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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: May 20, 2019 at 11:44:58 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Nationalism]: McGahern on Monterescu and Hazan, > 'Twilight Nationalism: Politics of Existence at Life's End' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Daniel Monterescu, Haim Hazan. Twilight Nationalism: Politics of > Existence at Life's End. Stanford Stanford University Press, 2018. > xii + 270 pp. $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5036-0432-2; $25.95 > (paper), ISBN 978-1-5036-0563-3. > > Reviewed by Una McGahern (Newcastle University) > Published on H-Nationalism (May, 2019) > Commissioned by Cristian Cercel > > In _Twilight Nationalism: Politics of Existence at Life's End, > _authors Daniel Monterescu and Haim Hazan offer an original and > thought-provoking ethnographic study of nationalist identity in the > "mixed" city of Jaffa. Critiquing methodological nationalism and the > "vicious circle" (p. 10) of uncritical reproduction of the same > dichotomous categories of analysis that prevail in studies of > Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, they instead advocate a relational > and situational approach that would better demonstrate the more > complex constitution and dissolution of nationalist identities and > discourses that emerge from the cracks of "contrived coexistence" (p. > 3) between individuals and groups over the course of different lives, > life stages, and life struggles within the city. > > Once a major port city during the period of the British mandate, only > 5 percent of Jaffa's seventy thousand Palestinians remained in the > city following the 1948 "war of independence," or _Nakba _(disaster) > as it is known in Arabic. This remnant community was then confined to > a ghetto in the Ajami neighborhood that was enclosed until 1956 and > subject to military rule until 1966. During this time, Jaffa was > unilaterally annexed to the neighboring city of Tel Aviv (in 1950), > and over the next decade, the city's population grew rapidly as a > result of Jewish immigration, receiving at one point the moniker of > "Little Bulgaria" (p. 7). With the construction of new "development > towns" from the 1960s onward, however, it increasingly became a > transit city for wealthier Ashkenazi Jewish residents on their way to > better housing elsewhere while an increasingly poor and stigmatized > Mizrahi Jewish population remained who, together with the remnant > Palestinian residents of the city, were targeted with successive slum > clearances and gentrification plans. Today, the city is home to > twenty thousand Palestinians, forty thousand Jews (including a > growing number of hipster-gentrifiers), hundreds of migrant laborers, > and Palestinian collaborators resettled from the occupied Palestinian > territories (p. 5). > > In order to highlight the dialectical relationship that exists > between the different identities, lived spaces, and memories of these > city's residents, the authors draw on insights from subaltern > studies. This serves not only to advance their critique of > methodological nationalism but also as a means to liberate the > voices, memories, and narratives of their elderly respondents. For > them, the elderly provide a unique vantage point not only because > they are considered "an agent and a guardian of memory capable of > providing a firsthand testimonial" (p. 2), but also because their > "vantage point [is] predicated on their assumed marginality, which > frees them from the constraints of normative cultural performance" > (p. 13). At the twilight of their lives, the act of remembering > becomes not only a speech act but, they argue, a lens through which > the (in)coherence and (dis)continuities of nationalist narratives and > discourses can be unpacked and analyzed. This forms the basis of > their "metanationalist" approach--"a second-order reflexive unpacking > of national narratives through and of speech" (p. 15) that reveals > the ways in which elderly residents of the city--Palestinian and > Jewish, male and female, rich and poor--each engage with, navigate, > affirm, reject, or bargain with nationalism as part of their own > "autobiographical dramas" (p. 13). > > Their analysis focuses on the life stories of twelve elderly > residents. Two stand out in particular. The first is that of Abu > Subhi. Born on the outskirts of Jaffa in 1927, he and his family were > internally displaced to Ajami in 1948. During his early years, he saw > the dead bodies of children following the bombing of an orphanage by > the Jewish terrorist group Stern Gang, the occupation of Jaffa, and > the barbaric herding of Palestinians into the enclosed ghetto of > Ajami. Both his memory and his daily life afterwards were dictated by > his depressing economic situation and the necessity of survival. From > a young age, he worked various jobs as a manual laborer: on a British > army base as a water pump operator, in orange groves of a nearby > kibbutz with his father, and later for the state of Israel. Not > having the luxury of material distance and financial independence, as > some of the city's better-off and more well-connected Palestinian > residents had, he represents both a narrative of survival and the > "unbearable burden of memory" (p. 85). He narrates the bombing of the > orphanage "as if it's a documentary film he watched" (p. 66) and > remembers other traumatic events from his life "from the position of > a bystander" (p. 84). Unable and unwilling to engage with and process > the multiple traumas he has endured, his narrative is one of stoic > self-reliance and resourcefulness. In his refusal the authors find > parallels to his testimony of many Holocaust survivors suffering from > continuous post-traumatic shock. > > A second story which stands out is that of Amram Ben-Yosef. Born in > Casablanca in 1934, he came to Israel on his own in 1950, aged > sixteen, to be followed later by his family. Unable to settle down or > get on with his father who rejected him, he wandered aimlessly from > kibbutz to kibbutz and dodged military service before becoming > homeless. He survived by eating food from rubbish bins and > prostitution. Later, he became a pimp and a drug addict in Jaffa's > slums. He lies and cheats his way through life and a series of > marriages only to be abandoned himself by the last woman he deceived. > He lives outside the city in a public housing apartment but returns > each day to a café next to the clock tower in Jaffa where he spends > most of his time. His story, the authors tell us, is one of "failed > absorption of an indigent immigrant who clings to the last vestiges > of communal existence on the outskirts of Jaffa's old city" (p. 190). > His is a difficult story to read. He talks openly about his life as a > pimp. Describing Jaffa in the 1950s as being full of > prostitutes--"miserable girls who came here without their parents" > (p. 193) who were tricked into trading their bodies for food and > survival--his pity is, however, reserved entirely for himself and the > difficult life he had to lead in order to survive. Describing the > government's efforts to clear and gentrify the area, he describes > being tricked out of his home for profit, with his old home now worth > two million dollars. One of six children, two of his brothers died as > addicts (one from drugs, another from alcohol). His youngest brother > died of a stroke and his parents "of a broken heart" (p. 202). > Feelings of anger, rejection, guilt (for having gathered his family > in Israel), impotence, sorrow, and bitterness reverberate through his > story, and he rejects all forms of collective identity. > > Each of the twelve life stories presented in the book highlights the > different life experiences and traumatic events encountered by these > elderly residents. Within each life story emphasis is placed on how > their lived experiences have channeled their memories in particular > ways and the extent to which this has caused them to either > internalize or repudiate national narratives as a coping strategy. > These stories are in turn divided into three sections that, following > the stages of the setting sun (sunset, dusk, nightfall), indicate > stages of increasing withdrawal and distance "from the classical > model of territorial nationalism" (p. 20). The aim of the authors > here is to identify commonalities in the coping strategies of their > Jewish and Arab respondents and to show the dwindling power of > nationalist discourses upon the elderly and "nationalism's terminal > state" (p. 224) more generally. The organization of the book allows > them to identify alternative unifying patterns of attachment and > repudiation primarily along lines of class, gender, and community > affiliation. Because the authors do not tell us how these twelve > individuals were selected, the reader is left to wonder if other life > stories might have been captured that could have revealed a more > glaring light of continuous affiliation to nationalist identities and > discourses. Nonetheless, what their analysis does amply and > sensitively show is the value of a relational and situational > approach to the study of nationalist identities and discourses, and > the importance of being attentive to different social, spatial, and > temporal configurations in analyses of their import upon everyday > lives. As such this book will surely be of interest not only to > scholars of nationalism and urban studies but to those interested in > subaltern groups, identity politics, and ethnographic research more > generally. > > Citation: Una McGahern. Review of Monterescu, Daniel; Hazan, Haim, > _Twilight Nationalism: Politics of Existence at Life's End_. > H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews. May, 2019. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54112 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
