Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced

361 Pages·2010·3.225 MB·English

by  Rochelle Davis

Palestinian Village Histories
Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures
Palestinian Village Histories
GeoGraphies of the DisplaceD
Rochelle A. Davis
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
©2011 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,
electronic 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
Davis, Rochelle.
Palestinian village histories : geographies of the displaced / Rochelle A. Davis.
p. cm.--(Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-7312-6 (cloth : alk. paper)--ISBN 978-0-8047-7313-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Palestinian Arabs--Historiography. 2. Palestine--History, Local. 3. Villages--Palestine--
Historiography. I. Title. II. Series: Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies
and cultures.
DS113.6.D38 2011
956.940072--dc22 2010032339
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion
To my parents and my nephew Evan Goodwin (1984–2004)

contents
List of Illustrations ix
Note on Translations and Transliterations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Preface xvii
1 Geographies of Dispossession 1
2 Village Books: Local Histories, National Struggles 27
3 Village History and Village Values 64
4 Writing a History, Defining a Past 94
5 The Authority of Memory 122
6 Mapping the Past: The Village Landscape 150
7 Identities and History 179
8 Conclusion: Connecting Geographies of Dispossession 209
Notes 235
Bibliography 279
Index 317

list of illustrations
Maps (following page xxiii)
1 British Mandate Palestine with the borders of the 1947 United Nations
Partition Plan and the 1949 Armistice Agreements
2 Palestinian villages depopulated or destroyed 1948–1967 (north)
3 Palestinian villages depopulated or destroyed 1948–1967 (middle)
4 Palestinian villages depopulated or destroyed 1948–1967 (south)
5 Locations and populations of Palestinians, 2009
fiGures (following page 58)
1 Cover of the village book for Qatra (Ramla District)
2 Cover of the village book for Kuwaykat (Acre District)
3 Map of Roads and Agricultural Sites in Dayr Aban village
(Jerusalem District)
4 Family tree from Qalunya village book (Jerusalem District)
5 British Mandate land registration document in Salama village
(Jaffa District)