Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 18, 2021 at 9:20:03 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Migration]: Banko on Nassar, 'Brothers Apart: > Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Maha Nassar. Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the > Arab World. Stanford Stanford University Press, 2017. 288 pp. > $26.00 (paper), ISBN 978-1-5036-0316-5. > > Reviewed by Lauren Banko (University of Manchester) > Published on H-Migration (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Nicholas B. Miller > > Banko on Nassar, 'Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and > the Arab World' > > Maha Nasser's _Brothers Apart: Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the > Arab World_ could be better framed as a book about the ways that > poetry and the writers of poems and other cultural texts migrated > across political boundaries and physical borders in the postwar era > of decolonization, when communism and pan-Arab nationalism dueled for > the hearts and minds of Palestinians in Israel. The poems and poets > in this tale are primarily those Palestinians who became citizens of > the state of Israel by consequence of their presence inside the 1949 > Green Line (Armistice Line) and through the Israeli government's > "invitation" to them to become such citizens. Nasser's historical > subjects are broader than only Palestinian poets: they include all > those individuals who fall under the category of "intellectuals." > Defined in terms of culture, these intellectuals came largely from > working-class backgrounds (or had interests in working-class issues) > and included high school and college graduates, teachers, writers, > journalists, attorneys, and political party organizers (communists > and pan-Arab nationalists) who wrote prose and/or poetry aimed at > improving the conditions of society. They encompassed Jewish Israelis > from Arab countries like Iraq and spanned roughly two generations. > > _Brothers Apart_ aims to "shed light on specific, deliberate, and > concrete ways in which intellectuals, cultural producers and > political organizers actively resisted these policies of > sequestration" (p. 181) by Israel to keep Palestinian citizens from > crossing political, cultural, and social borders in the direction of > the wider Arab world. In doing so, Nasser's study asks first how > Palestinian citizens of Israel tried to foster cultural and > intellectual connections to the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s in > spite of their political and geographical isolation. A significant > focus of the book is how regional and global developments such as the > Algerian war and decolonization reverberated back to Palestinian > intellectuals in Israel. Reverberate they did: Palestinian > communists, often forced to take stances on decolonization that fell > in line with the political consensus of their Jewish communist > counterparts, found themselves at odds with pan-Arab intellectuals. > As part of this focus, Nasser uncovers the new political vocabularies > and shifting solidarities created through literary texts and their > regional migrations. Her sources are incredibly rich: periodicals > produced from within Israel as well as those that made their way from > other Arab states into Israel, written and oral histories of poetry > festivals and recitations, and interviews with some of the > individuals present at major events and part of literary networks in > Israel. Ultimately, _Brothers Apart_ makes the intervention that a > critical examination of these textual sources helps historians and > others to locate the cultural and intellectual history of Palestinian > citizens of Israel in the domestic, regional, and global context. > > As the book's title indicates, its subjects are almost entirely men. > There is mention of Nablus-based Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, for > example, but no other women receive attention. This is to be expected > since Nasser's research on Arab "brothers" is the foundation of the > monograph, but the absence of women intellectuals makes clear the > need for further, parallel research by historians on their presence > in intellectual, communist, and pan-Arabist circles in Israel. The > male domination of the topic is not explained, nor is the masculinity > of the cultural and intellectual production analyzed. > Disappointingly, it is unclear why the research here needed to only > encompass the voices and textual production of men. > > The book is an important adddition to historians' understanding as to > the migration of ideas and intellectuals in Palestine and Israel in > the mid-twentieth century. To be sure, it is not directly about > migration in terms of the movement of persons and communities across > borders in order to make new homes, take on employment, join family, > or escape any variety of political, economic, social, or religious > difficulties. Nasser instead highlights what types of migration take > place when people--in this case, Palestinian Arab citizens of > Israel--cannot physically migrate across borders without forfeiting > their residence. The book's first chapters do make note of the mainly > Iraqi Jewish communists who migrated to Israel in the 1950s and > became part of the debates on decolonization, the role of the state > in Arab communities and how Palestinians should engage with the > state, and how Israel should relate to the wider region. This is a > nod to the work of historians such as Orit Baskin and Zvi Ben-Dor > Benite, scholars of comparative literature like Lital Levy, and Ella > Shohat's work on displacement of Arabic-speaking Jews in Israel. > > One of the crucial elements of the sociocultural and political > spheres of the intellectual subjects of the book's chapters was their > isolation from Arab counterparts in surrounding states and from > Palestinians in the diaspora, the West Bank, and Gaza. Upon the > creation of Israel in 1948, 160,000 Palestinians remained within the > territory that became Israel. They composed 13 percent of the state's > population. Many were internally displaced. The 1952 Citizenship Law > offered the Palestinians Israeli citizenship, but as the work of many > other scholars has demonstrated, they did not have an equal status > with Israeli Jews. This is most glaring obvious in the period from > 1949 to 1966 when Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens and communities > came under military rule. The Arab world also isolated itself from > these Palestinians, and the impact of that on cultural exchange forms > a central feature of the book's chapters. The Arab League boycotted > Israeli goods and citizens, and by the late 1950s and early 1960s, > Baathists in Syria publicly referred to Palestinians in Israel as > traitors and Zionist agents. Indeed, this perception remained > pervasive into the 1960s as the minimal cultural contact which > Palestinians in Israel had with Arabs elsewhere did little to change > other Arabs' ignorance of their situation and, at times, outright > hostility. Instead, as Nasser argues, in the years following the > Naksa (setback) of 1967 and the subsequent Israeli military > occupation it would be Palestinians in exile who drew attention to > how those in Israel used political and cultural means to resist their > isolation. In addition, younger Palestinian poets used a greater > agency to explicitly position themselves as part of the Palestinian > people rather than as cordoned off as Palestinians in Israel. > > The tools used to resist isolation included more explicitly political > poetry and literature, especially by the younger generation. This was > a change in the attitudes of Palestinian intellectuals as a result of > both of the end of military rule in 1966 and the failure during the > decade after the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 of Palestinian members > in the Communist Party of Israel and the left-wing Mapam party, and > the pan-Arab nationalist sympathizers to agree on an approach to > challenge their own marginalization in the state. > > The book gives a general history of the role of poetry and cultural > production associated with leftist and anticolonial organizations > during the British Mandate. It emphasizes that poetry "became a means > of placing the Palestinian Arabs' collective struggle within the > larger spatial and temporal imaginary" (p. 32). To some extent, the > intellectual life that flourished in the years during and after World > War II in Palestine continued to grow after the Nakba's rupture among > certain Palestinians in coastal cities and in the Galilee. The > cultural debates, growing poetry clusters, and editorials in Arabic > and Hebrew newspapers throughout the 1950s remind us that despite the > utter devastation of 1948 and the harsh military rule imposed by > Israel on the state's Palestinian citizens, there was certainly no > lacuna in cultural and social exchange nor was this a time of only > loss and contemplation. > > The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) took the lead in the 1950s in > promoting Arab poets' challenges to their position through the medium > of newspapers and journals. In the name of strategy to combat > isolation, Palestinian communists joined with their Israeli Jewish > counterparts--including Iraqis and Egyptians--to put aside > differences with pan-Arab-oriented Palestinians and speak in a united > voice. This strategy broke down relatively quickly: CPI leaders > framed their calls for equal rights between Arab and Jewish citizens > in terms of territorial patriotism. By the end of the 1950s, such a > stance contrasted sharped and divisively with pan-Arab expressions of > nationalism that questioned why Palestinians in Israel refused to > offer full support to the anticolonial, revolutionary project of > Gamal abd al-Nasser. The CPI continued in its anti-imperial stance, > targeting in its periodicals and other mediums the Arab regimes > believed to be imperialist. Communist newspaper _Al-Ittihad_, for > instance, adopted a pedagogical approach to Arabic literary trends > and published poems that called on workers to rise up in Asia and > Africa to overthrow imperialists even as it maintained a distance > from nation-state expressions of revolution. The CPI's stance came up > sharply against other intellectual narratives from within Israel. The > Arabic periodicals _al-Yawm_ and _al-Mujtama_ framed calls for Arab > brotherhood as best achieved under the auspices of the Israeli state. > By the late 1950s, a shift had occurred. Most politically active > intellectuals no longer wished to appeal to the Israeli state to > better their condition and instead sought to rally other Palestinians > by alluding to a decolonial, revolutionary spirit of the Third World. > In this way, they hoped to connect with Arab counterparts to > challenge the perception in the Arab world of Palestinian citizens of > Israel as passive victims or traitors. Unfortunately, this shift > occurred as pan-Arab nationalists and communists were becoming > increasingly hostile to each other. That hostility reflected wider > regional trends: Gamal abd al-Nasser as leader of Egypt derided > communists as obstacles to Arab unity and to the end of Western > imperialism. > > Maha Nasser makes an important intervention in her introduction and > only returns to it at the end of the book. It is an often overlooked > understanding that not all Palestinians desired to be seen as > colonial subjects. Most of the intellectuals whose stories are told > here actively rejected the very decolonial logic that dictated armed > struggle as necessary for national self-determination that historians > and sociologists so often focus on during this era. What Nasser > successfully underscores is that these intellectuals nonetheless used > decolonial frameworks and struggles in places like Egypt, Iraq, and > Algeria to make their own conditions of isolation legible. Poetry > festivals, discussed at length, signaled a growing recognition that > poetry could have immediate political function as a way for > intellectuals to rally Palestinians toward a collective spirit in > preparation for greater mobilization. Published, circulated poetry > also helped to make connections across borders when Palestinian > citizens of Israel could not themselves travel as freely as other > Arabs. Festivals created a sense of empowerment for the younger > intellectuals of the early 1960s such as Mahmood Darwish and Samih > al-Qasim, two poets discussed at length elsewhere in the book. > > The last half of the book is concerned with the unraveling of the > intellectual Arab brotherhood that had advanced in starts and stops > in Israel during military rule. The success of Algeria over the > French and Egypt in nationalizing the Suez Canal opened space for a > more unified, pan-Arab approach to the Palestinians' isolation. > However, as Nasser argues "now that the day [when colonialism and > Western imperialism were eradicated] seemed within reach, new > challenges arose" for Palestinian intellectuals in Israel. As Nasser > calls them, "bitter recriminations" (p. 97) between communists and > pan-Arabists prevented a unified front. The organization of Ard, a > new group positioned within both pan-Arab and Palestinian nationalist > frameworks, offered a third alternative for Palestinian intellectuals > in Israel to challenge their isolation through. The emergence of Ard > led to a crisis within the CPI: the communists' old guard attacked > Ard's position even as younger CPI members were drawn toward its > pan-Arab positions. > > A key question within the intellectual discourses studied in > _Brothers Apart_ is whether the position necessary to end the > isolation and marginalization of Palestinian citizens of Israel > should be toward the wider Arab nation as an integral part of it, or > toward the implementation of an equality of existence with Jewish > Israelis. This element of discourse is traced through all the > chapters of the book, as the immediate post-1948 generation, which > came of age during the latter years of the Mandate, and the > generation that came of age in the 1960s wavered over whether > pan-Arab unity or communist objectives should take center stage in > the political, social, and cultural being of Palestinians inside the > Green Line. Numerous controversies are situated around this question, > and Nasser outlines the stakes involved in formulating positions on > either side, from Palestinians in the CPI or in Mapam to those > supportive of the United Arab Republic and to the founders of Ard. At > the heart of these debates and intellectual discourses is the > _nature_ of Palestinian self-determination: whose understanding of > that self-determination could be implemented in a way that allowed > Palestinians to be comfortable with pan-Arab expressions of identity > and with expressions of identity that developed out of the > two-decade-long existence under military rule in the Israeli state? > Ultimately, of course, Nasser makes clear that these were > intellectual discussions, albeit presented in poetry, literature, and > the pages of cultural periodicals, and by men whose backgrounds may > not have been elite. Still, her methodology and astute use of textual > sources and interviews do not allow for us to really understand the > penetration of these discourses outside the realms of those defined > as intellectuals. The book is strictly centered on such individuals, > and so her focus on them is certainly valid. What this focus obscures > is why such a history matters outside the realm of the intellectual > life of Palestinian citizens of Israel. We get a glimpse of how much > it matters when Nasser mentions the lackluster showing of the CPI in > the 1959 Knesset elections: Palestinian communists' stance vis-à-vis > that of Palestinians who professed themselves to be in full favor of > pan-Arab unity and in support of the UAR and Gamal abd al-Nasser was > manifested in a loss of Knesset seats for the communists. > > The book offers a sweeping history of Palestinian cultural > intellectuals in Israel during the two decades of military rule: it > is unabashedly focused on this cultural and literary scene first and > foremost, its developments, and the events that shaped it and were > shaped by it. The book is not a political history of Palestinian > intellectuals inside the Green Line, but it weaves the political > impact of these intellectuals' varied organizational movements and > their outputs, the rise of pan-Arab nationalist solidarities, and > anticolonial struggles in Asia and Africa into the narrative. Each > chapter offers actions and reactions by intellectuals and their > clubs, newspapers, journals, and other literary mediums to political > developments in the Arab world and decolonial struggles farther > afield. At times, however, the political threatens to subsume the > study of the literary and cultural productions of the intellectuals > and their movements: chapter 4, for instance, follows the > establishment of the PLO closely but offers little in terms of how > cultural spokesmen in Israel engaged with the new organization. In > doing so, the chapter diverts attention from poet-activist > "spokesmen" of the 1960s like Darwish and Qasim, and offers few > examples of other, lesser-known, literary spokesmen of this > generation. Nasser does leave some inadvertent gaps throughout the > chapters. Most strikingly are sweeping pronouncements that leave the > reader wanting more specifics. "Leftists," "communists," and > "pan-Arab nationalists" are terms used frequently but too broadly. > > Overall, the book is an excellent addition to Middle Eastern studies > or Palestine studies, but it will also have wide appeal to scholars > and students of Arab world history, literature, and textual > production, sociology in the Middle East, migration studies, and > those who approach the international relations of the region with a > humanistic slant. > > Citation: Lauren Banko. Review of Nassar, Maha, _Brothers Apart: > Palestinian Citizens of Israel and the Arab World_. H-Migration, > H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55599 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6492): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6492 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80733200/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
