The Forgotten Palestinians by Ilan Pappe

Author:Ilan Pappe
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300134414
Publisher: Yale University Press

THE ISLAMIC MOMENT

In both areas of historical Palestine the uprising gave impetus to the political Islamic forces on the ground. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Islamic movement in Israel were now powerful political actors. They were part of a wider Middle Eastern phenomenon termed ‘political Islam’ by those who rightly refuse to use the more popular Western reference ‘Islamic fundamentalism’. In general, the term is a scholarly attempt to assess the impact of religion on politics in the Arab world and beyond. It is by no means definitive, and each religious movement needs to be understood in its own context.2

The Islamic movements on both sides of the Green Line had several features in common in the immediate years after the first Intifada. They were very assertive in their position on the political agenda of the day, which was an American attempt to impose a Pax Americana on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The movements were opposed to Americanbrokered peace deals. The close association between the USA and Israel, and its impact on the fate of the Palestinians, was an easy agenda to pursue. But this interest in current politics was only one aspect of political Islam in Israel and the occupied territories.

The introduction of Islamic concepts into the political scene was based on a genuine return to religion and tradition in Israel. The wish to reconnect with past codes of conduct was not limited to the Muslims in the late 1980s but was evident in the Jewish community as well. Religion in Israel proved to be a resilient and adaptive force, rather than the dwindling relic of traditionalism so easily dismissed by the gurus of the modernization theories. By offering a redemptive outlook on life lived in harsh conditions, religion also proved to be an effective response to the pressures of endless uprooting, deprivation and discrimination experienced by the Palestinian minority in Israel. Thus, the political aspect of religious survival was an attractive alternative, not only as a daily way of life but also as a plan that promised change, in a situation where the worst was already experienced.

The religious politics of identity differed from the other groupings in Israel in that they also aspired to be a substitute for nationalism, or at least an improved version of it, but one which would inevitably lead to a more uncompromising confrontation with the ‘Other’. The national Palestinian leadership inside Israel, and even the PLO, had lost some of their hold over their communities. This meant that there was more space and motivation for individual and collective adaptations of more pious modes of behaviour. This was evident both in the countryside and in the poorer section of the urban communities. In the rural areas, traditional concepts and beliefs had been maintained for centuries and could easily be given a more political orientation – especially given the encroachment of the Israeli authorities into the lives of the Palestinians. They were also apparent in the poor neighbourhoods, such as eastern Nazareth, which felt alienated not only by the Jewish side in Israel but also by the socio-economic polarization in their own locality.

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