Memory, the Nakba, and Lieux de Memoire

Abstract

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXVIII, No.1, Fall 2014 Memory, the Nakba, and Lieux de Memoire Samantha A. Borders* When considering the elements that make up a cultural identity, a keen sense of the personal is vital. In looking back at the events that have tied a people together, memory plays an essential role in preserving a history. In the case of the Palestinian Nakba, or the “catastrophe”, that consisted of the ethnic cleansing of some 800,000 Arabs from the region of British Mandate Palestine, its commemoration acts as more than a point of reference for these people. Whether in diaspora or on the land itself, the corporate suffering caused by this instance has become a pivot in modern Palestinian identity. This essay seeks to demonstrate the viability of the Nakba as a Lieu de Memoire (site of memory) as outlined by Pierre Nora through its maintenance via storytelling. The works of Ahmad Sa’adi will be foundational in this study, and stand as points of reference. By exploring the connections between memory, storytelling, and ultimately identity, it will be illustrated that remembrance itself is an indispensable tool for a dispossessed and scattered people to remain united under a single unit of affiliation. To understand the connection between the Nakba and its commemoration , a definition of sites of memory is required. Primarily, “the most fundamental purpose of the lieu de memoire is to stop time, to block the work of forgetting, to establish a state of thing, to immortalize death, to materialize the immaterial”1 , and to act as a point of cultural reference to a time past. Sites of memory differ from history in the sense that this act as “a bond tying us to the eternal present” while the latter “is a representation 71 *Samantha Borders is an honors graduate program at the University of Exeter in the UK, Borders focuses her research on Palestinian Christian identity and construction of knowledge , and is a contributing writer to various media outlets such as e-IR, Comment Middle East, and Future Voices of America. Currently, she is resuming her studies at the PhD level at the University of Exeter. 1 Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire,” Representations 26 (1989): 19. of the past”2 and is by nature more sterile. Also unlike history, these tend to be rooted in nationalism and can be based on myths surrounding the aura of a particular nation. A lieu can represent a fictitious or actual past, depending on its ability to harness the imaginations of a people and unite them under a single identity. However, the validity of the memory is normally not called into question. Rather, its potency and ability to evoke emotion are deemed of far greater importance. To fall under Nora’s sense of the phrase, the site itself must be a place of universal connection for a people. In this sense, the Nakba is an ideal lieu, since all Palestinians were affected by the Nakba in some way, and share in the corporate sense of dispossession and homelessness. Because of this universal experience, “its timeless, multifaceted, and complex nature”3 are ideally suited for creating a site of memory for Palestinians, regardless of their location. The potency of this recollection, recalling the loss of the familiar and placement into the unknown, stands as a uniting front for Palestinians worldwide. Therefore, while the on-going Judaisation of Palestine transforms the conditions on the ground, the Nakba remains as a defining moment beyond the reach of alteration. Although it may seem to be a natural tendency to look to history when bolstering a sense of identity, this is not necessarily the case. Whereas history and physical objects can be universal points of cultural reference, memory is far more intimately tied to the people themselves. It has the ability act as a bonding agent between people on a level that history will never touch, due to its specificity and requirement of participation in one form or another. For many Palestinians, the Nakba represents one of the major sites of memory for the modern Palestinian people, whether residing within the confines of historic...