Before 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth... Show moreBefore 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth century, Palestinian music evolved as a reflection of the social, cultural, and political evolution of Palestinians. Palestinian music-making evolved exponentially resulting in the expansion of various folk tunes into shaʿbī songs, the creation of the Palestinian qaṣīda song genre, new compositions of instrumental music for traditional and Western music formations, the establishment of choirs and children music programing, and active engagement in composing in the styles of the dominant Egyptian genres of the time as well as muwashshaḥāt.In 1948, the vast majority of Palestinians were displaced, and musicians found themselves at the frontier of implementing new political and cultural visions in the countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Therefore, the continuation of the musical narrative in the West Bank did not seem attainable. By the early 1950s, Palestinian musicians and intellectuals developed a vocabulary that reflected the topography, scenery, culture, dialects, and history of al-Mashriq, one that is independent of Egypt’s. Their input, intuition, experience, and convictions of various Palestinian musicians helped to make the music scene in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan what they are today. Show less
A number of elements contributes to the absence of a centralized internet governance and coherent strategy for national cyber security across the Palestinian territory. With Israel in full control... Show moreA number of elements contributes to the absence of a centralized internet governance and coherent strategy for national cyber security across the Palestinian territory. With Israel in full control of network infrastructures, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Hamas administration retain limited sovereign functions with regards to cyberspace. Furthermore, the Palestinian governance of cyber security unavoidably echoes those territorial and political fractures that set apart the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank from Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem as well as from the Hamas administration in Gaza. These divergences are strikingly revealed in their dissimilar ways to engage with Israel: whereas the PA’s approach takes the connotations of a cyber security cooperation, Hamas extensively recurs to its cyber-wings to launch attacks aimed at breaking the Israeli cyber-blockade. As a peculiar case of fragmented governance and limited sovereignty, Palestine provides a unique perspective to situate the concept of cyber sovereignty outside its traditional authoritarian narratives and to reveal its emancipatory potential. Show less
This chapter explores how algorithms produce aesthetic forms and dystopian configurations across Palestinian cyber and digital spaces. Through surveillance and erasure, algorithms operate as... Show moreThis chapter explores how algorithms produce aesthetic forms and dystopian configurations across Palestinian cyber and digital spaces. Through surveillance and erasure, algorithms operate as infrastructures of (in)visibility on social media, digital maps, navigation apps, and augmented reality video-games. On the one hand, they serve the Israeli system of control by making Palestinian users and contents hyper-visible to surveillance. On the other, by imposing (self-)censorship and erasure from digital representations, they ultimately purport to delete Palestine from cyber spaces. Acting at the threshold of the (in)visible, algorithms do not only enact control and surveillance, but they also inform the creation of an aesthetics of disappearance. In this light, this chapter problematizes the normative assumption equating invisibility – in the form of masking or disconnection – to freedom and emancipation by introducing the concept of aesthetics by algorithms as new canon and form of ordering of the colonial space. Show less
Cybersecurity strategies operate on the normative assumption that national cyberspace mirrors a country’s territorial sovereignty. Its protection commonly entails practices of bordering through... Show moreCybersecurity strategies operate on the normative assumption that national cyberspace mirrors a country’s territorial sovereignty. Its protection commonly entails practices of bordering through infrastructural control and service delivery, as well as the policing of data circulation and user mobility. In a context characterized by profound territorial fragmentation, such as the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),1 equating national cyberspace with national territory proves to be reductive. This article explores how different cybersecurity strategies – implemented by the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas – intersect and produce a cyberspace characterized by territorial annexation, occupation, and blockade. Drawing on this analysis, it then employs the conceptual prism of (de-)–(re-) territorialization to reflect on how these strategies, as well as those of Palestinian hackers, articulate territoriality beyond the normativity of national cyberspace. Show less
Augmented reality enables video game experiences that are increasingly immersive. For its focus on walking and exploration, Niantic’s location-based video game Pokémon Go (PG) has been praised for... Show moreAugmented reality enables video game experiences that are increasingly immersive. For its focus on walking and exploration, Niantic’s location-based video game Pokémon Go (PG) has been praised for allowing players to foster their understanding and relationship to surrounding spaces. However, in contexts where space and movement are objects of confl icting narratives and restrictive policies on mobility, playing relies on the creation of partial imaginaries and limits to the exploratory experience. Departing from avant-garde conceptualizations of walking, this article explores the imaginary that PG creates in occupied East Jerusalem. Based on observations collected in various gaming sessions along the Green Line, it analyzes how PG’s virtual representation of Jerusalem legitimizes a status quo of separation and segregation. In so doing, this article argues that, instead of enabling an experience of augmented reality for its users, playing PG in East Jerusalem produces a diminished one. Show less
The aim of this study was to deliver the first ever monographic study on the family of royal converts from Adiabene in the broader perspective of the material and political environment of... Show moreThe aim of this study was to deliver the first ever monographic study on the family of royal converts from Adiabene in the broader perspective of the material and political environment of Hellenistic and Parthian Adiabene. To achieve this goal, it was necessary to collect, arrange and discuss all available sources on the topic. Our discussion of sources has been arranged into three parts. The aim of part 1 (chapters 1-5) was to read Ant. 20:17-96, the most comprehensive account on the Adiabene royalty in ancient literature, as a consciously planned literary product. The aim of part 2 (chapters 6-7) was to analyse the sources that convey the picture of the Adiabene dynasty as good royalty for the Jewish people. The aim of part 3 (chapters 8-13) was to gain insight into the material and political environment of Adiabene from the 3rd c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE, and this has been achieved through collecting, arranging and discussing a number of available sources: geographical and ethnographical texts, archaeological data, numismatic, epigraphic, and onomastic evidence. Show less
On 30 December 1846 Samuel Gobat (1799-1879) arrived in Jerusalem. This was the start of almost thirty-five years in office as bishop of the Protestant bishopric in Jerusalem. Throughout his... Show moreOn 30 December 1846 Samuel Gobat (1799-1879) arrived in Jerusalem. This was the start of almost thirty-five years in office as bishop of the Protestant bishopric in Jerusalem. Throughout his episcopate Gobat closely cooperated with the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who were on the same wavelength in their missionary activities and objective: the evangelization of Christians from other churches. Gobat and the CMS missionaries had a shared background in the intercontinental Evangelical movement. Evangelicalism strongly influenced their missionary work, expectations and the way they perceived the other churches. Their writings contain many manifestations of their Evangelical principles regarding their work in the mission field and reflect a strong rivalry with the other denominations. Their accounts are interspersed with criticism of the other churches in Palestine. This constant censuring of the other churches and the efforts to make converts among their members resulted in conflicts ranging from small wrangles to terrible riots. The missionaries__ Evangelicalism and the rivalry they felt were inextricably bound up with each other. This book concentrates on both the influence of the Evangelical principles on the missionary efforts of Gobat and the CMS missionaries, and the competition they experienced with the other churches. Show less
The spatial and social fragmentation of the Palestinian territories has not only weakened judicial and police systems, but also undermined classical conflict resolution mechanisms based on kinship... Show moreThe spatial and social fragmentation of the Palestinian territories has not only weakened judicial and police systems, but also undermined classical conflict resolution mechanisms based on kinship and other forms of social proximity. In this context, new religious mediators are gaining ground. The author shows that by appealing to “Islamic values” as the only remaining connecting principle, these new legal actors have played a key role in preventing the disintegration of now isolated communities. Show less
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was the recipient of the Prince Claus Fund Principal Award for 2004. The ISIM, in cooperation with the Prince Claus Fund, Bak, and the NCDO, organized a poetry... Show morePalestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish was the recipient of the Prince Claus Fund Principal Award for 2004. The ISIM, in cooperation with the Prince Claus Fund, Bak, and the NCDO, organized a poetry reading in Amsterdam at 29 November 2004. Indian economist Ashwani Saith introduced Darwish and pondered on the meaning of his poetry to migrants and people everywhere. Show less
The imposition of often extreme restrictions and the daily use of violence have severely affected Palestinian society. Numerous curfews and roadblocks prevent people from visiting relatives and... Show moreThe imposition of often extreme restrictions and the daily use of violence have severely affected Palestinian society. Numerous curfews and roadblocks prevent people from visiting relatives and friends, and from travelling for work or education. As a result of the 'real' disruption of their lives, an increasing number of Palestinians compensate their loss of freedom by 'virtual' mobility on the Internet. In doing so, they reconstruct the notion of a transnational Palestinian community and identity. Show less
Palestinian national identity arose during the period of British rule (1917-1948). The Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses) festival - mawsim al-Nabi Musa - provides us with an example of how a religious... Show morePalestinian national identity arose during the period of British rule (1917-1948). The Nabi Musa (Prophet Moses) festival - mawsim al-Nabi Musa - provides us with an example of how a religious ritual celebrated within a colonial context shaped nationalist ideas. Rituals, such as festivals and pilgrimages serve as arenas for the interaction of various social groups, each of which possesses its own agendas and discourses on questions of order in society. In British-ruled Palestine, powerful social groups such as the Palestinian political leaders and the British colonial authorities used the Nabi Musa festival to promote a conservative version of Palestinian nationalism, one which remained anti-Zionist but which avoided expressing popular discontent regarding British occupation. Show less
Instead of focusing on the details of the current crisis in Palestine, it is important to think broadly about the global implications of this problem. The main observation made in the following is... Show moreInstead of focusing on the details of the current crisis in Palestine, it is important to think broadly about the global implications of this problem. The main observation made in the following is that the Palestinian crisis exposes the deficiencies of the modern international order and the limits of modernity at large. The implications of such an observation reach far beyond Palestine to include almost all the communities that do not neatly meet modernity's requisites. Show less
The latest Intifada has once again brought to the fore all the national themes of resistance inherited from the first Intifada. The same songs, the same poems and the same symbols are used. The... Show moreThe latest Intifada has once again brought to the fore all the national themes of resistance inherited from the first Intifada. The same songs, the same poems and the same symbols are used. The Palestinian television constantly mingles images of the first Intifada with those of the present uprising. Unlike the first Intifada, however, there is no massive commitment on behalf of the youth to the cause of the Intifada Al Aqsa. The following is concerned with how the attitude of the young Palestinians towards the national struggle has evolved, which could explain the difference in their level of commitment to the two uprisings. Show less
