mainstream and homogeneous discourse that surrounds these young women. This dominant discourse became established through a fetishization for unfamiliar events of the distant other (Zimmerman, 2000). Western media and literature have established a monopoly on these violent political events, rendering normal and everyday activities to become neglected. Representations of those living in conflict zones are therefore constrained to their actions and involvement in the conflict. Subsequently, current Palestinian

discourse places Palestinians in binary categories, either to be pitied as victims and the oppressed, or to be framed as violent combatants. The mundane activities of the

everyday lives of these people, that attribute more to defining them as people, are neglected, in a hidden space between these two dominant, binary representations. Mainstream media therefore forgets the diversity of these societies, consequently stripping them of control over the representation of their own lives. My argument that I will shape throughout this thesis is that those living in conflict affected areas are deprived of agency and control over their own narratives of their lives. These female Palestinian students have been raised in the latter two decades of a century long conflict and while they endure the atrocities this conflict entails, they simultaneously lead lives full of hopes, dreams, actions of resilience, important social encounters, education and careers. These activities can be tools for resistance as well as simultaneously acting as coping mechanisms in overtly or covertly, both of which I will expand on further in Chapter 4.

I will explore this with the use of a gender lens (Chant, 2013). Women are both represented differently and realise different and gendered roles within a conflict (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). The former denotes to the binary categories that mainstream Western media confines Palestinians to. As

previously noted, they are either presented as a violent combatant or a helpless victim. Women tend to be represented as the latter, ignoring the alternative and diverse roles they have within the conflict (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). These women have narratives that are forgotten not only because of the media’s

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3 fetishization of violent actions, but also because they are women living in a patriarchal society (Nazir, 2005). Societal norms dictate their role in the conflict as well as how they are perceived by the outside world. This intersectional and layered element of these women’s lives is paramount to the importance of my study, as it makes these women a group that are multiply marginalised and multiply silenced (Beale, 1970; Crenshaw, 1991; Mugge and Erzeel, 2016). My aim is to create a platform where these women can have the opportunity to have a voice, and to have an opportunity to choose the salient events in their everyday lives that they wish to highlight. This enables them to control the way that they are represented, by focussing on the events and interactions in their everyday lives that are important to themselves individually, highlighting each young woman’s heterogeneity. By highlighting the importance of everyday activities for these women, I will aim to show how their resilience can develop through the usually

forgotten normality of social interactions, education and culture. These activities reflect individuality and a sense of purpose, both of which are key to the machinery of a conflict yet fail in satisfying the fetishizations of the West.

I will employ the Ecological Framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) as a tool to illustrate the vital link between the activities of an individual female Palestinian student and the wider political environment of Palestine. This framework is useful for its ability to recognise the involvement of multi-layered processes in both the identities of an individual and the identity of a population. In the Ecological Framework’s inner layer, called the microsystem, it recognises the importance of the everyday for shaping a person’s heterogeneity and identity. The microsystem simultaneously offers an

alternative form of discourse to the mainstream and dominant presented by the West by focussing on mundane everyday activities such as social encounters, social media and educational spaces and recognising their importance in the wider political environment. These spaces, encounters and activities in the microsystem, collectively feed into the outer layers of the Ecological Framework, the macrosystem and the exosystem, and demonstrate how as a population, these activities encourage resilience to the occupation, as well as showing how an individual navigates themselves through this political

environment. The Ecological Framework, which I will discuss further in chapter 4, thus is my tool to bridge this gap between the everyday experiences and the wider political environment of Palestine.

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4 My main research question is thus:

What is the importance of the everyday for female Palestinian students living in the occupied Palestinian territories?

To help structure my answer to this question, I have formulated 4 further sub questions, which are as follows:

1) What is the role of education for female Palestinian students?

2) What is the role of social encounters for female Palestinian students? 3) What is the role of culture and creativity for female Palestinian students? 4) What is the role of social media for female Palestinian students?

These questions allow for a process to take place throughout this thesis, of firstly recognising the importance of educational spaces, social encounters, culture and creativity and social media for these female Palestinian students, and then formulating these concepts into a contrary discourse to the dominant that is monopolised by mainstream media. I can use these to gain a deeper level of analysis, where I consider the role of everyday activities for these women. Through this analysis I aim to

understand whether these activities foster importance for these women. This importance can be established through processes such as connecting them to their culture as a form of resilience, or of beauty and social media as methods to connect internationally and challenge the dominant perceptions of these young women. These notions in turn feed into a wider political framework of indirect resilience, that is unintentionally created from these activities, as I will demonstrate through the Ecological Framework.

2.

Relevance

The relevance of this topic is rooted in the current political relationship between Israel and Palestine. Recent events have meant the relationship is particularly tense and there is little sign of a developing peace process, ensuring the conflict will become more

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5 protracted than ever (BBC, 2019; Al Jazeera, 2019). Understanding concepts such as the everyday for those that have grown up through the conflict will become increasingly crucial to understanding the impacts of protracted social conflict. Further, as events in the conflict are reported by Western media, it becomes more important to notice the alternative narratives that are present in these spaces. The longer the conflict spans, and the more knowledge that can be shared through technology, the greater the relevance of these neglected accounts. Finally, with gender equality becoming paramount to global movements, such as the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations, 2000), this research aims to find alternative ways to view the gendered experiences of conflict as well as offering a differing way to represent their role, noticing how their identities are more than just oppressed women living in a patriarchal society within the oppressed population of a conflict (Kuttab and Kaufman, 1988).

3. Current debate on everyday activities in conflict zones

Discourse surrounding Palestine is consistently politicised with scholars employing a political lens when analysing and discussing events and phenomena that occur in the Palestinian territories (Sokefeld, 2015). In doing so they only look at events and interactions that are directly related to the conflict, such as violent rebellion. Academic literature as well as media similarly fetishize these violent events and in doing so neglect seemingly unpolitical normal aspects of the everyday lives of Palestinians. Hook (2005) coins this idea of the technology of media having an impact on those it reports as the “technology affect”. This, he states, is the process of an “expert system comprised of a discrete set of […] applied knowledges and/or forms of specialist language, which is used by experts on deviant subjects […] as means of achieving a productive output of sorts, a relation of greater mastery or control” (Hook, 2005: 9). In this essence, the applied knowledges are those applied by the Western reporters, that create an output of a description of the other: the Palestinian individual. This process allows the Western reporters to have control and power over the ways that the other is represented. Allouche (2015) describes this process of “othering” and the creation of the “angry Arab man”, and notes that “Western media, through selected and repetitive

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6 imagery, constructs the Arab man as highly emotive, reducing him to a childish state” (Allouche, 2015: 122). This shows how the dominant Western media conforms to a narrow aperture of the way these Palestinians are represented, simultaneously tethering them to their political context and the frame of them as violent more childish beings. While Hook (2005) and Allouche (2015) refer to media discourse, the same applies in academic literature, through academic experts of conflicts focussing on the political rather than the personal, and subalternising Palestinians (Spivak, 1988) by neglecting their ability to be more than this violent being. The prominence of this conflict means that those involved are invariably unable to be separated from the political aspect of their identity (Sokefeld, 2015). This part of their identity is salient in the eyes of the West, so the remainder of their identity becomes ignored. Furthermore, the salience of the activities and lives of men in Western discourse further marginalises the narratives of Palestinian women, engendering their narratives to be multiply marginalised and forgotten (Beale, 1970; Crenshaw, 1991; Mugge and Erzeel, 2016).

Palestinian discourse is dominated by literature and media that either is shallow in its analysis by only representing Palestinians as a homogenous group, or by only

discussing individuals when they are participating in directly political or violent acts. This indicates that the lives of Palestinians are only worth noting when tethered to the violent and political, indicating to the irrelevance of their everyday activities. I will both critique this literature, but also use it as grounding for my argument. They highlight notable themes, such as creative spaces as places where theatre can become a place where plays can be written on participants experiences with the Israeli military (Norman, 2009). This is a crucial role of theatre; however, it ignores the value of

unpolitical plays to empower participants through providing them with space to develop their own identities. In this thesis I will employ a deeper analysis where I will aim to link actions that have seemingly no overtly political nature to the overall political environment of Palestine. For example, looking at creative spaces as a place where identity development can occur through participating in creative activities. While the latter does not link to the Israeli occupation directly, I will demonstrate how

collectively, a group of female Palestinian students all developing their identity or improving their ability to have a voice, can strengthen a community through a collective sense of self improvement, changing the dynamics at play within the Israeli, Palestinian

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7 conflict. I will draw on similar examples from scholars who discuss the political in cultural and creative spaces (Norman, 2009; Druml, 2019), but also incorporate examples from spaces of education (Veronese et al, 2012; Farnum, 2016), social encounters (Mills, 2010) and the use of social media (Aouragh, 2008). It is these

forgotten activities that I argue serve a vital purpose for collective community resilience for the Palestinian population against the Israeli occupation.

4. Theoretical framework

My theoretical framework will begin by explaining the Palestinian context, to reiterate the value of presenting alternative discourse, literature and media on this specific conflict. Secondly, I will explore the way that this fetishization can become established in mainstream literature. This will show how these women are silenced in dominant discourse, therefore explaining why it is necessary to offer an alternative route to hearing their narratives. Following this, I will describe the gendered roles of a conflict, as well as the differing ways that men and women are represented through discourse throughout a conflict. This will enable me to further ground the need to provide an alternative form of analysis on the everyday activities of female Palestinian students. I will then discuss the everyday and illustrate how various everyday activities can empower these women, whilst simultaneously being a mechanism to show the distinctiveness of each woman, contrary to common discourse that frames them as homogenous. This chapter will focus predominantly on the importance of the space of education, social encounters, cultural activities such as art, theatre and dance and finally the use of social media. Finally, I will use the Ecological Framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), to combine all the latter themes together. This Ecological Framework can be used to show how all the latter themes can firstly show the individuality of each woman, providing a contrary mode of discourse. Secondly, it can illustrate the link of the

collectiveness of these themes for all these women, and how this feeds back to the political, and the wider political environment of Palestine.

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4.1. The Palestinian context

The Israeli, Palestinian conflict is one of the most notable and widely contested in the international community today (Gerner, 2018). It has spanned over a period of over a century, with complexities that have continued to fail to be resolved (Gerner, 2018). After the Second World War, mass emigration of the Jewish diaspora flowed from Europe to the newly established Israel. This flow became problematic rapidly, as it generated competition over land, property and resources (Dekker, 2013). For hundreds of years prior, Arab Palestinians had resided there, establishing their cities and homes, but akin to countless similar instances, the post-colonial era has been littered with subsequent conflict as a result of decisions made by colonial powers, the conflict in Israel and Palestine not being excluded (Lee, 2017). Israel gained independence in 1948 and over the coming decades increased Zionist strategies of acquiring more of the remaining Palestinian land as well as introducing strategies aimed at hindering the Palestinian economy (Dekker, 2013). Following this was the Palestinian exodus, or ‘Nakba’ in 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians became refugees and displaced persons (Mcdowall and Palley, 1987). They fled to the surrounding Middle Eastern countries as well as accumulating in the remaining Palestinian territories, exacerbating the existing poor living conditions in the West Bank (Gerner, 2018).

This conflict continues to be profoundly problematic. The national identity crisis that Israel and Palestine both face, lacks an easily feasible solution, with two opposing populations placed in one land (Gerner, 2018). This environment has inevitably led to the establishment of a deep-rooted binary power relationship (Azar, 1983; Kuttab and Kaufman, 1988; Gallo, 2009) with Israel dominating over Palestine. Gallo (2009: 8) notes that “[i]n terms of economic parameters, human capital, urban-rural distribution, political awareness, and social structure, the Jews had a relevant advantage over the Arab Palestinians.”. Furthermore, Utkucan (2010: 6) notes that “Israel had a secure financial structure and its rival Palestine had no financial power”, underlining the difficulties Palestine faces in having an equal economic chance against Israel. Utkucan (2010) additionally notes that Israel has significant support from the US, a hugely powerful international actor in the conflict. This support allows Israel to rise above Palestine and secure its place as the dominant of the two sides. This latter point

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9 demonstrates the contemporary nature of the conflict, with international actors involved and contributing to its power dynamics. Combined, it places Palestine in a space where voices are silenced with lack of political representation, and opportunities are meagre (Dekker, 2013). Because of this unfavourable political and social landscape that has been painted over the last century, there appears to be little hope for a solution, as Israel’s Zionist government continues its objective of reducing Palestine into a non-recognisable state (Dekker, 2013). Despite Israel’s dominance, however, the Palestinian population persists and will inevitably always exist, invariably with a sense of

belonging to a place where they can no longer be.

Following this, because of the length of time that this conflict has spanned, it makes the situation unique, with several important consequences. Various scholars have noted the shift in conflicts to foster more social consequences as well as the physical violence and damage that perpetually are characteristics of conflict (Azar, Jureidini and McLaurin, 1978). Increased temporality places those living in conflict affected areas in a fixed and restricted position, where they have limited opportunities, material resources and political representation (Dekker, 2013). Palestinians now live in a society with

extremely restricted mobility and access to social and economic opportunities because of the hostilities in their political environment (Dekker, 2013). This aspect is significant to this thesis, as it stimulates alternative forms of resilience, resistance and activism to emerge. These alternative forms reflect the contemporary world, utilising and grasping at modern technology, social media, and contemporary activities to promote activism and bring the political into the social (Aouragh, 2008).

As I will discuss in the following chapters, research is emanating from the study of these new contemporary forms of resilience and activism, a product of the changed characteristics in modern day conflicts, as scholars notice the importance of the internet and creativity in the machinery of a conflict (Aouragh, 2008; Norman, 2009). In this thesis I intend to show how the seemingly mundane activities of the everyday for these female Palestinian students individually seem normal and ask for little attention, but collectively, the activities reflect a community level movement of indirect nonviolent resilience, activism and resistance to the Israeli occupation.

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4.2. Fetishization

Several scholars which motivated this thesis have noted the consequences of discourse that surrounds conflict (Bleiker and Kay, 2007; Burwell, 2003; Zimmerman, 2000; Moeller, 1999; Gregory, 2006; McLagen, 2006; Norman, 2009; d’Estree, 2005; Debrix, 2003). In this chapter I will discuss how mainstream media and academic literature consistently employs a political lens when writing about events and individuals in the context of a conflict zone. I will explain how this consistency contributes to the

silencing of the identities and narratives of those it discusses. Several reasons contribute to this process occurring, namely, the binary that is produced because of peace privilege (Nagel, 1979), the innate categorisation of media (Bleiker and Kay, 2007), and a lack of participatory media forms (Bleiker and Kay, 2007; Debrix, 2003; Gregory, 2006). Firstly, a notion that aptly sets the scene of the global relationship between Western fetishization of conflict and those who live in these areas is “peace privilege” (Yumar, 2019; Nagel, 1979). Yumar (2019) notices the presence of “peace privilege” when analysing the conflict in Venezuela. She notes that often there is frequent criticism of conflict literature from those who live in states of “positive peace” (Galtung, 2011). “Positive peace” refers to the state of an area that is categorically in a state of peace, but also without any underlying conflicts between communities. This is useful to note, as those who have never experienced any conflict, including underlying community conflict, are the individuals that Yumar (2019) and Nagel (1979) are discussing. Nagel (1979), instead calls this notion “moral luck”, but is equally grasping the idea that some people are born into a political landscape that offers them more or less ‘luck’ than others. This notion of moral luck can indicate to the binary power relations that can arise through media and discourse. The West monopolises discourse on conflict zones, that highlight events that readers in the West are more likely to read (Yumar, 2019). Therefore, articles on violent actions and on cases where atrocities have occurred become the dominant and mainstream. The “moral luck” of both the readers and the writers of this discourse is that they have the privilege of not having experienced these atrocities and simultaneously having the privilege of being the ones that have the opportunity to write the literature or media that surrounds it, that in turn will be read more by Westerners. This latter point of their discourse being more read by Westerners

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11 denotes to the fact that since they are Western themselves, their discourse is more

accessible to people in the same geographical and cultural space (Yumar, 2019; Nagel, 1979). This process contributes to binary power relations, as it allows Westerners with “peace privilege” to have the power of deciding what becomes the mainstream

discourse on the Palestinian context. This results in dominant and mainstream discourse fetishizing the events and the lives of those who live in Palestine, as the discourse that gets monopolised are by those with this “peace privilege” or “moral luck”, who disregard the narratives of those who experience these events truly.

Following from this, the dominant discourse that is produced is innately categorised, further silencing the narratives of these female Palestinian students. Bleiker and Kay (2007) note that media representations are often placed in categories, including the humanist category. The humanist category is most frequent in mainstream discourse on Palestine. While it aims to use media to invoke compassion in those that read this discourse (Bleiker and Kay, 2007; Moeller, 1999), it consequently places those it discusses in a space of permanent victimisation and pity, framing these individuals as “passive victims” (Norman, 2009: 253). They are therefore unable to have narratives that are heard that offer a different perspective to this, meaning that narratives of hope, empowerment and everyday life are lost. This point illustrates that even when discourse is aimed to gain political leverage and awareness for the benefit of Palestinians, this discourse equally silences their lives, disabling them from having agency over producing the discourse that highlights the events that they choose are salient in their own lives and disabling their ability to choose how they are represented in the Western world. This process is particularly prevalent when the images that are shown of these contexts are seen through universalist lenses (Gregory, 2006; McLagan, 2006). This universalist lens causes an overshadowing of specific individualities of those it discusses, as it overlooks “unique contexts” (Norman, 2009: 253). Conflict studies, media and discourse homogenise their literature as they discuss the events in these locations and assume with their “peace privilege” that all processes will be similar. This in turn contributes to the silencing of the identities and narratives of those who lead unique lives and who navigate their way through this highly contested political arena using their own individual mechanisms.

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12 Burwell (2003) and Zimmerman (2000), write about how the Palestinian youth are portrayed by Western media. Zimmerman (2000), notes how these violent yet repetitive images reflect the West’s obsession with the unfamiliar. By portraying Palestinians in this way, it silences and homogenises this society. Attention is only given to physical or dangerous actions directly related to the conflict. Burwell (2003: 35) describes this aptly by explaining that “[y]et whether as terrorist, victim, or sacrificial pawn, the Palestinian youth, in the lens of the Western media, is always caught in a present moment of

violence, never permitted to live inside her own, unfolding narrative.”. In this essence, this fetishization seeks to highlight the aspects of the identities of Palestinians that provide entertaining and gripping news and literature. It focusses on the political whilst forgetting the rest of an individual’s personality and self. Burwell (2003) asks the question: “how to counter this callous foreign insistence that Palestinians ‘make good news’ is surely a central question?”. This question is crucial as it necessitates the reframing of the way that the foreign insists on such a homogenous discourse. Said (1995: 60) recognised this binary way of viewing the orient, and states that “the European representation of the Muslim, Ottoman, or Arab was always a way of controlling the redoubtable…”. This point noted by Said (1995) illustrates the

complexity and danger of this fetishization, as it can become a tool whereby those that are fetishized can become trapped in this oppressed and silenced place through these mechanisms, exacerbating their already marginalised position that they occupy within global politics. D’Estree (2005:109) aptly summarises this issue, and states that “[W]hen power differentials are so extreme and entrenched that they are literally not noticed, the accompanying oppression typically involves removing the voice and perspective of the oppressed.”.

A method that could counteract this process would be a pluralist approach to media (Bleiker and Kay, 2007). A pluralist approach involves using more participatory

methods of media, journalism and qualitative data gathering. It gives an opportunity for those that are being written about to have a say in the ways that they are represented. Bleiker and Kay (2007: 151) state that these methods can “validate multiple local know-ledges and practices, thereby disrupting existing hierarchies.”, similar to those I

discussed previously by mainstream Western media. Debrix (2003) notes that this allows individuals to take control and have agency over the ways that they are

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13 represented, thus enabling more opportunity for voices usually unheard to become heard, providing a contrary narrative to that which is usually depicted by dominant and mainstream conflict literature, media and discourse, subsequently “providing different frameworks for analysis.” (Norman, 2009: 260). Finally, making this argument

particularly apt for my thesis, Norman (2009) notes that this is especially important amongst the youth of Palestine. She argues that “youth media representations are especially valuable in the case of Palestine for amplifying the voices of young people, who are often portrayed in the mass media solely as victims or perpetrators of

violence.” (Norman, 2009: 260). My research surrounds female Palestinian students, all of which are young and beginning their further education or nearing the start of their careers. Finally, Norman (2009: 260) notices that “the process of youth media can restore a sense of agency and help address trauma or depression, which is common among Palestinian youth.”, this shows the importance of offering this alternative avenue of discourse for Palestinians. Linking back to the relevance of this study, as this conflict becomes more protracted than ever, it will become increasingly important to provide this alternative avenue of discourse, to prevent a profound lack of wellbeing amongst the youth of Palestine. While Norman’s (2009) argument is useful, she neglects the gendered experiences of Palestinians and how for women in Palestine, these opportunities are even more necessary. The following section will illustrate these gendered differences of the conflict, in turn highlighting the necessity of noticing the narratives of female Palestinian students.

4.3. Gender and conflict

A group that is particularly silenced by dominant and mainstream fetishizing media is Palestinian women. The Israeli, Palestinian conflict is gendered in several ways, through the roles that require fulfilling by women (Sassen, 2003; Giacaman, Jad and Johnson, 1996), their accessibility to representation in Palestinian politics (UNDP, 1994; Dyfan, Haver, and Piccirilli, 2004) and the gendered security needs that manifest under the conflict environment (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). The previous chapter noted the fetishization of Palestinians through media, literature and discourse. Following from this, Palestinian women are further

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14 silenced through this process. I argue that dominant discourse and academic literature categorise Palestinians into either victims or combatants (Burwell, 2003). When analysing this with a gender lens (Chant, 2013) women are mostly placed in the

category of a victim, silencing any alternative personality or action (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). To illustrate the sheer lack of women occupying spaces in mainstream media that are not victimised, I will briefly discuss Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian girl from Bethlehem. From a young age, Tamimi was involved in the politics of Palestine (Twair, 2018). She made resistance videos as well as being filmed frequently throwing rocks at Israeli military (Twair, 2018), collectively establishing herself as a hugely famous young Palestinian activist. It has been noted throughout her activism that her gender has contributed to her fame (Kastner, 2018). She offers an alternative view of what Palestinian women are, being defiant, strong and aggressive. Because this behaviour of a Palestinian woman is seen as being so

extraordinary, she has earned her fame, showing how rare it is for women to occupy a space that is beyond the pitied, oppressed victim of the conflict.

The consistent victimisation and oppression of women in Palestine can be a product of conservative gender norms that are institutionalised in Palestine (Women’s Studies Center of Birzeit University, 1999). These conservative gender norms marginalise these women through confining them to unnoticed care roles in society (Chant, 2013). Gender inequality is present globally as indicated by the UNDP (1994: 6) which states that “[i]n no society are women secure or treated equally to men”, this being said, the intensity of this inequality varies across the world. Palestine is a particularly patriarchal society (Women’s Studies Center of Birzeit University, 1999), forming strong expectations and roles for Palestinian women. The family unit becomes even more crucial through trauma and conflict (Women’s Studies Center of Birzeit University, 1999), where men take up active fighting roles, and women realise care provision roles such as cooking, cleaning and caring for the elderly and young (Chant, 2013; Sassen, 2003). Giacaman, Jad and Johnson (1996) note that “[w]omen play a crucial role in Palestinian society, especially among the poor classes that suffer from extreme poverty. Many women support their families; in some cases, women are partial supporters of a disabled son, and in other cases they support their families completely in the case of a martyred husband.”. This illustrates the strict roles that Palestinian women must fulfil in the

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15 environment created by the conflict. These care roles are unnoticed (Sassen, 2013), comparatively to the active roles that men take up in the conflict such as politicians or combatants. This silences the position that Palestinian women occupy in society. As noted previously, the roles taken by men in the conflict dominate mainstream media, engendering alternative care roles to be neglected both in Palestinian society and global representation.

Following this, in addition to women’s roles being neglected in conflict, representation of them is similarly limited. Haver and Piccirilli (2004: 1) note that “despite the work women do at the grassroots level to organize for peace, the majority of their voices go unheard during formal processes”. This shows how their gender consequently silences them, despite their activity in the conflict, subsequently preventing them from having an active role in Palestinian politics or society. Similarly, McKay (2004: 153) notes that “[b]ecause of their lower status, girls and women are less able to articulate and act upon their security needs, as compared with boys and men”, this equally shows the inability of women to be represented in policy and to be recognised in Palestinian politics, therefore neglecting the needs of women, creating an environment of uncertainty and limited security for them. Following from this, women have higher security needs in the conflict in comparison to men (Handrahan, 2004; The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). Their needs go unheard because of their lack of voice, while men are able to articulate their own needs. Handrahan (2004: 431) notes that “women’s security is marginalized politically and analytically owing to local and global gender inequality.”. These scholars notice the heavily gendered experiences of conflict and how crucial it is to acknowledge these differences. While men are marginalised because of where they live, and fetishized by dominant mainstream media, women are constrained to a greater degree to a small lens of acceptable roles, coupled with their higher security needs (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995). These gendered security needs include being “threatened by deprivation of property, goods and services and deprivation of their right to return to their homes of origin as well as by violence and insecurity [and] sexual violence against uprooted women and girls employed as a method of persecution in systematic campaigns of terror and intimidation […]” (The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995).

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16 These silence them and prevent them from having independent narratives that deviate from the norm.

4.4. The importance of the everyday

Following the latter two sections, the narratives of Palestinians and especially young female Palestinians, are especially neglected, silenced and ignored due to fetishizations from Western media and societal norms engendered by a patriarchal society. Therefore, offering an alternative opportunity for a differing narrative becomes paramount. This allows for these female Palestinian students to narrate their own salient events in their lives, demonstrating their heterogeneity and further showing that they occupy varying identities alternate to the “victim” or “combatant” categories demonstrated by Burwell (2003). The value of the everyday can be noted by its ability to neither place

Palestinians in a fixed image of a violent character, nor the opposite of a permanent victim. It places Palestinians in an alternative place, a space where others with “peace privilege” have the luxury of holding and take this superior position for granted (Nagel, 1979; Yumar, 2019). The superiority of this space nestled between pity and fear is its ability to dictate and have control over one’s self. Without the implicit fear or pity endowed by the position of “victim” or “combatant”, one is free to shape the self they are and to have characteristics of their identity noticed that do not fall within these binary categories.

Several salient everyday interactions and activities that I will discuss further in the following chapter are educational spaces, social encounters, culture and creativity and the use of social media. In this chapter I will discuss how these activities can show how these women lead lives full of purpose and carry out activities that are important but normal in the eyes of the Western world. Further, they are alternative to mainstream representations from dominant Western media, literature and discourse. In this same vein, Proctor (2014: 11) notes that “[e]veryday life goes on, even in the midst of madness, and humans sought ways to cling to the ordinary pleasures of daily existence even as the extraordinary events of war intervened [...] war creates these moments of ordinariness in the midst of chaos.”. This quote aptly notices how despite chaos,

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17 normality prevails and continues. I suggest this normality is even more noticeable in contemporary conflicts where the environment has been hostile for a protracted length, owing to a necessity to promote normal and mundane life to continue to allow a society to flourish despite a conflict. These narratives of ordinariness communicate a lived reality for these female Palestinian students and show how collectively these events can connect and affect the overall political climate of Palestine, through comprehensively improving and sustaining their wellbeing, despite the conflict that continues to limit the opportunities and quality of life that they have.

4.4.1. Educational spaces and resilience

Firstly, educational spaces offer a place for female Palestinian students to forget the context that they live in and participate in activities, education and conversation that empower them, improving their overall wellbeing through a collective sense of purpose (Norman, 2009). Veronese et al (2012: 229) note that education is a key form of

resilience for young women, as school is “a place of social redemption and hope for the future”, both of which are vital to these women who live in an intersection of a

patriarchal society and a conflict zone. Therefore, I can use education as a site where hope is developed. This indicates to how spaces of education, such as university in the case of the female Palestine students that I am researching, can be a catalyst for actions of empowerment and self-development, through providing activities where these female Palestinian students can engage and encourage each other, developing their collective sense of self-worth, and in turn their overall wellbeing. Gallagher and Lopez (2018) note that this indicates to one’s personal growth and autonomy thus making hope a resource that develops a person’s aspirations, in turn increasing their wellbeing.

Collectively, this flourishing of these women’s capabilities, ambitions and skills creates an embodied movement of purpose that defies the restrictions engendered by the Israeli occupation.

Educational spaces offer the ability for its students to become pioneers and producers of information. Farnum (2016) notices this and states that “[a]cademic institutions and people are creators and reproducers of knowledge: The university is, fundamentally, a

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18 system where students are taught extant knowledge and researchers seek additional knowledge. Universities, publishers, researchers, teachers, scholars, students give rise to and are shaped by information.”. Because of their ability to be the producers of

knowledge they are in turn vital agents in their society. Their participation in the production of this knowledge can empower and attribute a sense of pride to each individual. The literature they produce and the conversational encounters they have within this space of knowledge production can elevate their sense of purpose and their pride of the role that they have within the Palestinian society.

Following from this, as well as their role within the machinery of an educational system, this system also plays a key role in changing the society and Palestinian institutions. Farnum (2016) argues that “[k]nowledge has the potential to influence society and make change: Information influences decisions on both micro and macro levels.”. This further adds to the importance of the role that each one of these female Palestinian students have. Furthermore, Farnum (2016) states that “the people and institutions creating and reproducing knowledge play a role in social change. A

researcher, if only indirectly, affects the world through their work. The knowledge they produce shapes society.”. The participation of these women in this process can in turn empower them as they have participated in this positive change and contribution to society. This connects them to the rest of Palestinians, collectively reaffirming the strength of their community. Furthermore, this adds to the overall wellbeing of these women, as it provides a process where they can feel they are participating in the advancement of the society and population that they belong to, creating a sense of purpose and pride for their Palestinian heritage.

These themes are important to my overall argument, of noticing the process that is beyond direct activism that is produced through seemingly normal activities. This is owed to the indirectness of the impact that this knowledge production has on the Palestinian society. While collectively and comprehensively it can produce social change and promote community cohesion, individually they are merely cogs in a framework that result in these impacts. This is noted by Farnum (2016) who states that “[t]raditionally, the focus for an academic has been on the indirectness of their impact.

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19 Researchers are creators of knowledge- and their role ends there. It falls to

policy-makers and activists to apply that knowledge.”.

4.4.2. Social encounters and resilience

Following from educational spaces as a source of collective resilience for these female Palestinian students, the simple and everyday social encounters that they participate in are equally important in creating a collective sense of resilience to the occupation. Developing an active social life with friends and family provides spaces and encounters where these women can increase their overall wellbeing through positive interactions (Nguyen et al, 2016; Ryan and Willits 2007; Thomas 2009). The establishment and maintenance of strong social relationships provides these women with support and stimulating conversation, as well as developing their social network, in turn improving their quality of life (Markides and Martin 1979; Pinquart and Sorensen 2000). These interactions boost their emotional wellbeing, collectively engendering the population to develop their comprehensive wellbeing through continuing these positive interactions. Flamig, Velioglu and Arauz (2017) note that “[t]he easiest thing, which every human knows and can connect to, are emotions. If people laugh together, they will feel the strong connection of humanity.”, this shows how these positive interactions can collectively strengthen the community with connections to each other on a humanity level. Bonanno and Mancini (2010), suggest that positive emotions and relative life satisfaction could be protective features that allow children to have some resilience to the environment that they have grown up in. I suggest that this goes beyond the children that they researched and that the same applies to the remainder of the Palestinian

population, where these positive encounters give rise to increasing positive emotions, collectively affirming a society that thrives with positive connections despite the hostility of the Israeli occupation.

Linking this to the collective ability of these interactions to feed back into the overall political landscape of Palestine, Mills (2010: 554) notes that “[u]sing collective forms of expression helps empower and define a community. Community organisations can play a decisive role in safeguarding individuals’ interests and provide a space to voice

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20 opinions and needs”. This shows the importance of these social spaces, where topics about the struggles of life, including difficulties related to the occupation, can be discussed in a safe environment. Advice can be given from familiar individuals and acknowledgement of people’s struggles can be recognised. Furthermore, Mills (2010: 554) notes that “[t]he ideal state is where everyone plays a part in the development and shaping of the community, working through dissent towards a collective agreement while acknowledging the voice of the individual”, this notion attributes the importance of acknowledging the voice of an individual and the relationship of this with whole community cohesion. These social spaces provide a platform for the individual voice to contribute to the community collective, participating in social change. Finally, Mills (2010: 551) also notes that “[w]hatever form oppression takes, strategies are needed for the marginalised people to reclaim their voice so that they can articulate their social and political will.”. As suggested earlier, Palestinian women are multiply marginalised individuals, so these spaces that are created by social encounters, such as a friend or family’s home or restaurant can provide opportunities for these individuals to articulate themselves and contribute to the collective narrative of the Palestinian population.

4.4.3. Culture, creativity and resilience

Another salient process that contributes to the collective wellbeing and sense of resilience amongst these Palestinian women is music, performance, art and similar culturally grounded activities. These creative and positive activities are relatively easily accessible for Palestinian students, as they study in spaces frequently used and occupied by creative programs such as dance, drama or art classes. These creative classes can be used to connect those who attend through productive activities and providing a safe space for the class to express themselves through creative means (Flamig, Velioglu and Arauz, 2017). Flamig, Velioglu and Arauz (2017) recognise this in their analysis of the role of art in social change and state that:

“Art is a means to connect people, to create a trusting atmosphere, to make them become aware of themselves and others. Social art opens a space for people to express themselves. This space has to be a safe place, where participants feel

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21

secure enough to voice or show their emotions in a creative way. And by showing their emotions they can find a common ground with other people and form new connections, which is needed in order to make a change in our societies and in the world.” (Flamig, Velioglu and Arauz, 2017: 4)

This quote aptly describes how by providing a space for self-expression through creative means, they can broach sensitive topics in a safe environment where there is little hostility. Further, they note that it can connect like-minded people, in turn developing their social network, contributing to the collective sense of a likeminded community (Flamig, Velioglu and Arauz, 2017).

The importance of art and creativity in hostile environments is paramount. Positive actions are rarer in these environments, where lifestyle can become dominated by the consequences of the conflict. Art can flourish in conflict zones as a method to look past the hostilities that surround people and escape their experiences of the conflict (Seidl-Fox and Sridhar, 2014). This can be useful in increasing the frequencies of positive emotions and experiences, similar to Bonanno and Mancini’s (2010) suggestion of positive emotions and developing life satisfaction acting as tools for resilience against the occupation. Furthermore, this sense of creating, imagining and escaping can collectively elevate these women from the hostilities of reality and empower them collectively through these collaborative experiences (Druml, 2019). Norman (2009) argues that these creative activities can on an individual basis give usually marginalised people a voice and agency, but on a comprehensive level it can develop collective identities and enhance “social cohesion, and facilitating community conversations, events, and forums. [It enables them] to have more active voices in their local communities, and more proactive roles in wider socio-political movements.”. These artistic and creative actions reject predominantly Western assumptions that art has little function (Druml, 2019), as the collective sense of resilience to the environment they live in, that manifests within these spaces have “emotional power that can generate social change […]” (Druml, 2019). This shows how these unpolitical creative and cultural activities, through establishing strong connections between the participants can feed back to the political through the strong emotions that are formed within these spaces of culture, dance, art and performance. Seidl-Fox and Sridhar (2014: 16) note from a

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22 panellist Paul Smith, that “[c]ulture has gone to the heart of politics. Culture helps in regaining the past just as much as it helps in re-building the future”. They further state that “the undertones of culture in political mobilization and nation-building are

continuously organic, they infuse a sense of what it is to be in a community.” (Seidl-Fox and Sridhar, 2014: 16). This shows how through participating in creative and cultural activities that create relationships, links with heritage and empowerment through agency over narratives, collectively a sense of community can manifest, strengthening it as a whole.

4.4.4. Social media and resilience

The final salient everyday activity that contributes to this collective sense of resilience amongst these female Palestinian students is the use of the internet. Coupled with the contemporary characteristics of the conflict, the methods of resilience and everyday activities have similarly developed thus attributing valuable roles to these modern tools within the machinery of a conflict. Interestingly, Palestinians are now the largest internet users in the Arab world (Khoury-Machool, 2007), showing how much of a popular and useful platform the internet has become. Aouragh (2008) notes that “[t]he internet is used to construct (new) social and political relationships”, of this, the former is the aspect that I aim to look the most closely at. As my argument throughout this thesis is to focus on the mundane everyday activities, the establishment of new and occasionally international relationships is key for this overall collective ability to then feed back into the political landscape of Palestine, through the development of

Palestinian individuals’ collective wellbeing. The internet can forge links between Palestinians, who are frequently ostracised, and the rest of the world through social media and the flow of information. Aouragh (2008) notes that the internet gives the “permission to narrate” to its users, and further notes that for Palestinians this is “an important development considering the stereotyped portrayals of Palestinians trapped in either ‘terrorists’ or ‘victims’.”. This is of particular note, since it directly follows the line of argument I am suggesting. The internet can act as a platform where Palestinians can present their own narratives, and express themselves in the ways that they choose, thus having agency over the ways that they are perceived internationally, providing an

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23 alternative representation contrary to dominant and mainstream media, literature and discourse.

A particular aspect of this that has a key role to play especially for young adult women, similar to those I have researched for this thesis, is the connections that can be forged over the themes of beauty, makeup, fashion and online discourse surrounding these latter three. Andreas and Kaplan (2010) note that simple actions such as posting Instagram photographs of a makeup look can empower these young women, while simultaneously linking them to likeminded internet users across the globe, through comments, likes and shares. These processes present commonalities across cultures that forge these relationships and create a sense of purpose and feeling of having secured a place in the world for these Palestinian women.

4.4.5. Conclusion of the importance of the everyday

To conclude this chapter, these everyday activities show the importance of a flourishing culture and strengthening of a community for collective resistance. On an individual basis these everyday activities elevate these women above the hostile environment they live in, by providing spaces for enjoyment and forging relationships. Collectively, this engenders a group of women who have a more enriched wellbeing, creating positive emotions that can feed back into the political environment of Palestine. Links with heritage, culture and tradition reaffirms pride of nationality, strengthening the

community cohesion of these Palestinians. These collectively alter the power dynamics at play in the Israeli, Palestinian conflict, demonstrating their crucial role in the

framework of the conflict.

4.5. The Ecological Framework

The Ecological Framework is a useful theoretical tool to be employed in this thesis, as it links together the everyday mundane activities that I have discussed in the latter

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24 four everyday themes of educational spaces, social encounters, culture and creativity and the use of social media, alone seem abstract, the Ecological Framework can be employed to link these four together to demonstrate ground the community within the overall political environment of Palestine. The Ecological Framework, initially coined by Bronfenbrenner (1979) shows how the identity of a person and their relationship with the environment they live in is influenced by 4 layers of environmental factors, experienced differently by everyone.

This is demonstrated in Figure 1:

Figure 1- Source: Bronfenbrenner (1979)

The individual circle at the centre of this framework represents for this analysis a female Palestinian student. The microsystem in the first ring shows their relationship to their social encounters, religion and education. This first analysis is at an individual level, showing the everyday activities that a female Palestinian student participates in by herself. This displays the spaces where they can gain empowerment and positive

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25 emotions created by these encounters and activities. The exosystem and macrosystem alternatively show what the microsystem is on a collective level. The collective experiences and actions that are participated in within the microsystem become the exosystem, demonstrating what individual activities can become when viewed

collectively. Finally, these feed into the macrosystem, which is the overall attitudes and ideologies of the population (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This framework and process aligns with my argument, where I suggest highlighting the link between a collective entity and the overall political, rather than the individual directly back to a political environment. The Ecological Framework shows this link by framing the individual as a distinctive cog that contributes to the overall machinery of the macrosystem.

Furthermore, Burwell (2003) notes that one must notice the Ecological Framework to see each person as distinctive and heterogeneous and thus how the environment has affected each individual differently. This is because by looking closely at the

microsystem, one can see how each individual navigates their way through the hostile environment of the conflict uniquely and shows how each person perceives the context of the conflict differently. This is through their own narrative of their everyday

interactions (the microsystem), and how this translates to their attitudes and ideologies collectively (the macrosystem). For my research, by enquiring about the everyday activities and encounters of the female Palestinian students I will study, I will have an understanding of the microsystem, and thus can interpret how this collectively impacts the outer layers of the Ecological Framework.

5. Methodology

5.1. Research design: a case study

A case study approach was most appropriate for my research since with limited

resources, focussing in on one place made the research feasible. Bell (1993: 8) notes this is appropriate for individual researchers who have limited time and resources, but still aim to reach depth within a topic. To understand in greater depth the importance of the everyday for female Palestinian students, I interviewed predominantly women from the

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26 Bethlehem Governorate, Palestine. I chose this governorate for several reasons. Namely, the ease of access of Bethlehem for my research and the presence of several

universities, making it a city with a present student population, similar to that which I wanted to research. The former owed to my previous work in Bethlehem. I spent several months in 2017 teaching and working in Dar al Kalima University, where I developed a network and kept in contact with these individuals. Using the case study of the

Bethlehem Governorate was thus apt since by snowballing I was able to connect with my interviewees from these connections I had sustained from this previous work.

5.2. Qualitative research methods

My research employed qualitative research methods to “explore the inner experiences of participants” (Corbin and Strauss, 1990: 5). Qualitative research methods were most apt since I wanted to give the women opportunity to have agency over their own narratives. By listening to these narratives, I intended to see the importance of the salient activities that they chose to include in their own narratives. Qualitative research methods would allow me to gain rich, descriptive and informative data in the form of conversations with these women. Corbin and Strauss (1990: 5) state that “qualitative researchers are drawn to the fluid, evolving, and dynamic nature of this approach as opposed to the more structured designs of quantitative methods.”. This frames the value of qualitative research methods for my research, as I aimed to provide a contrary form of literature of these Palestinian women, paradoxical to that of the common, dominant and

homogenous discourse produced by the fetishizing media in the West. Qualitative research methods truly allowed me to acquire data that was contrasting to the usual, and focussed on aspects of these women’s lives usually neglected and overlooked.

5.3. Primary data collection: in-depth interviews

I used in-depth interviews in my research as these enabled me to collect data based on “emotions, experiences and feelings [as they must be] explored rather than simply reported in a word or two” (Denscombe, 1998: 165). These interviews allowed me to

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27 spend time with the female Palestinian students, getting to know them and slowly, throughout the interview learning more about their everyday lives. The duration and the quality of these interviews meant that they resembled conversations where I could informally ask them questions about their lives. Coupled with my familiarity of the interviewees and the depth of these interviews, I was able to acquire data that was comprehensive and rich in content. Denscombe (1997: 167) notes that this interviewing method “let[s] the interviewee develop ideas and speak more widely on the issues raised”, this shows the importance of using this interview technique as I wanted my interviewees to have control to present the salient events they chose to discuss throughout their narratives.

The in-depth interviews were with eight female Palestinian students who lived mainly in the urban suburbs of Bethlehem. Several lived in the Dheisheh refugee camp and several lived in nearby villages within the Bethlehem Governorate. The Dheisheh refugee camp offered different standards of living and lifestyle to the other two because of its informal and more temporary nature (Gren, 2015). The social wellbeing of those living in the Dheisheh refugee camp is unstable through their constant state of lack of permanent belonging. Furthermore, resources in refugee camps are less accessible that urban settlements (Gren, 2015). Rural areas similarly have limited access to resources, but social norms in these areas differ from urban dwellers, with more focus on

agricultural vocations (Rubenberg, 2001). Incorporating all three locations allowed me to have a more comprehensive overview of the everyday lives of women living in several different areas. Recognising these differences was important for me to be able to understand the varying contexts of these women’s lives, linking to the exosystem of the Ecological Framework.

The interviews I carried out were via several platforms, including video chat on Facebook messenger, a video call on Whatsapp and video call on Zoom. I initially set out to interview each woman via Zoom for consistency, however for comfort and ease for the interviewee I allowed for versatility in my research. I had conversed with several of them previously by these social media platforms, making continuing contact by the same method a more comfortable and familiar method for my interviewees. By

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28 note their body language throughout the interviews, which I did so on a notepad

throughout. This allowed me to be aware if their reactions to certain questions and topics. Through analysis of my data there were several topics that I later understood to have more significance. I thus carried out 2 follow up interviews to acquire further data on these topics. Prior to my interviews I carried out a preliminary interview with a Palestinian friend, to check for questions that were inappropriate, needed rewording and to check if I needed to add additional questions. I used an interview guide which had 10 main themes and 39 possible questions. I deviated from this interview guide

significantly depending on where the interviewee directed the conversation. This allowed ultimate control by the interviewee over the direction of the interview and conversation, a key aspect I wanted to maintain in my interviews, sustaining the agency the interviewee had over their own narrative.

5.4. Sampling strategy

Berg and Lune (2011: 50) state that a sample is “inferences about some larger

population from a smaller one”. I therefore needed to ensure that I interviewed enough participants to feel I had a representative idea of the overall population of female Palestinian students in the Bethlehem Governorate. To improve the representability of my participants I made sure to include women from both Christian and Muslim backgrounds. Furthermore, I ensured I had participants from rural, urban and also refugee camp settlements. Rubenberg (2001: 1) notes that 60% of Palestinian women live in rural areas and refugee camps, demonstrating the necessity to include these individuals in studies to secure a representative sample. To access my participants, I used the strategy of snowballing. Snowballing was a useful strategy to access

individuals in difficult to reach populations (Lee, 1993). Despite having some existing contacts with these Palestinian women, I wanted to access a wider number of them. Since I was unable to physically travel to the case study location, I needed to rely on snowballing to access these further female Palestinian students. I had a main gatekeeper, one of the women I interviewed, who introduced me via social media to several of her peers. In doing so, I additionally gained contacts through some of these women. Overall

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29 this allowed me to interview a diverse group of female Palestinian students from a variety of different communities within the Bethlehem Governorate.

5.5. Data analysis

For my data analysis I wanted to group together different common themes between the women I interviewed, but also to highlight points they said that demonstrated their individuality. To do so, I used thematic analysis. This was useful to consolidate the large quantities of data I had in the form of transcripts from my interviews. Firstly, I made preliminary codes, based on my predictions of themes that would arise. Secondly, whilst reading through my data I then made emergent themes from topics that I noticed at this stage. Collectively, these themes organised my data into different groups that aptly represented my data (Braun and Clarke, 2006). When writing up my results I used pseudonyms for my participants, to maintain the human element of a name but also to ensure their anonymity.

5.6. Limitations

The limitations of my data included my lack of presence in Palestine, language barriers, technological difficulties with the video calls and the bias that owed to my familiarity towards these women. Firstly, because I was unable to travel to Palestine, I was unable to interview my participants in person. This introduced occasional difficulty and

weakened my ability to delve into a more informal conversation as the video call added a degree of formality to the interview. To overcome this, I made sure to converse with my interviewee for considerable time prior to the main body of my interview questions. This allowed the interviewee to relax in the interview setting. Secondly, language barriers meant that some sentences became lost in translation. I made sure to only interview women who had a high standard of English. This was not difficult since they were all university students and English language was a core element of their education. Despite this, some topics proved hard to translate, and although generally the

The importance of the everyday for female Palestinian students under Israeli occupation