Heritage and the Cultural Struggle for Palestine

289 Pages·2019·2.327 MB·English

by  Chiara De Cesari

Heritage and tHe Cultural
Struggle for PaleStine
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and
Islamic Societies and Cultures
Chiar a De Ce sari
H e r i t a g e a n d
t H e C u l t u r a l
S t r u g g l e f o r
P a l e S t i n e
stanforD University Press  •  stanforD, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, elec-
tronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage
or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: De Cesari, Chiara, author.
Title: Heritage and the cultural struggle for Palestine / Chiara De Cesari.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2019. |
Series: Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and
cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018047094 (print) | LCCN 2018049210 (ebook)
ISBN 9781503600515(cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503609389 (pbk.: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781503609396 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: West Bank--Cultural policy. | Cultural property—West Bank. |
National museums—West Bank. | Historic sites—Conservation and
restoration—West Bank. | Palestinian Arabs—Politics and government—1993.
Classification: LCC DS110.W47 (ebook) | LCC DS110.W47 D4 2019 (print) | DDC
363.6/90956942—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047094
Cover design: Rob Ehle
Cover art: “Hassan on a Bicycle,” from the book Hassan Everywhere, 2007,
by Hassan Hourani. Courtesy of the Hourani family.
Typeset by Newgen in 10/15 Minion Pro
For Ada,
Angela, and Anna
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ContentS
Note on Transliteration ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Stakes of Heritage and the Politics of Culture 1
1 A Political History of Palestinian Heritage 36
2 Government Through Heritage in Old Hebron 78
3 Heritage, NGOs, and State Making 116
4 Palestinian National Museums Post-Oslo 156
Conclusion: Cultural Governmentality and Activist Statehood 195
Notes 209
References 239
Index 261
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no te on tranSliteration
In transliterating Arabic words and names, I have used a simplified version
of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) system, excluding
diacritical marks and long vowels. Common English forms of Arabic names
that are often found in the scholarly literature are used, for example in the case
of authors such as Tawfiq Canaan or Nazmi al-Jubeh, or the name of organiza-
tions such as Inash al-Usra. I have used a single opening quotation mark to
transliterate the ‘ayn (‘), and a single closing quotation mark for the hamza (’).
In several cases, the transliteration reflects the colloquial Levantine Arabic spo-
ken in Palestine rather than the standard literary language: the transliteration
of dialect therefore can deviate from the IJMES system.
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