Occupied Lives

Maintaining Integrity in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in the West Bank

Inbunden, Engelska, 2015

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Intense media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not necessarily enhance one's knowledge or understanding of the Palestinians; on the contrary they are more often than not reduced to either victims or perpetrators. Similarly, while many academic studies devote considerable effort to analyzing the political situation in the occupied territories, there have been few sophisticated case studies of Palestinian refugees living under Israeli rule. An ethnographic study of Palestinian refugees in Dheisheh refugee camp, just south of Bethlehem, Occupied Lives looks closely at the attempts of the camp inhabitants to survive and bounce back from the profound effects of political violence and Israeli military occupation on their daily lives. Based on the author's extensive fieldwork conducted inside the camp, including a year during 2003-2004 when she lived in Dheisheh, this study examines the daily efforts of camp inhabitants to secure survival and meaning during the period of the al-Aqsa Intifada.It argues that the political developments and experiences of extensive violence at the time, which left most refugees outside of direct activism, caused many camp inhabitants to disengage from traditional forms of politics. Instead, they became involved in alternative practices aimed at maintaining their sense of social worth and integrity, by focusing on processes to establish a 'normal' order, social continuity, and morality. Nina Gren explores these processes and the ambiguities and dilemmas that necessarily arose from them and the ways in which the political and the existential are often intertwined in Dheisheh.Combining theoretical readings with field-based case study, this book will be invaluable to scholars and students of social anthropology, sociology, international relations, refugee studies, religious studies, and Middle East studies, as well as to anyone with an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2015-09-30
Mått150 x 230 x 27 mm
Vikt629 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor288
FörlagThe American University in Cairo Press
ISBN9789774166952

Tillhör följande kategorier

Socialt arbete och välfärd inom Samhälle och politik

PrefaceAcknowledgmentsA Note on Transliteration Maps Chronology of Events Ch. 1. Introduction -Focus and Purpose-Being Camp Refugees under Violent Occupation-Integrity and Constrained Agency-Why a Focus on Everyday Life?-‘Normality’ in a Violent and Prolonged Refugee Situation-Social Continuity: New Homes and Re-established Family Lines-A Moral Crisis on Repeat-Doing Fieldwork in Dheisheh-Overview of ChaptersCh. 2. Dheisheh as a Social and Political Place -Introduction-The Order of Things in Dheisheh-Earlier Political Affiliations and Activism in Dheisheh-Political Disengagement at the Time of Fieldwork-Concluding RemarksCh. 3. Living with Violence and Insecurity -Introduction-Experiencing On-going Crisis-The Presence of Extraordinary Deaths-Extending the Limits of Normality-Remaining Patient and Hopeful -Negotiating Trust-Concluding RemarksCh. 4. The Making of New Homes -Introduction-To Build a House is to Make a Life-Imprisonment Delaying Life-Children as Normality, Resistance and Recovery-Reframing Home to a Political Stage-Getting by Together-Concluding RemarksCh. 5. Reconstituting a Moral Order -Introduction-A Chain of Catastrophic Events-The Camp as a Moral Community-Palestinian Moral Superiority and the Immoral Others-Moral Contamination-A Shaken Political Morality-Concluding RemarksCh. 6. Concluding Discussion -Maintaining Integrity in the Face of Violation-Struggling Against Temporariness-Having a Life or Being a True Patriot?-How May One Remain a Political Subject?-Existence and PoliticsReferencesIndex

"For all that has been written about them, Palestinians still remain unknown and misunderstood particularly in the West. Similarly, despite their profound loss and suffering over the last, nearly seven decades, it is still necessary to defend the humanity of Palestinians to those who do not know them. Nina Gren provides a thoughtful and well-researched corrective to this shameful reality with her study of daily life among refugee families in the Dheisheh refugee camp, providing the reader with a window into a world few have ever seen let alone experienced. As such, her work constitutes an important and welcome contribution to the literature."--Sara Roy, Harvard University; "Although the text is based on an academic study, it's written for a larger audience. Gren does integrate a variety of social theoretical concepts into her arguments, but her style remains engaging, her writing concise, and her analysis and argument coherent. Ultimately the text aims to do what many texts don't-steer discussion from a solely state-centered politics to the mechanics of the everyday under a politics of occupation and repression, to show how "high politics" invades ordinary life." Nahrain Al-Mousawi, Middle East Monitor.