The Nakba Continues: The Palestinian Crisis from the Past to the Present

Authors

  • Ahmad Qabaha An-najah University
  • Bilal Hamamra An-Najah National University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2021/ju.v1i1.2315

Abstract

Drawing on postcolonial and settler-colonial studies, this article accounts for the settler-colonial nature of the Jewish state, which is founded on the cadastral displacement and effacement of Palestinians, who are dehumanized by Israel, an apartheid state par excellence. We delineate the colonial practices of the Israeli military occupation and its racial discrimination and exclusion as manifested in the construction of the Separation/apartheid Wall and of roads that link settlements in the West Bank, which is under the threat of annexation. This article further illustrates the resilience of the Nakba as a memory and experience in the life of Palestinians. We argue that today’s Israeli war against Palestinians takes the same shape that it took when it established itself in 1948. As this article shows, Israel continues its practices of displacing and replacing Palestinians with Jewish citizens while destroying their homes. This article also argues that Palestinians have felt that the deterioration of the Palestinian political leadership has affected their collective struggle for their self-determination. 

Author Biographies

Ahmad Qabaha, An-najah University

Ahmad Qabaha is an Assistant Professor in Postcolonial, Comparative, and American Studies and the head of the English department at An-Najah National University in Palestine. He is highly interested in teaching and conducting research on literature and art as well as examining the various modes and paradigms of literary, historical, socio-political, and cultural displacements in the 21st century. He is the author of Exile and Expatriation in Modern American and Palestinian Writing (Palgrave, 2018), and the co-editor of Post-millennial Palestine: Memory, Writing, Resistance (Liverpool University Press, 2021). He has also published several articles and book chapters in highly reputable publication companies and journals.

Bilal Hamamra, An-Najah National University

Bilal Hamamra has a PhD in Early Modern Drama from the University of Lancaster, UK and is currently an Associate Professor of English literature in the Department of English Language and Literature, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. His research interests are in Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Palestinian literature, women’s writing and gender studies. His articles on language, gender politics, martyrdom, and diaspora have appeared in Early Modern Literary StudiesCritical SurveyANQThe Explicator, Journal for Cultural ResearchJournal of Gender StudiesJournal of Contemporary AsiaAngliaMiddle East CritiqueJournal of Modern Jewish StudiesEducational Philosophy and TheoryInterventionsPsychodynamic Practice, and Changing English, among others.

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Published

2021-11-11