While Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their state's founding, Palestinians around the world are mourning the "Nakba" -- or "catastrophe" -- that drove so many into exile. Scholar Lila Abu-Lughod has taken a close look at the way Palestinians see the past and present. SPIEGEL ONLINE: This week Palestinians all over the world mark the sixtieth anniversary of what they have come to call the "Nakba," or catastrophe -- the expulsion from their homes in 1948 in the wake of the founding of the State of Israel. You have studied the phenomenon as an anthropologist, but you yourself are the daughter of a Palestinian. What does this day mean to you? Lila Abu-Lughod: Only my father was Palestinian, but for both my parents the political injustice of the situation was clear. Every child of a Palestinian refugee feels the burden of the events of 1948, not just through what a parent or grandparent might tell her or through sensing their hollow feeling of exile, but because the results are with us today in the continuing violence. Those who live in the US are faced daily with a kind of symbolic violence -- misconceptions and untruths conveyed by the media about Israel. I don't see the anniversary as a time of mourning but as an occasion for trying to get the world to listen to what really happened and to think about how this should shape our vision of a solution. SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Nakba is a national trauma for the Palestinians, hundreds of thousands had to leave their homes and villages behind. But of course the number of those who actually lived through it decreases every year. Has this changed the meaning of commemorating the Nakba? Abu-Lughod: This is a wonderful question. Dr. Rosemary Sayigh, who has been interviewing Palestinians about their experiences for decades, describes her work as a race against time. But Diana Allan, an anthropologist from Harvard who has been videotaping old men and women in the refugee camps all over Lebanon to create a Nakba Archive, would be the first to insist that though it is important to get these stories, it should not distract us from the contemporary problems Palestinians face, in Lebanon and elsewhere. I have been following with interest, though, the way this particular Nakba commemoration has galvanized people and spurred storytelling: a good example is the series of "untold stories" on the Web site of the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
While Israelis celebrate the 60th anniversary of their state's founding, Palestinians around the world are mourning the "Nakba" -- or "catastrophe" -- that drove so many into exile. Scholar Lila Abu-Lughod has taken a close look at the way Palestinians see the past and present.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: This week Palestinians all over the world mark the sixtieth anniversary of what they have come to call the "Nakba," or catastrophe -- the expulsion from their homes in 1948 in the wake of the founding of the State of Israel. You have studied the phenomenon as an anthropologist, but you yourself are the daughter of a Palestinian. What does this day mean to you?
Lila Abu-Lughod: Only my father was Palestinian, but for both my parents the political injustice of the situation was clear. Every child of a Palestinian refugee feels the burden of the events of 1948, not just through what a parent or grandparent might tell her or through sensing their hollow feeling of exile, but because the results are with us today in the continuing violence. Those who live in the US are faced daily with a kind of symbolic violence -- misconceptions and untruths conveyed by the media about Israel. I don't see the anniversary as a time of mourning but as an occasion for trying to get the world to listen to what really happened and to think about how this should shape our vision of a solution.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Nakba is a national trauma for the Palestinians, hundreds of thousands had to leave their homes and villages behind. But of course the number of those who actually lived through it decreases every year. Has this changed the meaning of commemorating the Nakba?
Abu-Lughod: This is a wonderful question. Dr. Rosemary Sayigh, who has been interviewing Palestinians about their experiences for decades, describes her work as a race against time. But Diana Allan, an anthropologist from Harvard who has been videotaping old men and women in the refugee camps all over Lebanon to create a Nakba Archive, would be the first to insist that though it is important to get these stories, it should not distract us from the contemporary problems Palestinians face, in Lebanon and elsewhere. I have been following with interest, though, the way this particular Nakba commemoration has galvanized people and spurred storytelling: a good example is the series of "untold stories" on the Web site of the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
My friend is not eager to be identified as a Palestinian, because of the stigma which has been laid upon them in the US media. An injustice to one people does not justify their perpetuating an injustice on another people. It is not a question of the ends justifying the means. The means can only be justified in terms of the ends they produce, if by that. Einstein said "If we do not treat them,(the Palestinians), better than we were treated by the Germans we will have learned nothing and will deserve anything we get." As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
