Introduction: The Culture of Conflict in Israel and Palestine

Abstract

A cliche would have it that the struggle between Israel and Palestine is as long as the history of these two communities; but reality is that the history of this conflict preceded the existence of these communities and, more importantly, it is the conflict itself that had constructed and shaped the identities of these two warring communities. If one marks the beginning of modern Zionist settlement in Palestine in 1881 as the starting point of the conflict, then one “celebrates” this year 128 years of conflict, one that started long before there was the state of Israel, or even a Jewish community in Palestine to speak of, and before there was a Palestinian nation there to speak of. Israeli and Palestinian nationalism are the two modern national identities that emerged out of the encounter between settlers and indigenous people in the territory of Palestine, and they carry little resemblance, if at all, to their old communities of ancestry—the Jews in the Diaspora locations and the Arabs in Palestine under the Ottoman Empire. This critical narrative differs substantially from the narratives that the national protagonists tell themselves and others—about the “perennial” origins in the land and about their historical “right” to it. But while the conflict and its periodical eruptions in hostilities and bloodshed captures the attention of world communication and public opinion, the ways in which the two sides to the conflict design their culture through their mutual relations is much less discussed and understood. It is to this aspect—the culture of the conflict—that this issue is devoted. Part of the articles in it emerged out of a workshop on “Israel and Palestine” that was held in 2006 at the New School for Social Research, and was coordinated by the guest editors of this issue, Uri Ram of Ben-Gurion University and Jeffrey C. Goldfarb of the New School. Other articles were added later. Together they offer a mix of variety of topics and perspectives on the common theme of the culture of the conflict in Israel and Palestine. They share not only a common theme but also an implicit focus: all the articles relate to Int J Polit Cult Soc (2009) 22:1–3 DOI 10.1007/s10767-009-9050-3