Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration

by Laleh Khalili

Overview

Many decades have passed since the Palestinian national movement began its political and military struggle. In that time, poignant memorials at massacre sites, a palimpsest of posters of young heroes and martyrs, sorrowful reminiscences about lost loved ones, and wistful images of young men and women who fought as guerrillas, have all flourished in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine tells the story of how dispossessed Palestinians have commemorated their past, and how through their dynamic everyday narrations, their nation has been made even without the institutional memory-making of a state. Bringing ethnography to political science, Khalili invites us to see Palestinian nationalism in its proper international context and traces its affinities with Third Worldist movements of its time, while tapping a rich and oft-ignored seam of Palestinian voices, histories, and memories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521865128
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/29/2007
Series:	Cambridge Middle East Studies , #27
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.57(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Laleh Khalili is Lecturer in Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Transnational movements and discourses; 3. Palestinian lives and local institutions in the camps of Lebanon; 4. Forms of commemoration; 5. Contents of commemoration: narratives of heroism, suffering, and Sumud; 6. Guerrillas and martyrs: evolution of national 'heroes'; 7. Between battles and massacres: commemorating violent events; 8. Commemoration in the occupied Palestinian territories; 9. Conclusions; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"Khalili is to be congratulated for her perception that commemorative practices would offer an illuminating path to reworking a history that combines tragedy and resistance in unusual measure. The skill with which she brings together wide-ranging archival research and live-in observation has produced an outstanding study that balances cool analysis with lively sympathy." - Middle East Report, Winter 2007

From the Publisher