The Palestine Nakba Decolonising History and Reclaiming Memory

In 2009 Palestinians commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba - the most traumatic catastrophe that ever befell them. The book explores ways of remembering and commemorating the Nakba, dealing with the issue within the context of Palestinian oral history, 'social history from below', narratives of memory and the formation of collective identity. Masalha argues that to write more truthfully about the Nakba is not just to practice a professional historiography but a moral imperative. The struggles of the ordinary refugees to publicise the truth about the Nakba is a vital way of protecting the refugees' rights and keeping the hope for peace with justice alive.With the history, rights and needs of the Palestinian refugees being excluded from recent Middle East peacemaking efforts and with the failure of both the Israeli state and international community to acknowledge the Nakba, '1948' as an 'ethnic cleansing' continues to underpin the Palestine-Israel conflict. This book is vital for a real understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Dr. Nur Masalha is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Holy Land Research Project, St. Mary's College, University of Surrey, UK. He is Editor of Holy Land Studies: A Multidisciplinary Journal, published by Edinburgh University Press.

Introduction * 1. Zionism and European Settler-Colonialism * 2. The Memoricide of the Nakba: Zionist-Hebrew Toponymy and the De-Arabisation of Palestine * 3. Fashioning a European Landscape, Erasure and Amnesia: The Jewish National Fund, Afforestation, and Green-washing the Nakba * 4. Appropriating History: The Looting of Palestinian Records, Archives and Library Collections (1948-2011) * 5. New History, Post-Zionism, the Liberal Coloniser and Hegemonic Narratives: A Critique of the Israeli 'New Historians' * 6. Decolonising History and Narrating the Subaltern: Palestinian Oral History, Indigenous and Gendered Memories * 7. Resisting Memoricide and Reclaiming Memory: The Politics of Nakba Commemoration among Palestinians inside Israel * Epilogue: The Continuity of Trauma