essay about palestinian culture

The Olive Press Blog

Palestinian culture.

March 22, 2021

Posted in:  Food , Life in the Middle East , Society & culture

Palestinians enjoy a rich cultural heritage. The Palestinian people have lived through enormous upheaval over the course of the last century. Many Palestinians have been dispersed and displaced from their family homes, villages and cities, making Palestinian culture and traditions even more important for holding this community together. Whether in ancestral towns or in refugee camps or in communities of Palestinian immigrants in countries throughout the world, Palestinians enjoy a shared heritage and culture that allows them to carry a sense of home with them wherever they are.

Palestinian Customs & Traditions

The tapestry of Palestinian cultural traditions defines and enriches Palestinians’ daily lives. Palestinian culture is far from homogeneous, with many distinct regional variations. And Palestinians living in countries outside of the Middle East often adopt some of the cultural practices common to their new homes. We list here just a few of these traditions.

Connection to the land

The Palestinians are a people with a long history and deep roots in their land and traditions. For thousands of years, Palestine has been a focal point of major historical events. Palestine belongs to the famed Fertile Crescent of human antiquity, home to some of the first agricultural communities in the world.

Historic Palestine comprises an area about the size of Vermont. Today, the majority of Palestinians in the world are refugees, and most are in the diaspora, outside of historic Palestine. Nonetheless, Palestinians have retained a strong sense of a shared common identity.

In the West Bank , East Jerusalem and Gaza , many Palestinians are refugees from villages, towns and cities that became Israel. Some of these displaced live in refugee camps, while others live in towns and cities across the Palestinian territories. Within present-day Israel, the largest Palestinian populations are in Galilee in the north, particularly the city of Nazareth, and in East Jerusalem.

Traditional Palestinian society is predominantly agricultural. Historically, most Palestinians have lived in small villages, often among extended relatives. Land is especially valued and treasured in Palestinian culture. “The land we carry in our blood,” as famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish expressed it . In contrast to some other agricultural societies, farmwork was generally undertaken communally. 

Over the course of many centuries, Palestinians have extensively terraced the rocky hills of their homeland. These stone retaining walls, known as senasil , still crisscross the hillsides of the West Bank and are recognized by UNESCO as world heritage sites. Houses too have over the years been built of stone rather than brick or timber, taking advantage of the resources most abundant in the region.

Palestine’s Mediterranean climate has made it ideal for growing crops like citrus and olives. Oranges, shipped from Jaffa, became famous and prized fruit in northern Europe in the late 19th century, before refrigeration. Further back in time, Gaza City was once well-known as an ancient trading port.

Olive trees are so closely associated with Palestine that they are almost synonymous with the region. The area was perhaps the first place where humans began to cultivate the crop.

Although there is much room for further development , modern Palestinian society is highly educated with a substantial professional class. Since the latter half of the 20th century, it became more common for women to work outside of the home and family farm.

Modern Palestinian culture reflects a confluence of the many peoples in Palestine throughout history, including Arabs, Armenians, Canaanites, Europeans, Greeks, Hebrews, Romans, Samaritans, Turks, Nabateans and nomadic tribes. 

The Bedouins are the traditionally nomadic peoples of Palestine. Although they lead more settled lifestyles today, many retain pastoral ways of living. There are Bedouin communities across the West Bank, many of whom lived in the Negev before being expelled during the formation of Israel. A significant Bedouin population still lives in southern Israel, and a smaller number reside in Gaza. Palestinian Bedouin tribes include the Azazme and the Ramadeen in Hebron Governorate; the Jahaleen and the Ka’abneh, in the Jerusalem Governorate; and the Rashaydeh, in the Bethlehem and Jericho governorates.

Befitting this rich history, Palestinians are diverse in appearance, with for instance, European and African features quite common. Within this diversity, Palestinians share a common cultural identity with the wider Arab world. 

Modern Palestinians speak Arabic, using a Levantine dialect colloquially. Aramaic and Greek were the principal languages in Palestine until the 7th century when Arab Islamic forces arrived, leading to the widespread adoption of Arabic as the lingua franca, and of Arab culture more generally.

Uniquely, Palestine is a holy land in three of the world’s major religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Mosque in Islam. The Ummayad Dynasty built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem in the 7th century CE. In Judaism, Hebron is the location of the tomb of Abraham, and Jerusalem is the site of the ancient first and second temples. In Christianity, it is the birthplace of Jesus Christ and home to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and, in Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity.

Islam and Christianity are the two major religions practiced by Palestinians today. Christians in Palestine include the Eastern Orthodox (or Greek Orthodox) Church, Greek Catholic (or Melkite) Church, Roman Catholic Church and Anglican, Coptic, Ethiopian and Armenian churches.

Islam is the largest religion in Palestine. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries large numbers of Palestinian Christians emigrated abroad, and many more became refugees during the formation of Israel. This resulted in a substantial drop in their percentage of the population, now in the low single digits, particularly in Gaza, although some churches remain, including the ancient Saint Porphyry. Bethlehem retains a relatively large Christian community.

In the diaspora, communities are particularly strong in neighboring Arab countries, the Gulf, Western Europe, North America (especially the U.S.) and Latin America (notably, Chile, Colombia and Honduras). 

Family and tradition

Although most Palestinians traditionally lived in villages with large extended families in close proximity, in urban areas Palestinians live in smaller family homes. However, even in cities it remains a very family-oriented culture. Extended family gatherings with meals are common — many families may participate in such get-togethers every week. Grandparents traditionally live with the family of the eldest son.

Extended family networks offer Palestinian families the social safety net that is not provided by governments. Whether helping a student with tuition, ensuring a relative is well-cared for in retirement, or supporting a family member who is unemployed, facing medical expenses, or living with disabilities, extended families are the backbone of Palestinian welfare. Often Palestinians in the diaspora send vital financial support for family members back in Palestine.

Another manifestation of the family-centered nature of society is that family members are traditionally expected to keep internal family conflicts private. The traditional culture is patriarchal in values and orientation, with the male head of the family exercising greatest authority. Among contemporary Palestinians this varies considerably with urban and more highly educated classes apt to have a more typically modern outlook, similar to others of their social class internationally. Elders of both genders are accorded great respect and authority.

When a baby is born, the weeks following are full of visitors coming to see the new baby and the child’s parents. Since the parents of many young couples live nearby, the baby’s grandparents are likely to be present as well. When family, friends and neighbors stop by, the baby’s parents or grandparents will likely offer them a cup of coffee or tea and a bowl of mughli — a traditional rice powder pudding made with caraway and cinnamon and topped with fresh nuts. 

In Muslim families, the parents are likely to hold a celebratory feast for guests, usually of lamb, when a child is seven days old , similar to a baby shower but held after the birth. In Christian families, babies are usually baptized in church during their early months and family and friends are invited for a celebratory meal after this religious sacrament.

The oldest son traditionally names his own firstborn son after his father — that is, the child’s grandfather. Thus, in contrast to the tradition in the U.S., a male family given name skips a generation.

Many people refer to their friends and brothers as Abu , followed by the name of the man’s first-born son. Abu  means ‘father of,’ and is often used as a nickname. Likewise, mothers are referred to as Um which means the ‘mother of,’ followed by the name of her eldest son. When the couple have no children, the wife may be referred to as Um followed by her father-in-law’s given name, and the husband is called by Abu followed by his father’s name. 

Palestinians tend to raise their children with more freedom from strict daily schedules and structures in comparison to contemporary child-rearing practices in the U.S.

In more conservative communities, most Muslim girls begin to cover their hair when they reach puberty. There are also many Muslim women who choose not to wear a hijab. The practice of veiling the face in addition to the hair declined among Palestinian women through much of the 20th century, with the exception of Bedouins, although it is still practiced by some, particularly in rural areas.

Weddings and marriage

Families play a major part in arranging most marriages in Gaza and the West Bank. After identifying a good match, a family will give the couple time to get to know each other and decide whether they want to move forward with getting married. In urban areas and in the diaspora, nowadays, there are also many couples making their own decisions, with the blessing of their families. 

Historically, marriage to cousins was once common. Polygamous marriages are rare among Muslim Palestinians, except among some Bedouin communities. As Palestine does not have a civil marriage option, marriage law follows the religious faith of the couple.

According to Palestinian tradition, once a couple agrees to marry, the prospective groom offers the bride a maher , a symbolic amount of money and valuables that can be compared to the practice of giving a dowry or a diamond ring in other cultures.

Most families hold the engagement party at their home, and celebrate with their guests with food and dancing. Weddings are grand affairs in Palestinian culture. The groom’s family traditionally hosts a wedding feast the day before the main wedding party. The female family members all pitch in to create an array of traditional dishes like roasting a whole lamb and serving it with rice.

Palestinian wedding celebrations can stretch over multiple days and include almost the whole community. The wedding celebrations usually start the night before with a henna night. The bride’s family and her friends gather for a joyous night of singing, dancing, and a henna artist is brought in to give guests the traditional temporary tattoos. Men will have their own party on that night where they sing different songs and dance dabke.

On the day of the wedding ceremony, guests carry the bride in a procession to the groom’s house to begin the celebration. Guests gather in living rooms and other available spaces. Some weddings have so many guests in attendance that they take place in public areas like the town square. 

For the wedding ceremony, the bride typically wears a white gown, as in the West. Following the wedding, the couple embark on a honeymoon. Although contemporary urban couples will likely move into their own home, according to traditional village custom the couple moves into the home of the groom.

When a death occurs, guests visit the family of the deceased to pay their respects and reflect on the deceased person’s life while drinking black coffee, served unsweetened for the occasion. It is customary for families to remain in mourning for 40 days, during which time family members wear black.

Muslims believe the body of the deceased should be buried within 24 hours and placed in the ground, facing toward Mecca. Guests pray for the soul of the deceased person during the burial. Afterward, the bereaved family usually hosts a meal and opens their home for three days for guests to visit and share their condolences.

Palestinians begin the new year on January 1. And, like much of the world, Palestinians celebrate International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day or Labor Day, on May 1. Although not an official holiday, many Palestinians commemorate Palestinian expulsion and loss of land on Nakba Remembrance Day on May 15. Palestinian Independence Day and the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People take place in November. Independence day is a public holiday in Palestine, commemorating the declaration of independence proclaimed, if not achieved, in 1988. Schools, government offices and many businesses close.

For Palestinian Muslims, each year is also marked by Islamic holidays, which follow the lunar calendar. These include the holy month of Ramadan , when believers fast during the day and offer Zakat to aid the poor, and Eid Al Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, Eid Al Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice), the Islamic new year and the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. Palestinian Christians observe their religious holidays, including Easter and Christmas, according to the liturgical calendar of their church (for instance, the Eastern Orthodox Church observes the Julian calendar).

Expressive Arts

Many regions of Palestine have distinctive arts and crafts for which they are well known. Olive-wood carving, for instance, is closely associated with Bethlehem , where artisans can sell to the religious tourists the area has long attracted. Nablus , meanwhile, is traditionally famous for its soap production, while Hebron is renowned for glass blowing and ceramics. And Gaza City is known for the production of pottery and rugs.

Among both women’s and men’s traditional clothing in Palestine there was considerable variation among social classes, and with distinct fashions between urban, rural and nomadic Bedouin populations. Traditional clothing was usually made of cotton or linen.

Traditional male clothing such as tunics and Ottoman-influenced styles gradually gave way in the early 20th century to Western-style clothing. Contemporary urban women also tend to dress in Western clothes most of the time. Sandals are the traditional footwear for Paletinian men. Shoes and other footwear are typically removed before entering the house.

Women’s clothing became more conservative in the late 1980s, after the beginning of the First Intifada, when more women started covering their hair and wearing long and loose-fitting clothing.

Traditional headwear varies. The Bedouin keffiyeh is worn on the head and held in place with a length of rope. The keffiyeh, or hattah, is a square of cloth often white with a checkered or fishnet pattern in black or red. In the early 20th century this headwear became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism and began to be adopted by non-Bedouin Palestinians. Today the iconic garment is popular among all social classes in Palestine and beyond. Internationally, supporters of the Palestinian cause sometimes wear the keffiyeh, and it has even been adopted by the global fashion industry.

Palestinian women have traditionally worn thobes, elaborately decorated dresses for formal wear on special occasions. These clothes often feature intricate cross-stitch embroidery, known as tatreez, that uses geometric patterning. Women passed down family embroidery patterns, and girls would stitch dresses to prepare for their marriage. They also included jewelry, other garments and accessories in preparing for married life. Each village and region developed its own unique embroidery styles, colors and patterns. Gaza’s Deir Al Balah region, for instance, is known for moon and feather stitching patterns. Even families who have lived for generations in a refugee camp have often preserved and passed down the traditional embroidery designs of their village. Some of these designs can be traced back thousands of years to antiquity — a remarkable continuity in a region subject to so much political upheaval. Women have sometimes formed cooperatives to produce embroidery collectively.

Tatreez can be used to decorate more than just clothing — pillow cases, tablecloths, handbags and many other items can be found adorned with the beautiful stitching.

Bedouin peoples have an ancient tradition of tattooing as a means of identifying tribes, showing status, or enhancing beauty. Often the symbols came from designs in ornate rugs. Although the practice faded in the 20th century, in part because many of the faithful consider it a forbidden practice in Islam, it is still possible to meet older women sporting the distinctive facial tattoos .

The art of henna goes back thousands of years in the Middle East, in Christian and Muslim traditions, as a symbol of good luck, health and sensuality. When Islam came to prominence beginning in the seventh century, and tattooing was no longer allowed, henna’s popularity in the Arab world grew. 

It is used for celebrations like weddings, beauty and adornment, self expression, blessings and well-being, honoring ancient traditions, and more. The henna night before a wedding is an old tradition that brings together the bride and groom’s families to bond, celebrate, and take care of any last arrangements for the big day.

Henna stains are orange when the paste is first removed, but darken over the following three days to a deep reddish brown due to oxidation. 

Music has long played a central role in Palestinian life, particularly during celebrations and festivals. Musical instruments like the oud and the qanun are beloved traditional instruments popular in Palestine and the wider region. In fact, the English word for the lute derives from the Arabic oud.

Palestinian music came to regional prominence in 1936 with the launch of the Here is Jerusalem radio station, only the second radio station in the Arab world, after Cairo is Here . Four years later, Jenin established its own radio station, Near East . These two Palestinian stations helped launch the careers of many Palestinian musicians, including Yahia Lababidi , Esam Hammad, Abdul Majid Abu Laban and Mohammad Ghazi.

The political events of the 20th century have led to many songs about Palestinian feelings of exile, homesickness and longing for freedom. Hadi Ya Bahr by Abu Arab is representative. The lyrics includes lines like: 

هدي يا بحر هدي | keep calm ocean, our absence has become too long

طولنا في غيبتنا | give my salute, give it to the land that raised us

ودي سلامي ودي | and give my regards to the olive tree

للأرض اللي ربتنا | and to my folks that raised me

The years following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war saw the growth of nationalist music. The chorus of a song by Mustafa al-Kurd is thematically typical:

In hope we used to plan

And it is hope we now plant

In the hope that someday

Will be reality

Some songs are commonly performed for specific occasions like the harvest season, weddings, funerals, and lamentations. Sometimes songs are introduced with a mawwal — a musical tradition in Palestine and neighboring countries in which the singer expresses sentimental feelings, often lamenting or longing for something like a place or a lover, over a slow rhythm with drawn out pronunciation.

Many songs are particular to the occasion and audience. Some of the most famous are almost genres unto themselves, such as Dal Ouna (دلعونا), Al Jafra (الجفرا) and Al Dahiyya (الدحية). There can be hundreds of lyrical variations on these songs, but they are immediately identifiable because of their rhythms and lyrical content. One of the most famous and popular songs is Zarif Al Tool (ظريف الطول) . For decades, it has been a staple of social and national occasions, especially in the villages and refugee camps. 

Palestinians are also leaving their mark on contemporary music, with famous singers, musicians and emcees like Mohammed Assaf, DJ Khaled and Simon Shaheen.

Literature and Scholarship

In the era before mass media, traditional storytelling was an artform in Palestine. A skilled hakawati , or storyteller, could hold audiences rapt with stories that entertained and imparted wisdom. And Palestinian verse often took the form of folk poetry, known as zajal.

In the 20th century, a number of acclaimed Palestinian writers have produced a prodigious body of literature and intellectual thought. Leading figures of the past century include Emile Habibi, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Ghassan Kanafani, Sahar Khalifeh, Edward Said, Samira Azzam and Raja Shehadeh, to name but a few. Kanafani was a journalist and political activist but is best remembered for novels like Men in the Sun . The late Said was an enormously influential professor of literature at Columbia University who authored the seminal book Orientalism . Shehadeh, a lawyer and rights advocate, is also a noted writer and political commentator who, in Palestinian Walks , conveys Palestinian landscapes with a richly detailed sense of place.

Palestinians have a particularly strong poetry tradition. From Fadwa Tuqan and Samih al-Qasim , to their most internationally famed poet of all, Mahmoud Darwish , to diaspora poets like Tamim Al-Barghouti and Palestinian-American Naomi Shihab Nye , Palestinian culture has produced a remarkable number of admired poets. Themes in their work express concerns central to the Palestinian experience such as the loss of land and attachment to the land, confrontations with injustice, resistance and steadfastness, and the quest for freedom. For Palestinians in the diaspora, themes of exile, return, and identity also figure prominently. At the same time, it is important to note that Palestinian poets also write about universal themes including romantic love, family relationships, life and death, and natural phenomena. The loss of Palestine in 1948 also influenced Arab poetry as a whole, with poets across the Arab world questioning war and injustice and expressing anger toward Arab leaders.

Like other Arabic-language poets, Palestinian poets started experimenting with form in the middle of the 20 th century and exploring free verse and less structured meter and style. They have produced a diverse and dynamic corpus of poetry that continues to grow and evolve. Many Palestinians are also influenced by American hip-hop artists. Bands like DAM explore themes that include politics, injustice, and gender relations. There are a number of Palestinian American poets today who are garnering widespread attention. Many Palestinian poets who write in Arabic, like Najwan Darwish , are being translated to English and other languages. Spoken word poetry, often combined with activism, is popular, and notable examples are Rafeef Ziadah’s powerful performances.

Visual Arts

Visual arts in Palestine has roots in folk traditions as well as religious imagery from Christian and Islamic traditions. The art scene today reflects the dynamics in contemporary Palestinian society. Artists are spokespeople for their country’s and culture’s interest and preservation. They fulfill a social and sometimes activist role. 

Leading artists of the last century in visual mediums include Nabil Anani , Kamal Boullata , Fathi Ghaben , Sliman Mansour , Ismail Shammout and the cartoonist Naji al-Ali, creator of the iconic Handala character.

For much of the 20th century, Palestinian art largely concerned itself with Palestinian nationalism and related themes like exile, the plight of refugees, and resistance. Artists often used common symbols and slogans to convey political messages. The Oslo Accords of the mid-1990s ushered in a new wave in Palestinian art, marked by more diverse and personal themes, the opening of new artistic venues and the emergence of an international market for Palestinian art. Outside of the galleries, the work of Palestinian artists who have embraced graffiti art and murals is a frequent site in many Palestinian cities.

In recent decades, Palestinian film has taken off, with a number of directors and actors making waves with internationally acclaimed pictures, such as Amreeka , Lemon Tree , Speed Sisters , Stitching Palestine , Miral , 3000 Nights , Ave Maria , Omar , The Wanted 18 , Wajib , Villa Touma and When I Saw You . Directors like Annemarie Jacir and Cherien Dabis, and leading Palestinian actors like Hiam Abbass and the Bakri family have helped to establish a reputation for Palestinian cinema.

Palestine also produces some local television shows. Palestinian dramas must compete with other shows popular across the region, especially during Ramadan. Palestinian television shows like Kafr al-Lawz , Bas ya Zalameh and Watan Ala Watar provide satirical takes on the tribulations of daily life in Palestine, offering comedic commentary on everything from social problems to electricity cuts.

Dance 

Traditional dance is a staple of celebratory events in Palestine and anywhere where Palestinians reside. Some refugee camps have dance groups where youth practice dabke — the traditional Palestinian folk dance that is also popular in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Dance adds a large dose of fun to any gathering. Guests are sure to break out into this line dance at joyous occasions like weddings and other parties, and some dancers even form troupes and compete against other dancing troupes. The dabke dance form includes synchronized stomps and movements along with opportunities for improvising. 

There are dozens of variations of dabke in the Levant, including al sahja (السحجة), a popular Palestinian and Jordanian dance which belongs mostly to northern and central Palestine, and, in southern Palestine, al samir (السامر) and al dahiyya (الدحية). These dances are often held on the night before a wedding party, with most of the men participating. Al samir involves two rows of men on opposite walls, competing with folk poetry, sometimes improvised, and even exchanging insults, competing in the cleverness of their retorts. Al dahiyya is a Bedouin spin on the genre, in which a woman dances between the two opposing rows of men, who compete for her attention.

Hospitality

As is generally true across Arab societies, Palestinians highly value generosity and hospitality. Gift giving is a firm custom and a manifestation of how Palestinians maintain strong social bonds. 

Acquaintances might be urged to visit, and welcomed into joining family meals. In the past, during the winter, when there was less farm work to be done, families would often visit with each other and entertain themselves by telling epic folk tales. As noted above storytelling was a regular form of traditional entertainment.

Palestinian Food

Sahtein! This is a common expression at meals, wishing two healths upon dining mates. Rather than sad, desk lunches — meals are a social experience, to be enjoyed together.

Palestinian cuisine shares many features with other Levantine food and the wider Mediterranean area. There are many regional variations and specialties as well. Gazans, for instance, are known for their love of spicy foods. In recent years, Palestinian food has become increasingly well known internationally, thanks in part to the publication of a number of cookbooks by Palestinians.

Bread, rice and bulgur wheat are the staple grains, often paired with legumes and nuts. Traditionally, one of the women of the family would make bread at home for the day or the week. Now most bread is purchased at bakeries. Flat pita bread is most common. Jerusalem is famous for its oblong rings of ka’ak al quds . 

Zaatar manakish is a Mediterranean flatbread topped with olive oil and zaatar spread. 

Lentils are one of the most common legumes. Lamb, beef, and fish are common where available. Even among Christians, pork is very rarely eaten.

Many vegetable and meat dishes are served with rice, such as maqluba , which takes its name from the way it is served — turned upside down onto the serving platter. Then there are the stuffed dishes — stuffed peppers, stuffed zucchini, and so on — a category collectively called mahshi (which means, you guessed it, ‘stuffed’). 

Spreads of appetizers, called mazza, are a focal point of social gatherings and are often served distinct from meals. Shwarmas and falafel are popular as fast food.

Fresh fruits like apricots, figs, date and oranges are commonly served at the end of meals.

Olive oil is the staple fat used for cooking and dipping bread, serving many of the functions that butter is used for in northern Europe and the U.S. Zaatar is a much-loved seasoning blend composed principally of the wild thyme from which it derives its name and to which sesame seeds and sumac are added.

A typical breakfast features bread, cheese, a thickened yogurt called labneh , eggs, olives, and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. And of course olive oil.

For dessert, you can’t do better than knafeh , a Palestinian delicacy of sweet cheese and shredded phyllo dough drizzled in sweet syrup and sprinkled with pistachio pieces. Nablus is famous for its cheese, made from goat’s or sheep’s milk, which also serves as the basis for its famous knafeh . 

Coffee, whether prepared Arabic-style or in other ways familiar globally, is widely consumed. Sometimes people add cardamom. Tea is also a daily beverage for many, often infused with fresh mint leaves or wild sage leaves.

Some Christian and secular Palestinians consume locally produced alcoholic beverages, like arak, wine, and beer.

Traditional cuisine is a major part of Palestinian culture. Both the cooking and eating of delicious, signature dishes bring people together and connect Palestinians to their heritage. The women of the house traditionally prepared the food, although again, you will find variation in modern families. Variations of many of these dishes can also be found in the food cultures of other countries in the region:

• Hummus : The world famous dip is made from mashed chickpeas and tahini, with lemon juice, olive oil and garlic or other seasonings.
• Falafel : A popular street food. Balls of ground fava beans or chickpeas and herbs are deep fried and placed into a pita or flatbread.
• Waraq dawali : Palestinians stuff vine leaves with rice and minced meat to make this savory treat.
• Maqluba : Maqluba translates as ‘upside down.’ Meat, rice and vegetables are layered in a pot. Once cooked, the pot is flipped over on a plate, and the pot is lifted off. The dish ends up looking similar to a cake. Many consider maqluba the national dish of Palestine.
• Maftool : A Palestinian couscous made of wheat. The name means ‘hand rolled.’ It is traditionally served with a stew spooned on top with chicken or lamb.
• Hashweh : This Palestinian comfort food is stuffing made from rice, ground beef and fragrant spices.
• Makdous : A traditional breakfast food, eggplants are stuffed with roasted red peppers, nuts and seasonings and are then cured in olive oil.
• Fasoulia bil bandoura : This dish, which translates as ‘green beans in tomato sauce,’ is a simple and tasty meal with rice.
• Sambusek : These crescent-shaped pastries contain savory fillings like zaatar or meat and cheese. 
• Mujaddara : This vegetarian dish is made from lentils, rice and onions. It is traditionally served with a fresh salad. 
• Qidreh : A spiced rice, chickpea and meat dish that usually contains lamb, but chicken is also common. 
• Ka’ek bi ajwa : These Palestinian date cookies contain date paste along with anise seeds, black sesame seeds and cinnamon.
• Knafeh : A crunchy pastry filled with spiced cream cheese, often infused with orange. The whole dessert is soaked in a sugar syrup.

Consider making some of these Palestinian recipes at home to try a taste of Palestinian cooking. Many Palestinian meals are served with salad and a cool yogurt sauce, which helps to balance the strong spices.

Learn More About Palestine and the Work Anera Is Doing

The Palestinian people share a rich heritage and many unique traditions, but unfortunately, many of them also share economic struggles due to their status as refugees. Anera is a non-profit organization that works on the ground to help improve the daily lives of Palestinians. Learn more about the work Anera is doing in places like Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan, and consider donating to make a positive difference for these people. 

This page is drawn from many sources, particularly Samih K. Farousn, Culture and Customs of the Palestinians , Greenwood Press, 2004.

Readers interested in learning more about Palestinian folktales may consult Sharif Kanaana and Ibrahim Muhawi, Speak Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales.  

Several books have appeared in recent decades on the Palestinian visual arts, including Kamal Boullata’s Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present , Saqi Books, 2009; Bashir Makhoul and Gordon Hon, The Origins of Palestinian Art , Liverpool University Press, 2014; and Gannit Ankori, Palestinian Art , Reaktion Books, 2006.

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Palestine Folklore: A Weave of History and Resilience

posted on: Oct 18, 2023

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By: Eman El-Ajlouni / Arab America Contributing Writer

Palestinian folklore connects the history, traditions, and culture of the Palestinian’s with a rich, vibrant, and diverse tapestry. Palestinian folklore reflects the resilient and strong spirit of a people committed to preserving their history and heritage despite the numerous pressures and difficulties they face under the occupation, siege, and the assault they are subjected to. The folklore of the region is rooted in a complex history of occupation, displacement, and resistance. This article gives readers an in-depth look at the rich cultural history of the Palestinian people by examining a variety of Palestinian folklore topics, such as traditional clothes, dances, folktales, music, and cuisine.

Traditional Clothes 

Palestinian traditional clothes are regionally specific, reflecting distinctive features that emphasize the individuality of each region. The outstanding hands that stitched and manufactured these clothes are highlighted by the beautiful and elegant embroidery and vivid color design and decorations. More than just clothing, these products are an obvious and real testament to the rich identity and culture of the Palestinian people.

Music and Dances 

While the Dabke dance is popular in several Arab countries, every country has its own unique moves and style, making it a vital component of Arab and Palestinian celebrations. This collective dance, performed at weddings, parties, festivities, and all kinds of celebrations, represents harmony, solidarity, and shared cultural identity. The oud, qanun, and tabla are some of the instruments that characterize the folk music from Palestine that is played to accompany this dance. The songs’ lyrics, which are incredibly relevant to the Palestinian experience, touch on themes of love, homeland, and resistance.

Palestinian folklore is full of stories about heroes, legendary creatures, and moral teachings. As with Ibrahim Muhawi’s book Speak, Bird, Speak Again , which includes several Palestinian folktales from various Palestinian areas, these stories, passed down through the generations, function as both entertainment and cultural preservation and transmission vehicles. 

Traditional cuisines

Middle Eastern cuisine has features with Palestinian cuisine, which reflects a variety of delicious meals, cuisines, and flavors with distinct tastes. Nonetheless, each version of Palestinian food is distinct, bragging of its finest ingredients and offering its own specialties and secret recipes. Even though the cuisines of each of the regions are different, olive oil, olives, and high-quality seasonal vegetables are still mainstays of Palestinian cooking. The cuisine of the Palestinians is more than just subsistence. The focus of Palestinian culture is food, which affects every element of social gatherings, including weddings and holidays, as well as everyday life. Palestine is well-known for a variety of mouthwatering dishes that highlight the rich flavors and culinary skills of Palestinian culture, including Musakhan, Molokhiya, and Maqluba.

The art of Palestinian embroidery and needlework plays a significant role in the lives of Palestinian women. Over the years, Palestinian women have acquired and transmitted this piece of folklore from one generation to another. Antiquities found across ancient Palestine suggest that its roots lie in the Ancient era. In addition to being visually stunning, Palestinian needlework is an advanced art form with deep cultural importance. In addition to decorating clothes and household fabrics, it tells the tales of the women and workers who created these works of art. Numerous symbols, such as birds, trees, flowers,  and geometric forms are embroidered on every piece of clothing. The women’s socioeconomic level and sense of place are conveyed via their choice of colors and patterns. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization “UNESCO” authorized the list of intangible cultural treasures in 2021 .

Resistance Art

Graffiti is a distinct art form that has emerged from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such acts of resistance frequently function as effective tools for spreading political ideas and safeguarding the collective memory and common understanding of the conflict. analyzes Palestinian street art as a political and resistance tool in the conflict with Israel. Though satirical, the artwork is upbeat. Through sarcastic humor and cleverness, thought-provoking imagery, and visuals, it shows the pain and sorrow endured by Palestinians behind the wall. It expresses the terrible and ongoing reality that Palestinians in the occupied areas must live with; it is unsettling, gloomy, and terrifying.

Photo: Reddit

Conclusion 

The strong and unique cultural identity of a people who have had and are still experiencing a turbulent and challenging past is demonstrated by Palestinian folklore. Palestinians honor and celebrate their roots and deepen their ties to the community by dressing traditionally, dancing, singing, and enjoying the abundance of their culinary heritage. They preserve their customs and values via crafts, aphorisms, and folktales. Palestinian folklore serves as an enduring symbol of perseverance and resolve in the face of hardship, in addition to reflecting the beauty of their culture. It is a testament to the tenacity of those who keep up the struggle for their rights and cultural heritage.

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So That’s Where Amal’s Been

Israeli Settlers, Reoccupation, and the Abraham Accords 

• HISTORY & CULTURE

‘Freedom, freedom, we want to live in freedom.’ Palestinians endure decades-old occupation.

Photographer shares her insider's view of Palestinian life in occupied territories.

East Jerusalem — At the Sharabati family home in the Old City of Jerusalem, small pieces from the crumbling wall in the kitchen often fall into soup prepared for lunch or dinner. Renovations to their property—on territory the international community has labeled illegally occupied by Israel—are forbidden by Israeli authorities while a bureaucratic legal process tied to lawsuits and eviction notices has now stretched beyond three decades.

“Growing up in the Old City was hard,” says Omar Sharabati, 25, who was born and raised in this home. He says his family lives under constant fear of eviction. Israeli settlers took over the apartment of the neighbor below, and they have to use the stairwell of the settler home to enter their own.  

“They [the state] took the balcony four years ago; we were forced to demolish it,” Sharabati says. “The bathroom cost $20,000. The Israeli authorities fined us over a lot of things, like the air conditioning; we did not know it wasn’t allowed.   Everything is illegal.  

“If someone comes to see the kitchen like this, they will force us to close the kitchen and not use it anymore,” he says. “That’s why we cover it all when they come to check. Though we cannot renovate, we paste it with cement.”  

Members of the Sharabti family are among some 970 Palestinians deemed to be at risk of evictions as a result of court action presented by Israeli settler organizations such as Elad through the Israeli legal system, the United Nations has reported . Court rulings have enabled Elad to seize several properties in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan and establish compounds there . The majority of cases have been challenged unsuccessfully in Israeli courts. Silwan has been the hotbed of settlement activity because of its location and assertions of ties to King David who, according to the Hebrew scriptures, ascended to the throne during ancient times.  

These developments are part of wider settlement expansions within Palestinian residential areas located in a region labeled by Israel as the “Holy Basin” of East Jerusalem. Jerusalem is divided—while Israel considers it the capital, half of the city is considered illegally occupied under international law.

Some settlements are home to religious Zionists who claim a biblical birthright to the land. Others were established for alleged security or ideological reasons without formal but tacit support from the Israeli government.

In addition to Silwan, the settlement areas also include the Muslim and Christian quarters of the Old City—Sheikh Jarrah, At-Tur (Mount of Olives), Wadi Joz, and Ras al-Amud. Jewish settlers reside in houses that have been expropriated by means of the Absentee Property Law and claims of former Jewish ownership. They also have built compounds financed by settler organizations. All this has led to imposed restrictions on gatherings in public spaces, limited residential growth, and increased friction and violence .

“The establishment of many of these settlement compounds has involved the forcible eviction and displacement of Palestinian residents, with negative humanitarian impact,” says a UN report . “It has also generated a coercive environment on the daily lives of Palestinians residing in the vicinity of these compounds by creating pressure on them to leave. The main elements of this environment include increased tension, violence and arrests; restrictions on movement and access, particularly during Jewish holidays; and a reduction on privacy due to the presence of private security guards and surveillance cameras.”

Palestinian identity

As a Jordanian-American and a journalist, the Palestinian story is never far from my doorstep. I can be, depending on the situation, Tanya from Texas, Jordanian wife to a Palestinian citizen of Israel, or mother of two Palestinian children. These varying identities give me access to almost every working scenario imaginable here—but documenting the most recent protests revealed a bonding thread.  

For Palestinians, required identification cards depend on where you live. There are Gaza ID holders, West Bank ID holders, East Jerusalem ID holders, and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Although the colors of the documents may be different, they share a common reality:   a narrative of dispossession, damage to homes and business, the loss of family members and friends.

At a protest in Shufa Amer—a small city on the outskirts of Haifa populated by Muslims, Christians, and Druze—15-year-old Basil Abu el-U’la, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was standing idle while attending a protest when he was shot in the back with a rubber-coated steel bullet while talking on his phone. He turned around to see the source of the pain and was met with another round straight into his left eye. His identification as a citizen of Israel did not help him.  

The 1.8 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population inside Israel proper, are the descendants of those left on their land after the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

"Israeli authorities want to scare young people who have never demonstrated before, people they can threaten because they still have the future ahead of them," says human rights activist Najwan Berekdar.

Tamer Nafer, a popular rapper and activist from DAM, the first Palestinian hip hop group, says younger Palestinians are inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States and its use of social media to garner support. During the most recent turmoil, Palestinian activists such as Muna and Muhammad al-Kurd from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood flooded social media with posts of what was happening on the streets.  

“There are new strategies of the youth. I think it’s part of the Black Lives Matter effect,” says Nafer, 43. “Watching this movement got me to question how come the world does not see us like that, and how their use of social media platforms is handling the revolution in a beautiful way.

“It’s a cool generation because they have direct access to the people without the interference of the ‘suits’,” Nafer says, referring to media in general.  

Life in East Jerusalem  

In Silwan, Qutaibah Odeh, a 27-year-old social worker, credited the large street protests for obtaining international attention.

“I am from the generation of the street before the generation of social media. Before we used technology—we were in the streets,” he says. “It’s our demonstrations in the streets that brought the stories we see on social media upon us.”  

In his al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan, another legal battle is underway following a 2004 order by Israeli authorities for demolitions to make way for what some critics have termed a “ biblical theme park .”  

“Because they say their king (and our prophet) David walked here 4,000 years ago,” says Odeh, “for this reason they think its ok to demolish our homes, kicking out more than 1,500 residents who have all their stories and memories in these homes, where their grandparents and great grandparents lived….so they can have a biblical park.

“We are teaching the newer generation to hold the torch of liberation after us. We believe what the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish once said, ‘one day, we’ll be what we want to be.’” Odeh says. “We are proving that Palestinians are creative, unorthodox, and we create liberation from nothing.”

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East of al-Bustan, in the Batan Hawa neighborhood, the sounds of excited children and splashes of water emanated from the rooftop of a modest apartment building where an inflatable pool was set up.  

“The children were disappointed not to visit the sea for their Eid vacation after Ramadan—there was too much fear for us to leave our house. So I brought them this pool,” explained Kayed al Rajabi, 34-year-old father of six sons and two daughters, whose family also is facing possible eviction.  

“I just wish we did not have to live with such worry… if my children will be safe when they go to school, or that if I leave my house, settlers will break in and take it,” he says. “We do not sleep at night; we are constantly worried and scared.”

Protests in Sheikh Jarrah  

At an afternoon gathering in Sheikh Jarrah—in the midst of last month’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza—a small crowd of protestors, including some Israelis, carried posters reading “Save Sheikh Jarrah.” Demonstrators demanded a halt to the displacement of Palestinian families, discrimination and violence triggered by settlement expansions. Newly installed checkpoints in the last few weeks have made it difficult for even children to visit relatives who live within the neighborhood—even as Orthodox Jews visiting a nearby burial site for a historic rabbi and settlers freely walk in and out of the neighborhood

“Freedom, freedom, we want to live in freedom,” protestors chanted. “Freedom for Sheikh Jarrah, freedom.” When the chants grew louder, armed Israeli forces rushed forward, throwing sound grenades and using force to disperse the small gathering.  

Perhaps the longest and most turbulent history in the ongoing conflict with Israel is in the West Bank. Lost eyes, limbs, and lives are not uncommon during protests. Within the three hours on assignment here, these are among the images I captured: a child playing in a newly installed security/observation concrete post located at the entrance of the village; a council member who shared a horrific story about a 15-year-old who had been shot in the cheek by a settler earlier in the week; and friends and family members of another 15-year-old teen, Islam Wael Burnat, who was fatally shot in the head during a recent protest.  

Islam’s best friend, Ibrahim Khatib, held him in his arms as he died. When I shared my condolences, Ibrahim’s face dropped, and he uttered a common sardonic refrain: “It’s ok. We are Palestinians.”

That evening, back in the city of Ramallah, I walked into a bar. There is always this nagging feeling that the Palestine story should not solely focus on the dead and misery. The bar was filled with young people, including Faiza Afifi, a graphic design student at Birzeit University who fled from Gaza at the age of 14 during an Israeli military offensive in 2014. She says she lives with constant guilt, her gnawed nails serving as testament. Everyone drank, and the political chatter mixed with humor and a sense of being in the moment. It is a cycle all too familiar here.

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• Israel-Hamas War

Palestine and the Power of Language

I n today’s near-constant news cycle on Gaza, Palestinians seem to die at the hands of an invisible executioner. Palestinians are shot dead. Palestinians starve . Palestinian children are found dead . But where is there accountability? Palestinians die, they aren’t killed , as if their death is a fault of their own. 

The obfuscation of responsibility is facilitated by a structure often overlooked since grade school: grammar. At this moment, grammar has the indelible power to become a tool of the oppressor, with the passive voice the most relied-upon weapon of all.

When I was young, teachers scolded me for using the passive voice—they wanted my writing to be precise and direct. Instead, my sentences always seemed to protect those who performed the actions. Back then, the fact that my sentence structure obscured accountability didn’t bother me. But I know better now. As a Palestinian American, with refugee grandparents who survived the Nakba, I’m confronting the occupation back home from the safety of my apartment in America. Over the years,  I’ve combed through headlines searching for the active voice in a sea of passivity. I need those who commit actions, those who hold agency, to be named. I need Israel and its occupational forces to be named.  

The passive voice often focuses on the recipient of the event, not the doer. In the news today, I see only the passive voice: “ A group of Palestinian men waving a white flag are shot at ,” and I can’t help but hear the voices of my past English teachers ask, “But who ‘shot’ these men?” Accountability is not just vague; it’s altogether missing.

I learned most acutely about the power of language to silence and erase in graduate school while auditing an undergraduate course on Israel. In a class of 25 people, I was one of two Palestinians. The rest of the class consisted of students who either self-identified as proud Zionists or Zionists who felt confused.

The professor, a Jewish Israeli, reminded me of my grandfather with his bushy eyebrows and thick accent—a soothing familiarity at first.

But that familiarity didn’t last. By the end of the first month, the class was split on the definition of “ethnic cleansing”—not only how to define it but who, in terms of the subject doing the action, can be charged with this human rights violation. 

The professor called our attention to his use of the term “ethnic cleansing” in his own writing. He wrote that around 750,000 Palestinians were displaced in 1948, an act that today would be considered ethnic cleansing. At first read, this statement seemed bold—he may not have named the Nakba , but his writing gestured toward violence. Even so, his examination felt sanitized. Palestinians “were displaced,” he wrote. But there was no mention of who did the displacing.

After reading part of the article out loud, a girl who had been fidgeting in her seat said it couldn’t be. 

“What couldn’t be?” my professor asked. 

“Ethnic cleansing. Because it’s what happened in the Holocaust, so we can’t be charged with this,” she replied. Another student cut in. He qualified by referring to himself as a critic of Israel. “There’s a distinction between occupation and ethnic cleansing,” he announced. “It’s an issue of structural power and systematic violence—what happened in 1948 was not ethnic cleansing.”

“By whom?” I finally asked, interrupting the flow of conversation.

“By whom, what?” the professor said.

“Who displaced 750,000 Palestinians?” Silence.

A boy behind me got the last word. “ Intent is what makes it ethnic cleansing,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like this was intentional. It might look like it, but it’s different.” The professor nodded, mumbling, “intent” to himself. 

In a 2023 interview with Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi published in The Intercept , Khalidi shared that although Israel’s recent military assault on Gaza may seem unprecedented it, unfortunately, aligns with Israel’s long-standing doctrine rooted in colonial, British counterinsurgency strategies. Khalidi said that this doctrine is characterized by an “absolute merciless attack on the enemy, delivering crushing blows.”

Read More: Hamas Built Tunnels Beneath My Family’s Home in Gaza. Now It Lies in Ruin

“This is how Britain ruled the world,” Khalidi went on to explain. “It was an empire of violence. And that strategy of overwhelming violence, when challenged, has been Israel’s strategy ever since.” This history of violence can easily be traced back to the foundation of the Zionist movement. The first Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote to his son in 1937: “The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.” 

I saw intent in these words, but others in my class did not. So I kept searching, looking through the archive to help me piece together what parts of history I was missing. I found Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund’s Lands Department, who wrote that there was no solution other than to transfer all Arabs from Palestine—who were the overwhelming majority in the region—into neighboring countries so that no Palestinian villages would remain. But when I shared these findings in class, they were brushed aside. “This isn’t intent,” a student said. “You can’t prove intent with a few peoples’ letters and actions.”

By the second month of class, I spent most of my time picking at my cuticles, fiddling with them until they drew blood, as students argued over when the words “Palestine” and “Palestinian” came into existence. Finally, the professor changed the subject, unable to convince some in class that “Palestine” was a place before Israel’s existence. He went on to discuss how Zionism could be considered a colonial project. A student behind me interrupted the lecture and said, “It’s not like they were coming in like other imperial powers and raping and killing immediately.”

My hand with its bloody cuticles shot up, eager to call out the absurdity of the comment. But my professor had started calling on me less and less, avoiding eye contact when possible and acknowledging me only in nods. My consistent stream of comments and questions perhaps disturbed the delicate balance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that he so cautiously wanted to maintain. He had become passive; I had been forced into passivity in turn. 

“Who started it first?” another student asked in my row, ignoring my raised hand. 

“Which time did ‘who start what?’” The professor asked. 

“In 1947,” she said, “if Zionism really is a ‘colonial project,’ who started it first?” 

“In 1947, the Arabs were upset by the U.N. partition lines. There were Palestinian uprisings,” he said. 

“They retaliated,” I interjected, angry again at the empty spaces left in the professor’s response—as if Zionism and its goals had no role in why there were Palestinian uprisings. In a 2002 report completed by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), researchers found that during the Second Intifada the word “retaliation” was used 79% of the time to describe Israeli violence against Palestinians in American news outlets. Meanwhile, Palestinian violence was characterized as “retaliation” only 9% of the time. Palestinians “attacked” or “threw rocks” or, at best, there were Palestinian “uprisings” that seemed to spring from the ground without any explanation of the pressure that premeditated why the surface cracked in the first place. 

“Retaliation” suggests a need to defend oneself because safety is on the line. “Retaliation” empowers some in their violence while reprimanding others.

I wanted to say all this, but the professor put his palm in the air, a visible stop sign in my direction, and asked me to raise my hand if I wanted to engage. So I continued to raise my hand, which remained raised until the end of class. And I wondered, if there were a stone nearby, would I have thrown it?

Read More: The Power of Changing Your Mind

After class, the professor pulled me aside and told me, “As an auditor, it’s best you don’t participate. I sympathize with the Palestinians, but it’s necessary you don’t add to the discussion.” He followed up this conversation with an email, reaffirming his desire for me to remain silent. Perhaps he didn’t intend to silence me, one of two Palestinians in the course. Perhaps he intended only to follow university policy, a policy I later learned was up to the discretion of each professor. Perhaps intent didn’t apply here at all, just as it couldn’t be applied to those who ethnically cleansed Palestinians during the Nakba.

While writing tedious essays in high school, I didn’t care that I used the passive voice. I didn’t care because our writing assignments were often divorced from broader socio-political contexts. The violence of protecting those accountable versus those left bearing the burden of the violence didn’t yet touch me or my body. A privilege, I know. The calculated use of language against Palestinians didn’t yet anger me, either, even though blatant anti-Arab racism happened in front of me with growing frequency after 9/11. It felt as though this version of racism was acceptable, even expected.

I learned history as if its problems were a thing of the past. This was purposeful. History preserved in textbooks relies on meticulous and insidious language to shape narratives. In the same month I sat in class and listened to students negotiate accountability and qualify their feelings toward ethnic cleansing, a seven-year-old Palestinian boy, Rayan, died in the West Bank. Did he die or was he killed? It depends on which headline you read—some headlines stated that he was simply “mourned” by his community.

As I searched for accountability for Rayan, I heard my teachers’ voices echo from the past: “Who did the action?” Paramedics say he had a heart attack though pediatric specialist, Dr. Mohamed Ismail, claimed Rayan had no previous medical conditions that would point to an early cardiac arrest. “The most probable scenario of what happened is that under stress, he had excess adrenaline secretion, which caused the increase of his heartbeat, ” Ismail said. 

We do know this: right before he died, Israeli occupation forces chased the boys home, banged on their door, and threatened to come back at night and arrest the boys, ages 7, 8, and 10. When Rayan saw the soldiers at his door, he tried to run away but, instead, dropped dead. Times of Israel published the headline , “Palestinian boy, 7, dies in disputed circumstances amid IDF activity near Bethlehem.”

“What are the disputed circumstances?” I hear my English teachers press on in my mind.  

There were rocks. No, stones. They say stones. They were being thrown. 

“Who did the action? Who started it?” 

One of Rayan’s older brothers threw a stone at a soldier. 

In the active voice, “A seven-year-old Palestinian boy’s heart killed him” is how the headlines could have read. 

“The heart is not to blame,” I hear my teachers say. 

What does it matter when language can minimize suffering at its best and erase it altogether at its worst?

As my graduate studies progressed, professors repeatedly told me that no one’s hands were clean in this “complicated” history. They felt my writing and my questions were too exacting in ways that perhaps made them uncomfortable. “This history is full of gray areas,” they’d say. They wanted my writing to be vague, passive. They wanted my writing to speak to the “complicated” nature of this conflict—but Palestine has never been that complicated to me. 

The word “complicated” is often used to describe the occupation in Palestine, a word that insists that occupation is untouchable—Palestine’s history is too complex, there are too many moving parts, it’s a puzzle that can never be solved. But this word is condescending—a distraction. It wants us to feel small, worthless, and petty in our investigation. It demands power structures remain in place, allowing some to speak while requiring others to stay quiet. But what’s happening today in Palestine against the Palestinian people is not complicated. It’s a revolting violation of human rights. It is active and precise. Palestinians are killed or, if they’re lucky, violently evicted from their homes. The question— by whom? —is often never raised. Palestinian schools, hospitals, community centers, historic holy spaces, safe zones are bombed; their resources depleted; people are starving—as if all of this happened devoid of context or responsibility for those who hold power.

So let me amend the above statements, as my former English teachers would have requested, and put them into the active voice: Israel bombs Palestinian schools that house sacred archives. Israel bombs hospitals with necessary aid. Israel bombs community centers and historic holy spaces that have stood for centuries. Israel depletes Palestinian resources. Israel bombs Rafah , housing over 1 million displaced Palestinians, after claiming it a safe zone. Israel is starving Gaza.

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Mountain Against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture by Salim Tamari

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Uploaded by Palestine Center on December 1, 2008

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

My Palestine Bookshelf

This page is available to subscribers. Click here to signin or get access .

When we asked Yousef Khanfar, executive editor of the “Palestine Voices” special issue, to come up with a list of essential titles about Palestine, he shared with us the following curation of thirty indispensable books, beyond those already recommended by the writers and poets covered in the issue.

Gate of the Sun is a Palestinian Odyssey . In story after story, beautifully weaving together haunting events of survival and loss, love and devastation, memory and dream, Khoury humanizes the complex Palestinian struggle in bringing to life the story of an entire people.  

How did a poem called “Enemy of the Sun,” by the Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim, come to be known and published under George Jackson’s name in English translation? George Jackson, a Black revolutionary writer, was incarcerated in California for more than a decade, until he was killed in 1971 by prison guards. Among the ninety-nine books Jackson had in his cell at the time of his death, one was Enemy of the Sun , a collection of Palestinian resistance poetry. For four decades, the title poem of the collection has circulated in Black Panther newspapers and other venues under Jackson’s name.  

“One of the most important books on Israel/Palestine in this generation.”— New York Review of Books

Israeli soldiers themselves reveal in profound, vivid detail how key planks of the army’s program have served to accelerate Israeli acquisition of Palestinian land, cripple all normal political and social life, and ultimately thwart the possibility of Palestinian independence. Our Harsh Logic is a supremely significant contribution to one of the world’s most vexed conflicts. For more information, visit the Breaking the Silence website .  

Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

One of the most beloved poets of Palestine. A fierce and moving work and an unparalleled rendering of the human aspects of the Palestinian predicament.

Barred from his homeland after 1967’s Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile—shuttling among the world’s cities yet secure in none of them; separated from his family for years at a time; never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere “idea of Palestine,” he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of “the habitual place and status of a person.” A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I Saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today’s Middle East.  

“One cannot escape the ironic conclusion that Shami may be one of the most significant Palestinian writers of this century.”—Arnold J. Band

Yitzhaq Shami (1888–1949) was a Palestinian Jewish and Israeli writer who wrote both in Arabic and Hebrew. He is one of the earliest modern Hebrew writers in Palestine, prior to Israeli statehood. His work was unique for his period, since in contrast with the vast majority of Hebrew writers of the period he crafted his art based on characters who were either Arabs or Sephardic Jews, residing in Ottoman Palestine, and his literary influences were predominantly Arab and Middle Eastern. Shami published short stories, one novella, several poems, and a number of essays.  

“Suheir Hammad has given us a collection of poems that have their roots in a land near the edge of the sea. Here is the voice of one woman who has not forgotten the plight of her people. Born Palestinian, Born Black is about culture, conflict, and consciousness. The poems are political, but then we are in need of such things. I was born black, and Suheir Hammad has taught me what it means to be Palestinian. People must continue to learn from each other. This book opens a door.”—E. Ethelbert Miller, Board Chair, Institute for Policy Studies

UpSet Press has restored to print Suheir Hammad’s first book of poems, Born Palestinian, Born Black , originally published by Harlem River Press in 1996. The new edition is augmented with a new author’s preface and new poems, under the heading The Gaza Suite , as well as a new publisher’s note by Zohra Saed, an introduction by Marco Villalobos, and an afterword by Kazim Ali.

As a child, Elias Chacour lived in a small Palestinian village in Galilee. When tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and nearly one million forced into refugee camps in 1948, Elias began a long struggle with how to respond. In Blood Brothers , he blends his riveting life story with historical research on what does Bible prophecy really have to say? And can bitter enemies ever be reconciled? This book offers hope and insight that can help each of us learn to live at peace in a world of tension and terror.  

This “is not a political book,” Anthony Lewis writes in his foreword. “Yet in a hundred different ways it is political. . . . Shehadeh shatters the stereotype many Americans have of Palestinians.”

Strangers in the House offers a moving description of the daily lives of those who have chosen to remain on their land. It is also the family drama of a difficult relationship between an idealistic son and his politically active father complicated by the arbitrary humiliation of the “occupier’s law.”

“ Internal and External Borders ,” Persis Karim’s interview with Shehadeh, appeared in the May 2012 issue of WLT .  

Were it simply a collection of fascinating, previously unpublished folktales, Speak, Bird, Speak Again would merit praise and attention because of its cultural rather than political approach to Palestinian studies. But it is much more than this. By combining their respective expertise in English literature and anthropology, native Palestinians Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana bring to these tales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture. Speak, Bird, Speak Again is an essential guide to Palestinian culture and a must for those who want to deepen their understanding of a troubled, enduring people.  

“Boullata takes the reader close to the struggle of those visionary, obstinate Palestinian artists who create so that their anonymous heroic land with its ancestral olive trees may survive.”—John Berger

“It is rare and exciting to find an art book full of persuasive, urgent visual imagery whose language and strategies are ultimately unfamiliar, whatever their surface appearance, to the complacent Western eye. As such it represents another advance in international understanding of Palestinian history and aspiration, but determinedly through the artist’s eye.”— The Guardian

This diverse selection features pre-1948 paintings alongside contemporary works, highlighting the political concerns of Palestinian artists and their unique contributions to modern Arab culture. Works by artists who live in Palestine are examined alongside those of artists from the Palestinian diaspora.

A painter and writer, Kamal Boullata’s writings on Palestinian art have appeared in numerous art and academic periodicals, and he recently edited Belonging and Globalisation: Critical Essays on Contemporary Art and Culture (Saqi Books).  

Brother and sister Ibrahim and Fadwa Tuqan are two of the most powerful and darling poets of Palestine. Their poetry is highly recommended and celebrated. A Mountainous Journey is an autobiography of Fadwa Tuqan, an internationally known poet from Nablus. Reading this book gave a whole new dimension to and understanding of her last poem, “Longing Inspired by the Law of Gravity,” which she wrote the year before she died at the age of eighty-six. A marvelous book for a very important Palestinian poetess.  

This landmark of comics journalism appear in an expanded and redesigned edition that includes a host of unseen supplemental material, including background notes, sketches, reference photos, a new interview with Sacco, and much more. With the Middle East’s role in contemporary world politics, Sacco’s Palestine has never been more relevant or more valuable to a country desperate to understand this long-running conflict. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict.  

May Ziade (1886–1941) was a Palestinian-Lebanese poet, essayist, and translator known as a prolific writer and a “pioneer of Oriental feminism.” When she moved from Palestine to Egypt, Ziade found herself amongst great male writers and cultural figures in a society gripped by stifling patriarchy. She established a literary salon in the 1920s and 1930s where she received many of the best intellectuals. They fell in love with her intellect, beauty, and elegance. Many asked for her hand in marriage, but she refused them all. Instead, she fell in love with Khalil Gibran, Lebanese author of The Prophet , with whom she exchanged letters for twenty years but never met. All ceased when he passed away on April 10, 1931. After Ziade returned to Lebanon, her nephew Joseph, in an attempt to gain control of her finances, had her admitted into Al-’Usfouriyya, the mental hospital, where she spent years in isolation. After she finally was able to prove her sanity, she moved back to Egypt where she lived alone until her death.

“A testament to how deeply we need the power and vision and energy of young women to transform the world.”—Eve Ensler

Rachel Corrie was a twenty-three-year-old American human rights worker who was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli military bulldozer. Let Me Stand Alone reveals Corrie’s striking gifts as a poet and writer and tells Corrie’s story in her own words, from her earliest reflections as a precociously creative and assured young child, to her final eloquent emails from Gaza. Above all, the book describes her growing political conscience: her desire to break out of a blinkered American perspective and make a difference in the world. Throughout, Corrie’s writing displays an extraordinary level of eloquence and self-awareness, humor and compassion.  

“This book is the most authentic account of Palestinian refugees’ painful ordeal that I have ever read.”—Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist, Haaretz

Sami Al Jundi left prison still determined to fight for his people’s rights—but with a very different notion of how to undertake that struggle. He cofounded the Middle East program of the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence, which brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth. Marked by honesty and compassion for Palestinians and Israelis alike, The Hour of Sunlight illuminates the Palestinian experience through the story of one man’s struggle for peace.  

This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine’s millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history. Starting with the earliest references in Egyptian and Assyrian texts, Nur Masalha explores how Palestine and Palestinian identity have evolved over thousands of years, from the Bronze Age to the present day. Drawing on a rich body of sources and the latest archaeological evidence, Masalha shows how Palestine’s multicultural past has been distorted and mythologized by biblical lore and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

Justice in the question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict’s most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now a dead letter.

Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures―from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza―Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel’s interests than the Palestinians’. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.

Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.  

“Despite his spare output and lack of formal education, Ali has become one of the most widely admired Palestinian poets. Composed in a synthetic Arabic that draws both on classical language and colloquial speech, Ali’s vivid free verse conveys the moody resilience of his personality in treatments of the national grief of occupation, exile and the Palestinian Arabs’ ‘endless migration.’”— Publishers Weekly

Taha Muhammad Ali was a revered Palestinian poet whose work was driven by vivid imagination, disarming humor, and unflinching honesty. As a boy he was exiled from his hometown, but rather than turning to a protest poetry of black-and-white slogans to convey this loss, he created art of the highest order. His poems portray experiences that range from catastrophe to splendor, each preserving an essential human dignity.  

“Far from being a simple parable, Men in the Sun depicts some often hidden aspects of the complex social and political reality of the Palestinians and is also a well-told story. . . . We should not forget the excellent translation of Hilary Kilpatrick which not only manages to preserve the subtle voice of the narrator, but also matches accurately the sober and lucid prose in Arabic for which Kanafani was hugely admired.”—Samir el-Youssef, Banipal

This collection of important stories by novelist and Palestinian activist Ghassan Kanafani includes  the stunning novella Men in the Sun , the basis of the film The Deceived . In the unsparing clarity of his writing, Kanafani offers the reader a gritty look at the agonized world of Palestine and the adjoining Middle East. His writing has been translated in sixteen languages. He was killed in a car bomb explosion in Beirut in 1972.  

One of the most important books that changed the trajectory of the Palestine/Israel discourse. The Nobel Peace Prize–winning former president shares an assessment of what he believes is necessary to bring lasting peace to Israel while preserving Palestinian dignity, in an account that draws on Carter’s intimate understanding of Middle East history and his personal relationships with regional leaders and political issues.  

“Mahmoud Darwish is the Essential Breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging, exquisitely tuned singer of images that invoke, link, and shine a brilliant light into the world’s whole heart. What he speaks has been embraced by readers around the world—his in an utterly necessary voice, unforgettable once discovered.”—Naomi Shihab Nye

Mahmoud Darwish is the leading poet in the Arab world, an artist and activist who attracted thousands to his public readings. The Butterfly’s Burden combines the complete text of Darwish’s two most renowned full-length volumes, linked by the stunning memoir-witness poem “A State of Siege.” Love poems, sonnets, journal-like distillations, and interlaced lyrics balance old literary traditions with new forms, highlighting loving reflections alongside bitter longing.  

The renowned literary and cultural critic Edward Said was one of our era’s most provocative and important thinkers. This comprehensive collection of his work, expanded from the earlier Edward Said Reader , draws from across his entire four-decade career, including his posthumously published books, making it a definitive one-volume source.

Whether writing of Zionism or Palestinian self-determination, Jane Austen or Yeats, or of music or the media, Said’s uncompromising intelligence casts urgent light on every subject he undertakes. The Selected Works is an indispensable resource for scholars in the many fields that his work has influenced and transformed.  

Mornings in Jenin is a multigenerational story about a Palestinian family. Forcibly removed from the olive-farming village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejos are displaced to live in canvas tents in the Jenin refugee camp. We follow the Abulhejo family as they live through a half century of violent history. Amidst the loss and fear, hatred and pain, as their tents are replaced by more forebodingly permanent cinderblock huts, there is always the waiting, waiting to return to a lost home. Set against one of the twentieth century’s most intractable political conflicts, Mornings in Jenin is a deeply human novel—a novel of history, identity, friendship, love, terrorism, surrender, courage, and hope. Its power forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining conflicts of our lifetimes.  

Anton Shammas chronicles his life as an Israeli Christian Arab, dramatizing the bitter clash of traditions in a village of the Galilee just after 1948 and his search for personal identity, which leads through Paris to its climax in Iowa City. Arabesques is a classic, complex novel of identity, memory, and history in the Middle East and points beyond. Shammas, the first Arab to write a novel in Hebrew, offers a riveting look at a people we hear too little about: Palestinian Christians. Arabesques was chosen as one of the best books of 1988 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review .  

A Palestinian-American activist recalls his adolescence in Gaza during the Second Intifada, and how he made a strong commitment to peace in the face of devastating brutality in this moving, candid, and transformative memoir that reminds us of the importance of looking beyond prejudice, anger, and fear. Amid the tragedy of the ongoing Middle East conflict, The Words of My Father is a powerful tale of moral awakening and of a fraught, ferocious, and profound relationship between a son and his father. Bashir’s story and the ideals of peace and empathy it upholds are a reminder that love and compassion are a gift—and a choice.  

“A mesmerizing must-have coffee table book.”— Elle (Middle East)

A joyous celebration of pattern and color in an enduring Palestinian tradition. The historical and cultural richness of Palestine is reflected visually in its costume and embroidery. Distinguished by boldness of color, richness of pattern, and diversity of style, and combined with great needlework skill, these textiles have long played an important role in Palestinian culture and identity and manifested themselves in every aspect of Palestinian life. The sumptuous photography and the author’s well-informed text greatly enrich our appreciation of Palestinian embroidery and make this book a valuable resource that displays this unique art in all its splendor.  

This groundbreaking book on modern Palestinian culture goes beyond the usual focal point of the 1948 war to address the earlier, formative years. Drawing on previously unavailable biographies of Palestinians (including Palestinian Jews), Salim Tamari offers eleven vignettes of Palestine’s cultural life in the momentous first half of the twentieth century. He brings to light the memoirs, diaries, letters, and other writings of six Jerusalem intellectuals whose lives spanned (and defined) the period of 1918–1948: a musician, a teacher, a former aristocrat, a doctor, a Bolshevik revolutionary, and a Jewish novelist. These essays present an integrated cultural history that illuminates a watershed in the modern social history of the Arab East, the formulation of the Arab Enlightenment.  

Gaza Writes Back is a compelling anthology of short stories from fifteen young writers in Gaza, members of a generation that has suffered immensely under Israel’s siege and blockade. Their experiences, especially during and following Israel’s 2008–2009 offensive known as “Operation Cast Lead,” have fundamentally impacted their lives and their writing. Their words take us into the homes and hearts of moms, dads, students, children, and elders striving to live lives of dignity, compassion, and meaning in one of the world’s most embattled communities. Readers will be moved by the struggles big and small that emerge from the well-crafted writing by these young people, and by the hope and courage that radiate from the authors’ biographies.  

The Palestine Festival of Literature was established in 2008 by authors Ahdaf Soueif, Brigid Keenan, Victoria Brittain, and Omar Robert Hamilton. Bringing writers to Palestine from all corners of the globe, it aimed to break the cultural siege imposed by the Israeli military occupation, to strengthen artistic links with the rest of the world, and to reaffirm, in the words of Edward Said, “the power of culture over the culture of power.”

Contributing authors include J. M. Coetzee, China Miéville, Alice Walker, Geoff Dyer, Claire Messud, Henning Mankell, Michael Ondaatje, Kamila Shamsie, Michael Palin, Deborah Moggach, Mohammed Hanif, Gillian Slovo, Adam Foulds, Susan Abulhawa, Ahdaf Soueif, Jeremy Harding, Brigid Keenan, Rachel Holmes, Suad Amiry, Gary Younge, Jamal Mahjoub, Molly Crabapple, Najwan Darwish, Nathalie Handal, Omar Robert Hamilton, Pankaj Mishra, Raja Shehadeh, Selma Dabbagh, William Sutcliffe, Atef Abu Saif, Yasmin El-Rifae, Sabrina Mahfouz, Alaa Abd El Fattah, Mercedes Kemp, and Ru Freeman.

“It’s necessary, of course. But above all it’s bold, brilliant and inspiring: a sign of boundless imagination and fierce creation even in circumstances of oppression, denial, silencing and constriction. The voices of these writers demand to be heard—and their stories are defiantly entertaining.”—Bidisha

The first anthology of contemporary science fiction from Palestine, Palestine +100 poses a question to twelve Palestinian writers: What might your country look like in the year 2048, a century after the tragedies of 1948? Along the way, we encounter drone swarms, digital uprisings, time-bending VR, peace treaties that span parallel universes, and even a Palestinian superhero.

Editorial note: Khanfar also contributed his “ Photography Bookshelf ” to WLT’ s “Taking Pictures, Telling Stories” double photography issue in 2013.

An award-winning Palestinian author, Yousef Khanfar has published three books, is featured globally in many publications, and is listed as one of the world’s top photographers. He has received appreciation from the White House, US Supreme Court, the UK’s House of Lords, and beyond. The Fulbright Center for Peace in Washington, DC, selected his book to help celebrate the Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations. He was selected as Artist of the Year to promote literacy with UNICEF, and the Palestine mission to the United Nations honored him for “appreciation of his extraordinary service to promoting peace and justice in Palestine through art.”

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More by Yousef Khanfar

Queen of Justice: A Portrait of Sandra Day O’Connor

The Palestinian Kufiyah

The Keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Jerusalem: The Shepherdess

Palestine Voices: An Introduction

My Photography Bookshelf

Photography: Taking Pictures, Telling Stories

More Reading Lists

Literary and Historical Sources for Understanding Ukraine: A Recommended Reading List, by Michael M. Naydan

Modern Muses: A Reading List, by Michelle Johnson

A Puerto Rico Reading List, by Jotacé López

Readers Respond: Books on Climate Change

A “Clarion Call to Action”: Nine Recommended Books on Climate Change by Pireeni Sundaralingam

Hong Kong: A Recommended Reading List, by Xu Xi

Music and Literature Reading List, by Michelle Johnson

An International Speculative Fiction Reading List, by The Editors of WLT

“New Native Writing: 12 Books For Further Reading,” by WLT

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Summer 2021

The expanded Summer 2021 issue of  World Literature Today  foregrounds  Palestine Voices  in a cover feature showcasing 30 of the most prominent poets and writers from the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the diaspora, guest-edited by Yousef Khanfar + poetry & fiction from Hong Kong, Hungary, and South Korea. At 128 pages, the issue is bursting at the seams with the best poetry, fiction, essays, interviews, and book reviews from all over the world!

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Palestinian Resistance: An Icon for Those Who Long to Live Free

"we have only ourselves and people of conscience to effectuate our own liberation".

The following is a selected essay by Palestinian-American writer and human rights advocate, Susan Abulhawa. It first appeared in Middle East Eye in the summer of 2014. Now, four years later —similar to 70 years later—little has changed. Reading this essay in 2018 is a brutal reminder how global complacency—fueled by American complicity and placation—has allowed a violent reality for Palestinians to persist.

–Tariq Luthun

_________________________________________

As Palestinians bleed and burn in darkness without water, shelter, adequate food or medicine under Israel’s barbaric onslaught, Israeli propaganda is blasting full force across the world, western media in particular, and the usual list of US politicians and media moguls are eager participants. The central theme is to blame the victims. They are cynical, surreal sound bites that many people swallow wholesale, unquestioningly.

The ever faithful to Israel, Bill Clinton, summarized Israeli talking points, saying “[Hamas has] a strategy to force Israel to kill their own civilians.” Perhaps Clinton is trying to lay some political groundwork with AIPAC for his wife’s run for the presidency, but the abject cynicism of such a statement smacks of the worst propaganda since Goebbles. It’s the equivalent of saying a woman in a tight dress is forcing men to rape her. No one is forcing Israel to kill unarmed civilians in their homes. No one is forcing them to bomb hospitals, rehabilitation centers, water treatment plants, bakeries, or children playing soccer on the beach. They’re doing it all on their own. Willfully and deliberately. They are using guns and bombs and planes and warships and drones and snipers of their own volition against a defenseless civilian population in one of the most densely populated places on earth. Together with Egypt, they have besieged all borders, so there is no place for people to run or take cover. There is just no refuting this simple fact.

They have the most sophisticated military hardware and surveillance equipment in the world and they see precisely what they’re hitting. It fatigues imagination that Israeli naval ships could have mistaken four children playing with a ball in a wide open beach area. If they made a mistake with the first hit (a very generous assumption), the second artillery strike—while the boys were running away in terror—could not have been. This sniper, too, saw that he was killing an unarmed man searching the rubble for his family during a two-hour humanitarian ceasefire.

“ Palestinians have done it all. We choose resistance, always, in all its forms. We resist because it is our right.”

Benjamin Netanyahu has been given hours of airtime to pour Israel’s racist, dehumanizing and spurious messages into living rooms across the United States. Among the most disingenuous and audacious was his assertion that he is very sad to have to kill so many babies; that Israel is trying to protect Palestinians but Hamas is pushing them into the fire. “What choice do we have?” he asks. Then, promoting colonial images of the savage native, he says Palestinians want more dead, so we can pile them up for TV. That Hamas uses “telegenically-dead Palestinians,” for our cause. The suggestion is that Palestinians, unlike all creatures of our planet, lack the human impulse to protect our children. What is worse, Wolf Blitzer (himself a known Zionist and Israel supporter) said nothing to challenge such obscene propaganda.

“What Would You Do?”

Western media continues to frame Israel’s hysteric killing spree as self-defense. Massive monies have been poured into campaigns with images of rockets raining on western cities and a caption “What would you do?” Indeed, I would like to ask, “What would you do” if a belligerent military occupation sealed you and everyone you love into a small enclave, whereby the most basic requirements of living were banned from entering? Where you could not leave or hope to leave, ever? Where naval ships shoot at you and sink your boat if you try to fish in God’s sea? Where you must burrow tunnels in the earth and crawl in treacherous conditions like rodents to smuggle books, diapers, pasta, and pencils? Where you are subject to extrajudicial executions, regular bombings, polluted drinking water, kidnappings, and arbitrary arrests? What would you do if you were subject to night raids, endless checkpoints, and constant daily harassment from soldiers and rabid settlers from Brooklyn who come to claim your home and heritage as some divine real estate prize because God loves them more? What would you do if your son was forced to swallow gasoline and then burned alive because he was born into your family, which is, according to the laws of the state, unworthy of equal rights. A sort of lesser human of a lesser god.

What would you do if you had to spend two hours making a trip that should take ten minutes, because you are not allowed to travel certain roads? If your color-coded ID allowed you movement only within a small radius and you would be imprisoned if caught beyond your allotted space of ground? What if you could not work, if you were barred from worshiping in your holiest of cities just 10 minutes away? What if your children, as young as ten, were taken by heavily armed soldiers to be interrogated alone, imprisoned, tortured, forced to sign confessions in a language they cannot read and imprisoned by military courts? What if your family’s ancestral olive groves were confiscated by the state or burned by illegal settlers, your livelihood and history wiped away? What if you were forced from your home into a refugee camp so Jews from all over the world could take your place and have an extra country, dual citizenship, one in their own homeland and one in yours? What if your entire nation was terrorized and brutalized because someone killed three Jewish settlers, for which no evidence was ever presented and no trial conducted? If leaders of this military occupation in the highest offices called for your blood and the blood of your children, whom they call “ little snakes ,” and their intellectuals called for the rape of your mothers and sisters to deter your instinct to fight back?

Would you throw rocks and molotovs at their armored tanks? Would you fire rockets at their iron dome? Would you march weekly, peacefully against the concrete wall slicing through your village? Would you boycott, divest and sanction? Would you negotiate with your tormentors for freedom and all else that is non-negotiable? Would you plead with the UN? Go to court? Write essays like this for deaf ears?

The Right to Resist

Palestinians have done it all. We choose resistance, always, in all its forms. We resist because it is our right. Because we are the indigenous people of the land and we have nowhere else to go or belong. Because our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and on and on are buried in this soil. Because we are right and our cause is just. We resist passively and actively. We resist violently and non-violently. It is our legal and moral right to resist with whatever means available to us against what has been accurately called “ incremental genocide .” We have tried everything to gain the simplest of human dignities. We gave up our legal, historic, moral, cultural, and ethnic right to 78 percent of Historic Palestine in order to form a state on the remaining 22 percent, of which Israel cannot claim an iota of sovereignty.

“The powerful of this planet are blaming us for our own misery. They stand behind Israel, a terrorist colonial state armed with the most technological death machines, and they call on us to ‘ disarm.’ ”

But Israel has never acted in good faith, choosing instead to colonize more than half of that territory in the time period when we tried to negotiate statehood. Now some Palestinians have chosen to take up arms again. Although the rockets launched from Gaza amount to firecrackers that have hurt no one, firing them makes perfect sense. If this minimal disruption of normality in Israeli lives is all we can do, then that is what we should do. If the most Palestinians can do is to make it inconvenient for an Israeli couple to enjoy a day of beach, gym and coffee shops while they tear our children’s bodies apart, then that is what we should do. These rockets are symbolic and radical assertions of an indigenous people’s unbending will to live with dignity in their ancestral homeland. They are minimal acts of self-defense of a people against whom unspeakable crimes have never ceased in over 60 years.

There are people in the world who understand what I am saying. People who have lived under the terrible, cruel, humiliating boots of another people. People who dreamed and agonized for the sweet breath of freedom and justice. Who had to fight and die for it against a vastly superior military force. That is why South Africa stands with us. Why the Irish are with us. Why Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, DR Congo, and others are with us. Civil societies, if not governments, in every part of the world stand with us. Thank you, we say. Thank you, our brothers and sisters for your solidarity. We shall not forget it.

There are those who understand what it means to prefer to die fighting than die on their knees. Why Gazans, in their ineffable grief, fear, insecurity, and misery are choosing to support the muqawama , the resistance. Some people remember the Warsaw uprising, where Jews fired their own version of firecrackers at their highly armed tormentors, and so, many of our Jewish brothers and sisters around the world are standing with us, upholding what is noble and human.

But the powerful of this planet are blaming us for our own misery. They stand behind Israel, a terrorist colonial state armed with the most technological death machines, and they call on us to “ disarm .” We know these same governments will soon boost Israeli arms exports, which can now claim the lucrative label: “Field Tested.” We know that they know Israel uses Palestinian bodies as cannon fodder for profit.

We also know, more clearly now than ever, that we have only ourselves and people of conscience to effectuate our own liberation. Gaza is teaching us this every day. They are also teaching us that we can put aside our differences and unite as a people.

What we also know is that tables turn quickly in our part of the world. Israel hasn’t been here long enough to understand this basic truth of the land. Someday, the sun will shine on Palestine again and it will be the pluralistic, multi-religious, multi-cultural place it had been before Israel. This is the peace we are fighting for. We are fighting for the peace of justice and dignity that affords life and hope to human beings without regard to their religion or any other arbitrary feature. And some day we will have it. We will swim again on the shores of Haifa, watch the waves beat against the walls of Akka. We will fish as far as our boats need to go from Gaza. We will pray in Al-Aqsa and the Holy Sepulcher. We will harvest our oranges in Jaffa, grapes in Hebron, and olives everywhere. That old picture of patriarchs, Muslim and Jew and Christian, playing cards in Jerusalem, will be a reality once again. And we will honor those who died, fought, withstood, and paid the price for it all.

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The Social and Cultural History of Palestine

Essays in honour of salim tamari.

• Edited by: Sarah Irving
• X / Twitter

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Copyright year: 2023
• Audience: College/higher education;
• Main content: 232
• Other: 28 B/W illustrations
• Keywords: Islamic Studies
• Published: January 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399503631

• Context and History
• The Climate
• Palestine in History
• Modern History
• World War 1 and Its Aftermath
• In-Migration of European Jews
• Land Acquisition
• A Separate Jewish State within a State
• The Palestine Liberation Organisation
• The Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
• The Palestinians in Israel
• Traditional Social Structure
• Village and Folk Life
• Refugee Camp Life
• Education: Refugees and Occupation
• Values and Social Customs
• Gender, Marriage and Family
• The ‘A’ilah
• The Functionally Extended Family
• Family Life Cycle
• Child Rearing
• Marriage Patterns
• Patriarchy, Values, and the Code of Family Honor
• The Changing Role of Women
• Traditional Dress
• Men's Traditional Garments
• Women's Traditional Garments
• Stitching and Patterns
• Structure of Embroidery
• Variation by Region 
• Contemporary Changes
• Bread and Rice
• Cheeses and Breakfast Food
• Main Dishes: Meat, Fish, and Poultry
• Sweets and Fruit
• The Social Aspects of Food
• Islamic Holidays
• Palestinian Christians from the Time of Christ to the Coming of Islam
• Palestinian Christians During the Islamic eras (A.O. 638-1920)
• Palestinian Christians under Ottoman Dominion
• Palestinian Christians in the Twentieth Century
• OraI Tradition: Folk Poetry
• Formal and Literary Poetry
• Fadwa Touqan (1917-2003)
• The New Palestinian Poetry
• Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008)
• The Short Story
• The Novel and Novelists
• Sahar Khalifeh (1941-)
• Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972)
• Liana Badr (1950-)
• Emile Habibi (1921-1996)
• Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1920-1994)
• Edward W. Said (1934-2003)
• Naseer Aruri (1934-2015)
• Hisham Sharabi (1926-2005)
• Art, Performing Arts, and Cinema
• Olive-Wood Carvings
• Mother-of-Pearl
• Ismail Shamout
• Naji al-Ali (1936-1987)
• Suleiman Mansour (1947- )
• Samira Badran
• Mona Hatoum (1952- )
• Kamal Boullata (1942 - 2019)
• Songs and Music
• Mai Masri (1948-)
• Michel Khleifi (1950- )
• Elia Suleiman (1960- )
• Other Filmmakers

Palestine’s Culture Impacts Exploratory Essay

For a long time, the world has been characterized by various political conflicts and disputes. The Palestine and Israeli conflict stands out among all the other conflicts mostly due to the fact that it has been inexistence for a long time. It is multifaceted as it is a result of many factors such as control of Jerusalem, border disputes, security, freedom of movement of Palestinians, water rights and settlement of Israel, to mention just a few.

The conflict has generated a lot of violence which has been a mater of international concern and various actions have been taken against both parties in an attempt to reduce or eliminate it. The problem worsened after the Oslo peace records collapsed in September 2002. There may have been many factors that may have led to the failure of Oslo, but most studies illustrate that culture played a great role in the same.

This is due to the fact that it influences the preferences and the strategies of various political leaders, determines domestic politics as well as affecting the perception, behavior and intentions of the parties involved (Wittes pp. 7). Palestine and Israel conflict is a far much complicated issue. Therefore, this essay shall discuss cultural aspects of the same, laying more focus on Palestine.

Political culture is defined as “attitudes towards the political system and its various parts, and attitudes towards the role the self in the system” (Wittes pp. 5). It is easy to conclude that differences in political culture contribute greatly to the conflict. However, this does not apply while focusing on Israel and Palestine as the two have never been cultural strangers.

Nonetheless, their cultural understanding towards each other not only contributes to the conflict but hampers the negotiation process. For instance, Palestinians believe that Israel came about due to crimes which were committed by Hitler. Therefore, they believe that they are not supposed to shoulder the responsibility that was as a result of the Western colonial era.

Additionally, Palestinians view themselves as victims of the Nkaba which took part in the year 1948 and 1949 and they have continued to harbor bitterness especially due to the loss that was incurred during that particular period. Palestine continues to hold Israel responsible for the loss and have much trouble with the stand of Israel of not allowing the refugee from Palestine to return back to their homeland.

While Israel is not ready to accept anything that questions their existence as a Jewish State, Palestine is not ready to accept anything which was unacceptable initially as studies of Wittes (pp.10) illustrate. For instance, changing the Palestine Liberation Organization was not easy and it took quite some time.

On the same note, it is important to mention that, due to the same issue, politicians from Israel were not ready to discuss the issue of refugee return publicly. In addition, Palestine emphasizes too much on some key principles like the right of self determination as well as the fact that a territory ought not to be acquired by war at all costs.

Such issues increase the sensitivity on both sides and it becomes quite difficult to carry out any negotiation. Each country believes that it is politically superior to the other and due to that, none is ready to give in during negotiation aimed at resolving the conflict (Goldberg Para 2 % Al-Masri Para 6 ).

Religion has also had a great role to play on the conflict between Israel and Palestine despite the fact that there are only three religions in the region which are inclusive of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Since Jerusalem city is significant to the three religions, conflict arises since both countries seek to retain Jerusalem for religious purposes.

Palestine has been claiming all the parts of Jerusalem that were not initially part of Israel before 1967. United States proposed a plan which was aimed at resolving the Jerusalem conflict in the year 2000 and 2001.

The plan had proposed that the Jewish parts of the city were to be retained by Israel while the Arab parts were to be retained by Palestine. Although both countries had accepted the proposal, the summit failed and the conflict was not resolved (Oren, Bar-Tal & David pp. 134).

Ethnic aspect of Palestine and Israel contributes to the conflict greatly and hinders some attempts aimed at resolving the same conflict. Israel consists mainly of Jews while Palestinians consist mainly of Arabs and the two ethnic groups have got different political views and principles. For example, Palestinians believe that they have suffered greatly from Israel violent attacks and continue to be victims up to date.

On the other hand, study of the history illustrates that Arabs from Palestine have been conducting various violent attacks not only in Israel but also in other places especially after the establishment of Oslo records. Palestinians believe that they only get involved in wars as a result of Israeli’s aggression.

Study has indicated that despite the fact that the conflict is an international concern, it might persist unless a sound intervention is sought. It is not possible to underestimate the contribution of various programs and summits that have been established.

Nevertheless, it is important to take into consideration the cultural contribution to the conflict since various studies have demonstrated that ethos contributes greatly to the same (Yaalon pp. 149). Each party has got its own society beliefs that are a major hindrance to resolving the conflict. Any peace mission should be aimed at changing the beliefs of every society especially concerning the goals of the conflict.

Therefore, cultural beliefs ought to be changed to focus mainly on peace building. Lastly, it is important to create a change that will allow for establishment of trust, respect as well as sensitivity of each party’s needs. Such a step is very important as it can give room for negotiation which can eventually lead to reconciliation.

Works Cited

Al-Masri, Hani. ” Palestinian and Arabib Media and the Issue of Refugees.” Stocktaking Confrence on Palestinian Refugee Research. Otawa, Canada, 2003. Print.

Goldberg, Effrey. No Common Ground. 2009. Web.

Oren, Neta, Daniel Bar-Tal and Ohad David. “Conflict, Identity and Ethos: The Islrael Palestine Case.” Psychology of Ethnic and Cultural Conflict. Print.

Wittes,Tamara, Cofman. How Israelis and Palestinians negotiate: a cross-cultural analysis of the Oslo peace process. Washington: US Institute of Peace Press, 2005. Print.

Yaalon, Moshe. “A New Strategy for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” Jerusalem Issue Briefs 2 September 2008. Print.

• "Israel’s Palestinian Challenge" by Efraim Inbar
• Camp David 2000 Summit
• Terrorism in Israel and Palestine
• Successful International Negotiations
• The role of Islam in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy
• Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) in Integration with Federal Union
• Restrepo Movie and International Relations
• American Public opinion about foreign countries
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 7). Palestine's Culture Impacts. https://ivypanda.com/essays/palestines-culture-impacts/

"Palestine's Culture Impacts." IvyPanda , 7 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/palestines-culture-impacts/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Palestine's Culture Impacts'. 7 June.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Palestine's Culture Impacts." June 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/palestines-culture-impacts/.

1. IvyPanda . "Palestine's Culture Impacts." June 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/palestines-culture-impacts/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Palestine's Culture Impacts." June 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/palestines-culture-impacts/.

“Today, Ireland, Norway and Spain are announcing that we are recognising the State of Palestine,” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris announced Wednesday. Though Palestinian statehood has been a contentious issue for decades, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict has pumped renewed urgency into the debate surrounding international recognition. In this explainer, we outline the fraught history of Palestinian statehood and explore the reasons for and implications of the latest spate of recognitions.

Why is statehood such a contentious issue in this context? 

Palestine’s declaration of independent statehood only dates back to 1988 — four decades after Israel declared its statehood. Not only are both nations relatively young, they were both established under the auspices of the World War II international order. Statehood, in this era, is crucial to asserting sovereignty, self-determination, and rights for a people within the modern nation-state system.

How did Israeli statehood come about in 1948?

Though the Palestinian people have long populated the territories of modern-day Israel and Palestine, this land was part of the Ottoman Empire when early Jewish settlers started to purchase increasingly vast swaths of land in the 19th century. Early Zionist settlers were driven to seek refuge from pogroms and other antisemitic abuses in Europe and were drawn to the idea of establishing a modern Jewish homeland in the heart of the biblical Promised Land .

While ruling over Palestine, British authorities issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 , committing London to facilitating the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. This, combined with the drivers noted above, caused Jewish immigration to surge. In 1882, Jewish residents comprised about 8% of the population of Israel and Palestine (24,000 of 300,000). By 1922, that figure stood at 11% (83,794 of 757,182), and by 1947 — 32% (630,000 of 1,970,000).

In 1947, the newly established UN voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state; the former accepted the offer while the latter rejected it. It was in this context that Israel formally declared its statehood the following year. This plunged the two sides into regional warfare, which ended with Israel capturing more territory than the UN partition plan had initially provided. The violence spurred a mass exodus of Palestine’s non-Jewish population. By 1948, Jews comprised 82.1% of the regional population — a substantial uptick from the previous year’s 32%. Notably, the Jewish population only grew from 630,000 to 716,700 during that time. The demographic shift has far more to do with the region’s non-Jewish population having dwindled from 1,324,000 in 1947 to 156,000 the following year.

Why didn’t Palestinian statehood come about until 1988?

It would be another 40 years before Palestine declared statehood. This was due largely to the consequences of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which resulted in Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank and Egypt’s occupation of Gaza, and in the mass exodus of the region’s non-Jewish population. For several decades thereafter, Palestinians lacked a defined territory for statehood. Those who remained in the territory continued to advocate for their rights. In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) formed, driven by the goal of reclaiming all of historic Palestine. Three years later, during the Six Year War, Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, placing them under occupation. In 1988, following years of Palestinian uprisings, the PLO issued a declaration of independent statehood. Within the next few weeks, nearly 100 countries recognized Palestinian statehood.

How many countries currently recognize Palestinian statehood?

Palestine was granted observer status at the UN in 1974. Though its 2011 bid for full membership failed, the UN General Assembly voted in 2012 to designate it a non-member observer state.

This month, of the UN’s 193 member states, 166 voted earlier this month on whether to upgrade Palestine’s role in the organization from observer state to full member state. An overwhelming majority — 143 — voted in favor of the draft resolution , which prominently reaffirmed the “right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.” Though the vote took place on May 10, and Ireland, Norway, and Spain only announced recognition of Palestinian statehood some two weeks later, all three voted in support of the resolution, and thus are included among the 143 supporters of the State of Palestine in this context.

Of the remaining states who participated in the vote, nine voted against Palestine’s ascent to full UN member, and 25 abstained. The nine who voted against included A rgentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and the United States. Abstentions included many European nations and other core US allies. 

In comments during the vote, the US said its no vote was “an acknowledgment that Statehood will come only through a process that involves direct negotiations between the parties,” according to a UN summary .

How has this all played out in Norway? 

The Norwegian Government has announced its decision to recognise Palestine as an independent state. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stated, “Amidst a war with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must sustain the only viable solution for both Israelis and Palestinians: Two states living side by side in peace and security.”

Prime Minister Støre and Foreign Minister Eide announced this recognition stated that for decades, Norway has supported and promoted the two-state solution, such as its vote in the UN General Assembly last week ; recognising Palestine underscores Norway’s commitment to a lasting Middle East peace through this approach.

Prime Minister Støre emphasised the Palestinian people’s fundamental right to self-determination. “Both Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace within their own nations. Peace in the Middle East hinges on a two-state solution, which necessitates the existence of a Palestinian state,” he said.

The Recognition of the state of Palestine is part of the follow-up to the 2023 decision in the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) that the Government may choose to recognise Palestine as a state at a time when the decision could be of value to the peace process and without any conditions relating to a final peace agreement.

The decision to recognise Palestine as a state is considered a matter of importance which, in accordance with Article 28 of the Constitution , requires approval by the King in Council of State.  Following the adoption by Royal Decree on Friday 24 May; with Norway’s formal recognition of Palestine as a state entering into force on Tuesday 28 May 2024.

In Ireland? 

Simon Harris TD said in a statement that “I have today spoken to the President of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, following Ireland’s recognition of the state of Palestine. I told the President that I, on behalf of the people of Ireland, was recognising Palestine to keep the hopes of a two-state peace solution alive”. 

And in Spain?

Sanchez of Spain said in his speech to the Spanish Parliament that “We have to use all the political resources at our disposal to say, loud and clear, that we’re not going to allow the possibility of the two-state solution to be destroyed by force because it’s the only just and sustainable solution to this terrible conflict”. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said the move was “not against Israel, is not against the Jews”.

“It is not in favour of Hamas, which is something that has been said. This recognition is not against anyone, it is in favour of peace and coexistence.”

Can recognition serve as a catalyst for peace?

Since the Arab-Israeli peace process of September 13, 1993, and the signing of the The Oslo Accords , Norway and others delayed recognition until a peace agreement was reached, a process which remains ineffective to this day.

Prime Minister Støre noted “Without a peace process, developments have worsened, leaving both Palestinians and Israelis insecure. We must rethink our approach and recognise Palestine now.”

Foreign Minister Eide highlighted that Palestine’s economic instability, dependency on aid, and rights violations, combined with terrorism and Israel’s settlement expansions, have exacerbated the sense of hopelessness.

This initiative follows the Norwegian parliament’s decision on 16 November 2023.

“We will support the Palestinian state-building efforts and the Palestinian Authority under Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa, striving for governance unity in Gaza and a cohesive Palestinian state,” said Eide.

There is widespread agreement among nations such as the US, EU, China, and various Arab, African, Asian, and Latin American countries that a two-state solution is essential for lasting peace. However the use of the  veto came as the UN Security Council considered a resolution put forward by Algeria that would have granted Palestine full UN membership last month.

Minister Eide concluded, “Peace requires addressing final status issues through renewed dialogue. A Palestinian state enhances security for both Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

The Recognition of Statehood and the Case of Palestine

The recognition of statehood is a multifaceted process involving principles of international law, political strategy, and diplomatic relations. While the theoretical framework provides clear criteria for statehood, the practical application often reveals a complex web of historical, legal, and political factors. This complexity is particularly evident in the case of Palestinian statehood—a topic that has generated significant international debate. This essay explores the general principles of state recognition and delves into the contentious issue of Palestinian statehood, examining the legal criteria, political manoeuvres, and the implications of its contested recognition.

Principles of State Recognition

The recognition of statehood by other states is fundamentally rooted in international law, political theory, and diplomatic considerations. One of the most widely accepted legal frameworks for statehood is the Montevideo Convention of 1933. According to this convention, a state must possess four key attributes: a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning government, and the capacity to engage in relations with other states.

1. Defined Territory: The state must have clear geographical boundaries. 2. Permanent Population: There should be an established and stable community residing within the defined territory. 3. Government: An effective government must exercise control over the territory and population. 4. Capacity to Enter into Relations with Other States: The state must be able to conduct diplomatic and legal relations with other sovereign entities.

In practice, the recognition of a state is not merely a legal determination but also a political decision influenced by strategic interests, alliances, and geopolitical considerations.

 Types of Recognition

Recognition of statehood can be categorised into two types: Firstly, by De Jure Recognition, this is a formal acknowledgment that the entity fulfils all the criteria for statehood under international law. It signifies full diplomatic recognition and acceptability as a sovereign state. Secondly, De Facto Recognition – this acknowledges that the entity operates as a state in practice, even if formal recognition is withheld. It often serves as a pragmatic approach in complex political scenarios.

Recognition is a unilateral political act, meaning states individually decide whether to recognise another state, often based on a combination of legal criteria and political interests.

The Case of Palestinian Statehood

The issue of Palestinian statehood is particularly contentious, reflecting deep historical, geopolitical, and legal complexities. The region historically known as Palestine has experienced various forms of governance over the centuries, including the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate, and evolving territorial disputes involving Israel and neighboring Arab states.

In 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared the establishment of the State of Palestine. This declaration has been recognised by numerous countries and international organisations, yet the recognition remains far from universal.

International Recognition

The recognition of the State of Palestine varies significantly across the international community:

In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly granted Palestine non-member observer state status . This designation reflects a level of recognition without full UN membership and has symbolic and practical implications for Palestine’s international engagemAs of May 2024 143 of the 193 UN member states recognise Palestine as a sovereign state. These recognitions come predominantly from countries in the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who welcomes the  move by the three nations to recognise Palestine. Supporters argue that Palestine meets the legal criteria for statehood and advocate for Palestinian self-determination.

The recognition or non-recognition of Palestinian statehood affects diplomatic relations and the broader dynamics of Middle Eastern politics. States that recognise Palestine often advocate for its inclusion in international forums and support its claims under international law. Conversely, non-recognition can limit Palestine’s engagement in international diplomacy and affect peace negotiations with Israel.

Challenges to Recognition

The path to Palestinian statehood faces several significant obstacles:

The borders of a Palestinian state remain a major point of contention. The presence of Israeli settlements, the status of East Jerusalem, and security arrangements are critical issues needing resolution.

The Palestinian territories are administratively divided, with Hamas governing Gaza and the Palestinian Authority controlling parts of the West Bank. This split complicates the realization of a unified Palestinian state.

The recognition of statehood is a process that intertwines legal principles with political realities. The case of Palestinian statehood illustrates the complexities involved in achieving international recognition amidst longstanding conflicts and divergent interests. While many states and international bodies recognise Palestine, significant opposition persists, particularly from Israel and its allies. The future of Palestinian statehood remains uncertain, contingent on diplomatic efforts, peace negotiations, and changing geopolitical landscapes. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for navigating the intricate landscape of international relations and the quest for Palestinian sovereignty.

Diplomatic Response of Israel

Israel’s Foreign Minister , Israel Katz as a result has announced the withdrawal of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich with Israel’s mission in Ireland expressing “disappointment”, and said “Israel sees this step as undermining its sovereignty and security and as damaging to our bilateral relations. Foreign Minister Katz has recalled the Ambassador temporarily for consultations”. Katz further announced that they would “ sever the connection between Spain’s representation in Israel and the Palestinians”. 

 In response to Spain’s recognition of a Palestinian state said:

“I have decided to sever the connection between Spain’s representation in Israel and the Palestinians, and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians from the West Bank.” He continued:  If this ignorant, hate-filled individual wants to understand what radical Islam truly seeks, she should study the 700 years of Islamic rule in Al-Andalus—today’s Spain.”

On Norway, Katz said Norway, if your goal was to reward terrorism by declaring support for a Palestinian state, you’ve achieved it”. and directed his remarks to Norway’s Prime Minister when he said “ Hamas thanks you for your service”. Norway’s formal recognition begins on 28 May 2024, alongside statements from other European countries, contributing to the Arab peace plan’s vision of an irreversible move towards a Palestinian state and regional stability.

This comes as today The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the Palestinian city of Rafah — the last major population centre in the Gaza Strip following months of violent conflict.

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Argument: Why the U.S. Should Recognize Palestinian Statehood

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Why the U.S. Should Recognize Palestinian Statehood

Sovereignty would serve america’s interests—and israel’s..

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More on this topic

This week, as several European governments announced their plans to formally recognize the state of Palestine, the United States continued to press against the current. Earlier this month, the United States stood almost alone in its refusal to grant the Palestinian people an equal seat among the community of nations. The United Nations General Assembly approved its support of Palestinian statehood 143 to 9, with 25 nations abstaining. The thunderous applause that followed the vote marked both a celebration of international support for Palestinians and a protest against Israel and the United States.

Yet that vote was mostly symbolic. Full membership must first be approved by the U.N. Security Council, where the United States holds veto power. Back in 2011, the mere threat of an American veto sufficed to kill Palestine’s application for U.N. membership, but this April the Biden administration was obliged to cast the single vote that blocked Palestinian statehood.

America’s official position is that Palestinian statehood should be achieved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. This stance is particularly ironic considering that the United States was the first government to recognize Israel in 1948, despite President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s earlier assurances to Saudi King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud that the United States would not intervene. Today, the Saudis demand that Israel support the two-state solution as a condition for advancing a regional security treaty they see as a means of countering extremism. But in effect, America has outsourced its veto power to Israel’s extremist government, framing statehood as a gift to be granted to Palestinians at the will of their occupier.

As a Palestinian American and an Israeli, working in partnership, we believe that no one—not Israel and not the United States—should be allowed to veto the Palestinian right to self-determination. To do so undermines not only Palestinian rights, but also Israeli and American interests.

The Palestinian interest

The failures of the Oslo Accords , reached in the mid-1990s, and subsequent decades of international neglect have sidelined the so-called Palestinian problem. The massacres and destruction that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023—further escalated with Israel’s onslaught against Gaza—reminded the world that one of its longest-running conflicts will not magically disappear. Now, some 40,000 lay dead, twice as many are physically injured, and more than a million are displaced and on the brink of starvation. With Gaza in ruins, and the war still raging on, those who survive are left with not much more than deep despair and a desire for vengeance.

Statehood provides Palestinians with political agency that is not rooted only in violence. It offers them a path to self-determination with true political agency and dignity. Statehood also opens the door for a new generation of Palestinian leaders to move forward. In 2012, Palestine became a U.N. nonmember observer state, allowing it to later join the International Criminal Court and demand accountability under international law. Full membership in the world’s most important political body is not a panacea, but it would provide Palestinians with diplomatic tools that they currently lack and that could become crucial once negotiations with Israel finally start. More urgently, full statehood resists Israel’s attempts to paint all of Gaza’s remaining public infrastructure and public life as a terrorism threat. This makes statehood an essential vehicle for reaching a sustainable cease-fire, for ending the war, and for administering the physical and political reconstruction of Gaza. This is quite the opposite of the ridiculous attempts to frame statehood as a “reward for terrorism,” as Israeli hard-liners often depict it. Palestinians deserve a path toward a future that is not soaked in blood and empty promises.

And, frankly, so do Israelis.

The Israeli interest

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government have exploited Israelis’ collective trauma and survivors’ guilt. Netanyahu’s efforts to avoid accountability for personal corruption, combined with his administration’s push toward annexation and authoritarianism, have strained a democracy already weakened by more than half a century of military occupation. Despite last year’s widespread protests against the government’s attempts to overhaul the judicial system, most Israelis fail to connect the occupation with the anti-democratic shift, the security failures since Oct. 7, and the rampant racism and social polarization in society. These trends are reinforced by police violence against protesters and the suppression and vilification of speech critical of the war effort, particularly on the part of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Yet calls for recognizing Palestinian statehood are still being sounded both in the streets and online. As Minister of Finance (and extremist settler) Bezalel Smotrich starkly noted in a recent meeting with settler leaders, the growing recognition of Palestinian sovereignty around the world is making Palestinian statehood a “tangible, developing danger.”

But in truth, the greatest danger to Israel is Netanyahu’s ongoing sabotage of Palestinian political aspirations, a policy that strengthens both Israeli and Palestinian extremists, perpetuates war, and destroys the lives and livelihoods of those it pretends to protect. It may be leading the state founded to prevent a second genocide against the Jewish people to perpetrate one against another people. And it is recklessly isolating a small nation from its most loyal international allies, including U.S. President Joe Biden.

The American interest

Recognizing Palestinian statehood is not just another bargaining chip for pleasing the Saudis. It could indeed restore America’s diplomatic leadership and help recalibrate its global influence, leveraging positions against Russia and Iran, and even countering Chinese designs on Taiwan. The ongoing funding of two wars—one in Gaza and the other in Ukraine—is economically unsustainable and politically detrimental. Indeed, Biden’s current strategy toward Israel is alienating his progressive base and provides fodder for his political opponents. In characteristic doublespeak, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticized Biden’s handling of the war from multiple angles, encouraging his followers as they chant “Genocide Joe,” and then blasting Biden for postponing weapons shipments to Israel.

A bold step toward supporting Palestinian statehood could decisively shift the narrative. It would finally present the U.S. president as standing on the right side of history, and it would help him secure more political support domestically and internationally.

Some might insist that now is not the right time for intricate statecraft, as children are starving in Gaza. But at this historic moment, a mere cease-fire is simply not enough. We finally have the diplomatic opportunity, the political leverage, and the moral imperative to support transformative change. Biden risks not just his own reelection but the moral standing of the United States on the global stage. If his reelection bid fails, a reinvigorated Trump presidency would wreak havoc on the international order—including the cause of Palestinians.

Toward two states, and a land for all

If it’s difficult to imagine Israelis and Palestinians having shared interests and acting on them at this fraught moment, our organization can serve as an example. Both of us are board members of A Land for All (ALFA), a Palestinian/Israeli movement dedicated to peace, equality, and mutual self-determination for everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. We advocate creating a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel, with borders based on the 1967 lines. We also believe that many of the long-standing obstacles to a negotiated agreement can be overcome by establishing a two-state confederal union that guarantees freedom of movement and residence for both peoples across our shared homeland.

Achieving this vision will obviously not be easy, but the first step is clear. It is within Biden’s power to propose a new U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing a Palestinian state. If Biden is a true friend of the Israeli and Palestinian people, he must act now. It’s the right thing to do, and it might help save his reelection campaign.

Omar M. Dajani is Carol Olson Professor of International Law at McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific. He previously served as legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with Israel.

Mushon Zer-Aviv is a designer, writer, educator, and activist based in Tel Aviv. He is a senior faculty member at Shenkar College and an alumnus of Eyebeam—art and technology center in New York.

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A Trial Palestinian State Must Begin in Gaza

After a test period of peaceful sovereign rule and recognition by the major powers, statehood could be extended to the West Bank.

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How history led three countries to recognize a Palestinian state

• Deep Read ( 4 Min. )
• By Erika Page Staff writer
• Sophie Hills Staff writer

May 24, 2024 | Madrid and Washington

Israel has grown increasingly isolated on the world stage over its war conduct in Gaza. And this week, pressure mounted.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its offensive in Rafah. That follows the announcement earlier this week by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that he is applying for arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Why We Wrote This

The move by three European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood may not immediately facilitate diplomacy seeking lasting Mideast peace. But the nations maintain that it’s a matter of moral urgency.

And breaking with most Western countries, Ireland, Norway, and Spain announced they will recognize Palestinian statehood next week.

That move is considered premature by the United States and most other European countries. They maintain that lasting peace between Israel and a Palestinian state requires a negotiated agreement first. But the three countries, which are driven by their own histories, are pushing against the diplomatic status quo. And more European countries are expected to follow.

“Now, there is the recognition that there is no peace process, and hope is almost gone,” says Jørgen Jensehaugen, a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. “So we need to try something to revive hope.”

When three European countries formally recognize Palestinian statehood next week, little will change on the ground in Gaza. But for the governments of Ireland, Norway, and Spain, that’s not the point. 

Precisely at a time when peace seems furthest away, the largely symbolic announcement stands as a desperate call to revive the two-state solution seen by most of the international community as paramount to future peace between Israel and a Palestinian state.

The move is considered premature by the United States and most other European countries. They maintain that lasting peace requires a negotiated agreement first. But the move by Ireland, Norway, and Spain − reflecting in part their own cultural and historic sensibilities − is part of growing condemnation of Israel for its war conduct in Gaza, and a matter of what they consider moral urgency.

“It is very likely that the war in Gaza will eventually be seen as one of the darkest episodes of the 21st century,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez this week. “When that moment comes, I want the Spanish people to be able to say with their heads held high that they were on the right side of history.”

Breaking from most Western countries that demand a successful peace process in order to recognize a Palestinian state, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have “turned the logic around,” says Jørgen Jensehaugen, a senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. More European countries are expected to follow. “Now, there is the recognition that there is no peace process, and hope is almost gone,” he says. “So we need to try something to revive hope.”

It’s another blow to Israel, which has grown increasingly isolated on the world stage. On Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to “immediately halt” its offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza. That follows the announcement earlier this week by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor that he is applying for arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. 

Israel responded to the joint announcement by Ireland, Norway, and Spain by recalling its ambassadors from the three countries. Mr. Netanyahu called the move a “reward for terrorism.”

The three countries condemned Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war, and they emphasized the importance of building a Palestinian state with the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, which the U.S., the United Kingdom, and others consider a terrorist organization.

“Recognizing the state of Palestine sends a message that there’s a viable alternative to the nihilism of Hamas. Hamas has nothing to offer but pain and suffering to Israelis and Palestinians alike,” said Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris at a press conference this week.

A reflection of history

Ireland’s position, like that of Spain and Norway, is guided by history. 

Ireland has long underscored its solidarity with independence based on its centurieslong experience of British occupation. That “direct and sustained experience of imperialism” has “undoubtedly shaped” how the Irish people view the Palestinian issue, says Jane Ohlmeyer, professor of modern history at Trinity College Dublin.

Norway has seen itself as an important player in international peace processes, and especially as a mediator of peace between Israel and Palestinians. It hosted the meetings leading up to the 1993 Oslo Accords, a framework that ultimately fell apart. 

Spain, too, has historically built ties with the Arab world, including the Palestinians, dating back to post-World War II. Spain was barred from joining the United Nations because of former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s links to Nazi Germany, says Isaías Barreñada Bajo, professor of international relations at the Complutense University of Madrid, and instead turned to Latin America and the Arab world for diplomatic relations. Spain didn’t establish diplomatic relations with Israel until 1986, after joining the European Economic Community. (Over two dozen countries, primarily Arab nations, have never recognized Israel as a state.)

Today, Spain sees itself as uniquely positioned to play a peacemaking role in the region because of its geographic proximity and ties to both sides, says Dr. Barreñada.

While these three governments have been vocal in their support of Palestinian rights, “they’re also responding to publics who are [calling] for such steps,” says Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Palestinian statehood was supported by 78% of those polled in a recent Spanish survey.

A growing recognition

With the vast majority of military support for Israel coming from the U.S. and Germany, the recognition is unlikely to affect the current course of the war, however. And some worry it could undermine their government’s ability to help broker a long-term peace solution.  

“I would have liked such a sensitive decision to be taken only when there is a consensus built with precision and care” among the biggest global powers most involved in the conflict, says Diego Garrocho Salcedo, professor of moral philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

“All well-intentioned people want a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” he adds. “Disagreement arises in the nuances about how, when, and through which actors we can achieve that.” 

Still, the three acted amid a growing recognition of Palestinian statehood. Earlier this month, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid for U.N. membership, a status that is only open to states. Around the world, 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state already; in Europe, that includes only Sweden and a handful of Eastern European countries.

The three-way announcement this week points to the power these countries see in numbers. It’s unlike Sweden’s unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood in 2014, which had little impact. Slovenia, Belgium, and Malta have indicated they are considering similar announcements. 

“The countries that sign up for this will carry more and more weight collectively,” says Linda Robinson, senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations in Washington. “We’re at a moment of moral crisis. ... People feel they have to be very clear on the morality of how this war is being conducted and what they can and can’t support.”

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Guest Essay

The View Within Israel Turns Bleak

By Megan K. Stack

Ms. Stack is a contributing Opinion writer who has reported from the Middle East.

It was the pictures of Palestinians swimming and sunning at a Gaza beach that rubbed Yehuda Shlezinger, an Israeli journalist, the wrong way. Stylish in round red glasses and a faint scruff of beard, Mr. Shlezinger unloaded his revulsion at the “disturbing” pictures while appearing on Israel’s Channel 12.

“These people there deserve death, a hard death, an agonizing death, and instead we see them enjoying on the beach and having fun,” complained Mr. Shlezinger, the religious affairs correspondent for the widely circulated right-wing Israel Hayom newspaper. “We should have seen a lot more revenge there,” Mr. Shlezinger unrepentantly added. “A lot more rivers of Gazans’ blood.”

It would be nice to think that Mr. Shlezinger is a fringe figure or that Israelis would be shocked by his bloody fantasies. But he’s not, and many wouldn’t be.

Israel has hardened, and the signs of it are in plain view. Dehumanizing language and promises of annihilation from military and political leaders. Polls that found wide support for the policies that have wreaked devastation and starvation in Gaza. Selfies of Israeli soldiers preening proudly in bomb-crushed Palestinian neighborhoods. A crackdown on even mild forms of dissent among Israelis.

The Israeli left — the factions that criticize the occupation of Palestinian lands and favor negotiations and peace instead — is now a withered stump of a once-vigorous movement. In recent years, the attitudes of many Israelis toward the “Palestinian problem” have ranged largely from detached fatigue to the hard-line belief that driving Palestinians off their land and into submission is God’s work.

This bleak ideological landscape emerged slowly and then, on Oct. 7, all at once.

The massacre and kidnappings of that day, predictably, brought a public thirst for revenge. But in truth, by the time Hamas killers rampaged through the kibbutzim — in a bitter twist, home to some of the holdout peaceniks — many Israelis had long since come to regard Palestinians as a threat best locked away. America’s romantic mythology and wishful thinking about Israel encourage a tendency to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the main cause of the ruthlessness in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 35,000 people. The unpopular, scandal-ridden premier makes a convincing ogre in an oversimplified story.

But Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, the creeping famine, the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods — this, polling suggests, is the war the Israeli public wanted. A January survey found that 94 percent of Jewish Israelis said the force being used against Gaza was appropriate or even insufficient. In February, a poll found that most Jewish Israelis opposed food and medicine getting into Gaza. It was not Mr. Netanyahu alone but also his war cabinet members (including Benny Gantz, often invoked as the moderate alternative to Mr. Netanyahu) who unanimously rejected a Hamas deal to free Israeli hostages and, instead, began an assault on the city of Rafah, overflowing with displaced civilians.

“It’s so much easier to put everything on Netanyahu, because then you feel so good about yourself and Netanyahu is the darkness,” said Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist who has documented Israel’s military occupation for decades. “But the darkness is everywhere.”

Like most political evolutions, the toughening of Israel is partly explained by generational change — Israeli children whose earliest memories are woven through with suicide bombings have now matured into adulthood. The rightward creep could be long-lasting because of demographics, with modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews (who disproportionately vote with the right) consistently having more babies than their secular compatriots.

Most crucially, many Israelis emerged from the second intifada with a jaundiced view of negotiations and, more broadly, Palestinians, who were derided as unable to make peace. This logic conveniently erased Israel’s own role in sabotaging the peace process through land seizures and settlement expansion. But something broader had taken hold — a quality that Israelis described to me as a numb, disassociated denial around the entire topic of Palestinians.

“The issues of settlements or relations with Palestinians were off the table for years,” Tamar Hermann told me. “The status quo was OK for Israelis.”

Ms. Hermann, a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, is one of the country’s most respected experts on Israeli public opinion. In recent years, she said, Palestinians hardly caught the attention of Israeli Jews. She and her colleagues periodically made lists of issues and asked respondents to rank them in order of importance. It didn’t matter how many choices the pollsters presented, she said — resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict came in last in almost all measurements.

“It was totally ignored,” she said.

The psychological barrier between Israelis and Palestinians was hardened when Israel built the snaking West Bank barrier, which helped to forestall attacks on Israelis toward the end of the second intifada — the five-year Palestinian uprising that erupted in 2000, killing about 1,000 Israelis and roughly three times as many Palestinians. The wall helped keep West Bank suicide bombers from penetrating Israel and piled extra misery on ever-more-constrained Palestinian civilians, many of whom refer to it as the apartheid wall.

Many Israelis, Ms. Hermann told me, are at a loss when asked to identify the border where Israel ends and the West Bank begins. Her research from 2016 found that only a small percentage of Israelis knew for sure that the Green Line was the border delineated by the 1949 Armistice. The question of whether this border should even be depicted on Israeli school maps has been a heated topic of debate within Israel; with a rueful laugh, Ms. Hermann described many of the classroom maps as “from the river to the sea.”

Such ignorance is a luxury exclusive to Israelis. Palestinians make it their business to know exactly where the border between Israel and the West Bank lies, which checkpoints are open on a given day, which roads they may and may not use. These are not abstract ideas; they dictate the daily movements of Palestinians, and confusing them could be fatal.

Israel’s uneasy detachment turned to rage on Oct. 7.

A handful of songs with lyrics calling for the annihilation of a dehumanized enemy have been circulated in Israel these past months, including “Launch,” a hip-hop glorification of the military promising “from kisses to guns, until Gaza is erased” and suggesting that the West Bank city of Jenin is under the “plague of the firstborn,” a reference to the biblical story in which God smites the eldest sons of Egypt. The smash hit “ Harbu Darbu ,” addressed to “you sons of Amalek,” promises “another X on the rifle, ’cause every dog will get what’s coming to him.”

“There is no forgiveness for swarms of rats,” another song goes . “They will die in their rat holes.”

Israeli shops hawk trendy products like a bumper sticker that reads, “Finish them,” and a pendant cut into the shape of Israel, with East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza seamlessly attached.

Israeli protesters have repeatedly taken to the streets in anguish over the hostages held in Gaza and rage at Mr. Netanyahu (who faced intense domestic opposition long before Oct. 7) for failing to save them. But the demonstrations should not be conflated with international calls to protect civilians in Gaza. Many Israelis want a cease-fire to free the hostages, followed by the ouster of Mr. Netanyahu — but the protests do not reflect a groundswell of sympathy for Palestinians or a popular desire to rethink the status quo ante of occupation and long-silenced peace talks.

If anything, with the world’s attention fixed on Gaza, Israel’s far-right government has intensified the domination of Palestinians. The single largest Israeli land grab in more than 30 years happened in March , when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the state seizure of 10 square kilometers of the West Bank. The land takeovers are accompanied by a bloody campaign of terror , with an ever-less-distinguishable mix of soldiers and settlers killing at least 460 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, the Palestinian health ministry says.

Meanwhile, inside Israel, the police have handed out guns to civilians and set up de facto militias in the name of self-defense. But questions about whom these newly armed groups are meant to defend, and from whom, have created a creeping unease.

The weapons have gone not only to West Bank settlements or towns adjacent to Palestinian territories and Lebanon but also to communities set deep in Israel’s interior, particularly places that are home to a mix of Arab and Jewish residents . An analysis published in January by the newspaper Haaretz found that while the national security ministry wouldn’t disclose which communities got gun licenses or the criteria used to decide, Arab communities — even those on Israel’s frontier — did not seem to be eligible.

The guns sent a chill through Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have often been invoked in defense of the state. Look, Israel’s advocates often say, Arabs live more freely in Israel than anywhere else in the Middle East.

Hassan Jabareen, a prominent Palestinian lawyer who founded Adalah, Israel’s main legal center for Arab rights, told me that many Arab citizens of Israel — who constitute one-fifth of the population — live in fear.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have in the past provoked community protests, riots and clashes among Arabs and Jews in Israel. After Oct. 7, though, the message was clear: Stay quiet.

“The police left no doubt that we were enemies of the state,” Mr. Jabareen said, “when they started arming the Jewish citizens of Israel and called Jewish citizens to come to the station and take your arms to defend yourself from your Palestinian neighbor.”

Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer who lives with her family in the Israeli city of Haifa, told me that these past months have been thick with unease. She has long imagined herself as a living holdover from the once-thriving Arab population that was largely displaced from what is now Israel. A “remnant,” she calls herself, who for years moved through Israel feeling invisible.

Now the sense of invisibility has melted. Both Ms. Buttu and Mr. Jabareen said that the current atmosphere in Israel had drawn closer and sharpened in their minds the mass displacement known in Arabic as the nakba, or catastrophe, as if history might yet loop back. Mr. Netanyahu evoked the same era when he referred to Israel’s current onslaught as “Israel’s second war of independence.”

“They didn’t see us,” Ms. Buttu said. “We were the ghosts; we were just there. And now it’s like, ‘Wow, they’re here.’ There is an interest in trying to get rid of Palestinians. We’re on the rhetorical front lines.”

Long before this current storm of violence, Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right government had worked to strengthen Jewish supremacy. The 2018 “nation-state law” codified the right to national self-determination as “unique to the Jewish people,” removed Arabic as an official language and established “Jewish settlement as a national value” that the government must support. Palestinian members of the Knesset famously shredded copies of the bill in Parliament and yelled, “Apartheid,” but it passed all the same.

In 2022, Israel reauthorized its controversial family unification law, largely barring Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens from receiving legal status — or living with their spouses in Israel — if they are from the West Bank or Gaza. The law also applies to people from the “enemy states” of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq (homes to Palestinian refugee communities), as well as Iran.

With legal disadvantages and social pressures mounting, Palestinian citizens of Israel have started to look abroad for support. Mr. Jabareen told me that his organization is preparing an application to the United Nations to request international legal protections for Palestinians inside Israel. In March a Palestinian citizen of Israel was granted asylum in Britain after arguing that returning would very likely expose him to persecution because of his political views and activism for Palestinian rights and Israel’s “apartheid system of racial control of its Jewish citizens over its Palestinian citizens.”

Another stark sign of Israel’s hardening is the hundreds of Israelis — mostly Arabs, but some Jews, too — who have been arrested, fired or otherwise punished for statements or actions regarded as endangering national security or undermining Israel’s war efforts. Even a social media post expressing concern for Palestinians in Gaza is enough to draw police scrutiny.

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a scholar who lectures at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Queen Mary University of London, said on a podcast that Zionism should be abolished, that Israel may be lying about the extent of sexual assault that took place on Oct. 7 and that Israelis were “criminals” who “cannot kill and not be afraid, so they better be afraid.” Israeli police responded in April by jailing Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian overnight and asking a judge to keep her locked up while they investigated her on suspicion of incitement. The judge decided to release her but acknowledged that she “may have crossed the line from free expression to incitement.”

For nearly two decades — starting with the quieting of the second intifada and ending calamitously on Oct. 7 — Israel was remarkably successful at insulating itself from the violence of the occupation. Rockets fired from Gaza periodically rained down on Israeli cities, but since 2011 , Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has intercepted most of them. The mathematics of death heavily favored Israel: From 2008 until Oct. 7, more than 6,000 Palestinians were killed in what the United Nations calls “the context of occupation and conflict”; during that time, more than 300 Israelis were killed.

Human rights organizations — including Israeli groups — wrote elaborate reports explaining why Israel is an apartheid state. That was embarrassing for Israel, but nothing really came of it. The economy flourished. Once-hostile Arab states showed themselves willing to sign accords with Israel after just a little performative pestering about the Palestinians.

Those years gave Israelis a taste of what may be the Jewish state’s most elusive dream — a world in which there simply did not exist a Palestinian problem.

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project think tank, describes “the level of hubris and arrogance that built up over the years.” Those who warned of the immorality or strategic folly of occupying Palestinian territories “were dismissed,” he said, “like, ‘Just get over it.’”

If U.S. officials understand the state of Israeli politics, it doesn’t show. Biden administration officials keep talking about a Palestinian state. But the land earmarked for a state has been steadily covered in illegal Israeli settlements, and Israel itself has seldom stood so unabashedly opposed to Palestinian sovereignty.

There’s a reason Mr. Netanyahu keeps reminding everyone that he’s spent his career undermining Palestinian statehood: It’s a selling point. Mr. Gantz, who is more popular than Mr. Netanyahu and is often mentioned as a likely successor, is a centrist by Israeli standards — but he, too, has pushed back against international calls for a Palestinian state.

Daniel Levy describes the current divide among major Israeli politicians this way: Some believe in “managing the apartheid in a way that gives Palestinians more freedom — that’s [Yair] Lapid and maybe Gantz on some days,” while hard-liners like Mr. Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir “are really about getting rid of the Palestinians. Eradication. Displacement.”

The carnage and cruelty suffered by Israelis on Oct. 7 should have driven home the futility of sealing themselves off from Palestinians while subjecting them to daily humiliations and violence. As long as Palestinians are trapped under violent military occupation, deprived of basic rights and told that they must accept their lot as inherently lower beings, Israelis will live under the threat of uprisings, reprisals and terrorism. There is no wall thick enough to suppress forever a people who have nothing to lose.

Israelis did not, by and large, take that lesson. Now apathy has been replaced by vengeance.

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Megan K. Stack is a contributing Opinion writer and author. She has been a correspondent in China, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Afghanistan and the U.S.-Mexico border area. Her first book, a narrative account of the post-Sept. 11 wars, was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. @ Megankstack