PLUNDERING PALESTINE - Jerusalem Quarterly

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Postcript: The Wall in the Great Outdoors Urging its readers to leave the urban hubs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and “get acquainted with Israel’s quieter and more obscure side,” Time Out’s October 2007 issue offers “ten glorious and little-known havens in the Israeli countryside.” After reviewing havens for a range of tastes – from “the pedaling tourist” to “the beach bum” to “the flower child” – the ninth recommendation is for “the activist”. Perhaps acute readers can guess where Time Out is heading – yes, it’s “a tour of the separation fence,” recommending a drive up Highway 6 as “the best road to see a significant stretch of the fence.” This is indeed – on the Israeli side only – likely the most visually pleasant part of the Wall, in that it has been painted and decorated to remove its more unsightly features. While Time Out acknowledges that that the “aesthetic value of the wall” is in doubt in its more towering manifestation at the northern entrance to Jerusalem, the fixture remains a day’s outing for the adventurous tourist, rather than a lifetime sentence for those who live behind it. With this issue, Time Out Jerusalem seems to have exhausted itself. In 2008, the eager shopper and excursionist must make do with Time Out Israel. Penny Johnson is Associate Editor of the Jerusalem Quarterly. Endnotes 1 Rebecca Stein, “First Contact and Other Israeli Fictions: Tourism, Globalization and the Middle East Peace Process,” in eds. Rebecca Stein and Ted Swedenburg, Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture (Durham and London: Duke University Press) 227. 2 www.timeout.com. The site asks for “Comments on Guides” but to date a query sent by the author on 19 July, 2007 expressing concern over Time Out Jerusalem’s lack of coverage of Palestinian cultural sites and events has not received a reply. 3 See Daniel Jacobs, Israel and the Palestinian Territories (London: The Rough Guides, 1998) 305- 308. Jerusalem Quarterly 33 [ 79 ]
‘I Come From There and Remember’ A Coming Photography Exhibit Commemorating the Nakba Gina Benevento, with Issam Nassar Photos courtesy of UNRWA. It’s a cold and wet Jerusalem winter afternoon and already my desk is awash in requests for photographs. As chief of public information for UNRWA, the UN agency that has provided humanitarian and development services to Palestine refugees since 1950, my office is the port of call for anyone tracking down photographs of Palestine refugees. And while 15 May, 2008, the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba, is still months away, there seems no end to the appetite for images of the 1948 refugee exodus. This morning, requests from two European newspapers; yesterday requests from an American NGO and al-Jazeera. Looking over the photographs that Amani Shaltout, our dedicated archivist, sends out in response, my eyes linger on the faces. What happened to the old man being helped aboard a departing boat? Where is the young woman staring out at us from the back of a Haganah truck? There is almost a uniformity to these images. The faces inevitably express fear, confusion, sadness. The bodies are in flight – walking, running, being carried – helped by trucks and boats. And there are always tents – single tents, then rows, opening up to reveal fields of tents as far as the camera and eye can see. But one photograph makes me stop. It is a photograph of two young girls pushing carts stuffed with bedding. I’ve seen the frightened, sad faces before. But it is what is behind the young girls that stops me: two large stone buildings, built in a popular early twentieth century European style. Palestinian refugee iconography (refugee iconography in general) focuses on that which is temporal – tents, trucks, boats, mattresses slung over shoulders – all symbols of dispersion. But [ 80 ] REVIEWS ‘I Come From There and Remember’
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PLUNDERING PALESTINE Ownerless Obje
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Table of Contents EDITORIAL Why Are
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course of the Wall. “It’s all o
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law applied in the West Bank and th
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later resold to Arab schools. Some
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war and exile in Egypt, where Sakak
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the collection project had begun -
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Two other things seem worthy of men
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The National Library and Orientalis
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The Owners of the Objects Following
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19 I recently had the opportunity t
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the cultural heritage of the region
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as commodities, consumer demand and
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as a springboard, and in consultati
Page 29 and 30: for the fifth draft on Palestinian
Page 31 and 32: Chapter 4 Section 20 Presumption of
Page 33 and 34: Later in the draft under Section IV
Page 35 and 36: The archives of the IAA also contai
Page 37 and 38: In interviews conducted as part of
Page 39 and 40: 19 Garstang, “Eighteen Months Wor
Page 41 and 42: and thereby devising a comprehensiv
Page 43 and 44: tomb robbing from foreign archaeolo
Page 45 and 46: Impact of the western separation wa
Page 47 and 48: ministry appeared willing to accept
Page 49 and 50: Khalat al-Qadat The most interestin
Page 51 and 52: The excavation had uncovered what a
Page 53 and 54: That may be true, but conditions in
Page 55 and 56: epatriating antiquities are still e
Page 57 and 58: Reparation for Lost Palestinian Pro
Page 59 and 60: ights of Palestinian land owners st
Page 61 and 62: it sought to shield itself from lia
Page 63 and 64: Annex 7 included details concerning
Page 65 and 66: Endnotes 1 United Nations General A
Page 67 and 68: There are more revelations in Pappe
Page 69 and 70: The most prominent of these was Ord
Page 71 and 72: Jewishness-Judaism has many faces a
Page 73 and 74: a truly commercial run of the volum
Page 75 and 76: Kletter does one thing that is virt
Page 77 and 78: ‘Time Out’ in Jerusalem Penny J
Page 79: Counting Game: Israel In, Palestine
Page 83 and 84: these buildings are permanent - hom
Page 85 and 86: Poverty in Jerusalem is growing at
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PLUNDERING PALESTINE - Jerusalem Quarterly

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