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Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness [NOOK Book]
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This foundational text now features a new introduction by Rashid Khalidi reflecting on the significance of his work over the past decade and its relationship to the struggle for Palestinian nationhood. Khalidi also casts an eye to the future, noting the strength of Palestinian identity and social solidarity yet wondering whether current trends will lead to Palestinian statehood and independence.
Winner of the 1997 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association
Those expecting either a comprehensive history of the modern Palestinian movement or a polemic against Zionism and Israel should look elsewhere. Khalidi, who teaches history and directs the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago, and who was a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace negotiations, focuses almost entirely on the late Ottoman and early Mandate period (1880s through 1920s). He sees Palestinian nationalism emerging far earlier than is generally thought—in the preWW I period, when absentee landlords in Beirut and elsewhere sold large tracts of Palestinian land to the Jewish Colonization Association. Yet while modern Palestinian history is inextricably intertwined with that of Zionism, Khalidi focuses as much on other constituents of modern Palestinian identity, which include "patriotic feelings, local loyalties, Arabism, religious sentiments, [and] higher levels of education and literacy." He demonstrates how the long-term influence of modernization, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and concomitant European incursion in the preWW I era, followed by the betrayal of promises made by both the British and French, contributed as much to Palestinian nationalism as the 1917 Balfour Declaration and Zionist immigration. The only flaw here is that Khalidi races through the last 70 years of the development of Palestinian identity. Even here, however, he offers a fascinating analysis of why Palestinian nationalism seemingly became "submerged" after the first Arab- Israeli War (194749) and until the PLO's founding in 1964.
At a time when the end of the hundred years' war between Zionism/Israel and the Palestinians appears on the horizon, this illuminating study will help readers gain a sophisticated understanding of how the Palestinians came to be who they are.
A major contribution to historical Palestinian nationalism.
[Khalidi's] historiographic method is pathbreaking.
One of the pre-eminent historians of Palestinian nationalism.
| Preface | ||
| Ch. 1 | Introduction | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | Contrasting Narratives of Palestinian Identity | 9 |
| Ch. 3 | Cultural Life and Identity in Late Ottoman Palestine: The Place of Jerusalem | 35 |
| Ch. 4 | Competing and Overlapping Loyalties in Ottoman Jerusalem | 63 |
| Ch. 5 | Elements of Identity I: Peasant Resistance to Zionist Settlement | 89 |
| Ch. 6 | Elements of Identity II: The Debate on Zionism in the Arabic Press | 119 |
| Ch. 7 | The Formation of Palestinian Identity: The Critical Years, 1917-1923 | 145 |
| Ch. 8 | The "Disappearance" and Reemergence of Palestinian Identity | 177 |
| Notes | 211 | |
| Bibliography | 267 | |
| Index | 287 |
Overview
This foundational text now features a new introduction by Rashid Khalidi reflecting on the significance of his work over the past decade and its relationship to the struggle for Palestinian nationhood. Khalidi also casts an eye to the future, noting the strength of Palestinian identity and social solidarity yet wondering whether current trends will lead to Palestinian statehood and independence.
Winner of the 1997 Albert Hourani Book Award, Middle East Studies Association