Global Conflict, Local Politics. The Jews of Salonica and WW1

Studia Orientalia Monographica, Volume 6. Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 2016.

The monograph From Ambivalence to Hostility focuses on writings on Zionism published in the Arabic newspaper Filasṭīn (ʻPalestineʼ) in the pre-WWI period (1911–1914). It covers a broad range of subjects treated by the periodical including Jewish land purchases in and immigration to Palestine, violent incidents between the Jewish and the Arab communities, Zionist boycott and Zionist Congresses. The second chapter of the book offers a detailed analysis of the gradual yet profound transformation of Filasṭīnʼs editorial policy vis-à-vis Zionism before World War I.

This special issue of settler colonial studies emerges out of a March 2011 conference on settler colonialism in Palestine organised by the Palestine Society and the London Middle East Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies. It is our hope that this issue will catalyse creative, collaborative work that puts the settler colonial framework firmly on the agenda of Palestine studies. The need for such engagement arises from our recognition that while Zionism and the Palestinians are gradually being included in the growing body of scholarly works on comparative settler colonialism, the analytical framework that comparative settler colonialism offers has yet to enter the field of Palestine studies

There are several reasons why scholars, writers, and readers have approached the history of Jerusalem. The different narratives available not only represent different styles, methodological approaches and focus; narratives are often, and foremost, the expression of different political and religious visions. These narratives have often been employed to make claims which served the purpose of those who wished to control the city and its meanings. In this context, Jerusalem has become an ‘imagined community’: in Andersonian terms, the city is imagined as there are many groups whose members do not necessarily know each other, but share strong feelings towards Jerusalem.2 The city is also imagined as a community, irrespective of its manifest divisions, as it is conceived more as an ideal, where religious myths have been turned into collective memories, transmitted as history. Issam Nassar has noted how these narratives are in constant competition, as they connect the city with those groups who share the same history, thereby de facto isolating the history of different communities from the overall history of the city.3 Is it then possible to write about Jerusalem without falling into these traps? Is it possible to avoid being subservient to a cause or a claim?

International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2005

The Beilis affair is one of many examples showing the dangerous consequences of fanaticism coupled with hatred and ignorance in conjunction with political interests and manipulation by the media. It also shows how fragile and insecure the position of minorities can become, especially at times of radical social, economic, and political changes like those taking place in Russia after the 1905 Revolution. On the other hand, the coverage of the trial and its context by Filastin is also a demonstration of the strong character of its editors and especially its editor-in-chief. Despite his openly anti-Zionist stance, Yusuf al-‘Isa unfalteringly defended Judaism, the Jewish community, and Beilis as an individual against the accusation of blood libel and unequivocally condemned what he called “the disgrace of the twentieth century.”

PRINCETON AND OXFORD First published in Germany under the title G eschichte F ald stin as: Von der o sm anisch en E ro b eru n g bis zu r G rU ndung des S taa te s Israel © Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, Miinchen 2002 English translation

Soccer threads itself as a red line through the 20th century history of the Middle East and North Africa as independence populated the region with nation-states. Soccer was important to the leaders struggling for independence as a means to stake claims, develop national identity and fuel anti-colonial sentiment. For its rulers soccer was a tool they could harness to shape their nations in their own mould; for its citizenry it was both a popular form of entertainment and a platform for opposition and resistance. The sport offers a unique arena for social and political differentiation and the projection of transnational, national, ethnic, sectarian, local, generational and gender identities sparking a long list of literature that dates back more than a century. The sport also constitutes a carnivalesque event that lends itself to provocation of and confrontation with authority — local, national or colonial.