A Language of One's Own: Literary Arabic, the Palestinians and Israel

Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, literary Arabic became one of the main representatives of Palestinian national identity within Israel, and therefore a contested public site. Various state agencies and Palestinian groups were active in this public site, calling for certain ways of reading and writing in Arabic. These ways influenced the processes of reshaping the Palestinian national identity that were ignited by the war of 1948. Addressing the Palestinian reading public in Is...