Mapping Exile and Return: Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared Future

192 Pages·2014·1.82 MB·English

by  Alain Epp Weaver

Mapping a peaceful and shared future for Palestine and Israel— A
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One of the most persistent, if vexing, issues facing not just theology but also political theory, Ep
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sociology, and other disciplines, is the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For theology, the W
problem is especially nettlesome on account of the church’s shared history and tradition with e
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the Jewish people. Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, bear the brunt of suffering v
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and dispossession in the current situation, yet are burdened even more by Christian political
appropriation of Zionism. Through an analysis of Palestinian refugee mapping practices for
returning to their homeland, Alain Epp Weaver takes up the troubled issue of Palestinian dis-
possession and argues against the political theology embedded in Zionist cartographic prac-
tices that refuse and seek to eliminate evidence of coexistence. Instead, Alain Epp Weaver
offers a political theology of redrawing the territory compatible with a binational vision for a
shared Palestinian-Israeli future.
Praise for Mapping Exile and Return
“Maps and trees: good God—is it all about maps and trees? It is about maps and trees if Alain Epp
Weaver’s brave and no doubt controversial reading of the Palestinian exile and return is close to M
being right. Agree or disagree with Epp Weaver, no one will come away from reading this book A
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without a better understanding of the complex relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.
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But more important is that Epp Weaver’s philosophical and theological suggestions give one hope. I
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I hope this book will be widely read by all sides of these difficult issues.”
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Stanley Hauerwas E
Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics X
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Duke Divinity School L
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“This beautifully conceived and beautifully written book ought to convince many Jews and many N
friends of the Jews that we not only need Palestinian aspirations for justice not be a threat to D

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Jewish existence but even more, that it is only through the recognition of the claims of Palestinians
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and the seeking of justice for Palestine that a worthwhile Jewish existence can be secured for the T
future as well.” U
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Daniel Boyarin
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Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture
University of California, Berkeley

Alain Epp Weaver is the Director for Strategic Planning at the Mennonite Central
Committee. He served previously as corepresentative for Palestine, Jordan, Iraq at the
Mennonite Central Committee and was a project coordinator in the Gaza Strip. He earned
a PhD in theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School and is the author of States of
Exile: Visions of Diaspora, Witness, and Return (Herald, 2008). He has edited or coedited six
books, including A Table of Sharing (Cascadia, 2011), The Work of Jesus Christ in Anabaptist
Perspective (Cascadia, 2008), and Under Vine and Fig Tree: Biblical Theologies of Land and the
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Cascadia, 2007), as well as authoring several articles, essays, and
chapters in journals and edited publications.
RELIGION \ THEOLOGY
MAPPING EXILE AND RETURN

MAPPING EXILE AND
RETURN
PALESTINIAN DISPOSSESSION
AND A POLITICAL THEOLOGY
FOR A SHARED FUTURE
ALAIN EPP WEAVER
Fortress Press
Minneapolis
MAPPING EXILE AND RETURN
Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared Future
Copyright © 2014 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in
critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without prior written permission from the publisher. Visit
http://www.augsburgfortress.org/copyrights/ or write to Permissions, Augsburg
Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright ©
1989bytheDivisionofChristianEducationoftheNationalCounciloftheChurchesof
Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover image:Olive Branches and Israeli Separation Barrier © Thinkstock
Cover design: Rob Dewey
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Print ISBN:978-1-4514-7012-3
eBook ISBN:978-1-4514-7968-3
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
NationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary
Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
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For Sonia K.

They scattered us on the wind to every
corner of the earth, but they did not
eradicate us.
–—Fr. (Abuna) Manuel Musallam,
Jenin Camp,September 8, 1993

CONTENTS
Praise forMapping Exile and Return xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Note on Transliteration xv
Introduction 1
1. “Homecoming Is Out of the Question” 25
Palestinian Refugee Cartography and Edward Said’s View from Exile
2. Reclaiming the Place of Exile for Political Theology 59
3. Kafr Bir‘im, Elias Chacour, and the Arboreal Imagination 91
4. Return Visits to ‘Imwas and the Liturgical Subversion of 127
Ethnocratic Topology
Conclusion 163
Index of Names and Subjects 167
ix