Reclaiming Home: Property and Ownership in Narratives of Return Visits to Palestinian Urban Houses

Expropriation and Population Policies in the Twentieth Century
By Danna Piroyansky
English

This article examines Palestinian discourse on property and ownership in its Israeli-Palestinian context. It deconstructs and reconstructs this discourse in the cultural sense by analyzing Palestinian autobiographical narratives of return visits to urban homes. Set in two historical moments (post-1967 and the 1990s) in which Palestinians made return visits to their former homes, neighborhoods and cities became widespread, this article is centered on three thematic sections. The first deals with rhetorical and symbolic practices articulating Palestinian ownership vis-à-vis the present Israeli-Jewish owners, emphasizing the role of Palestinian return visitors in the act of reclamation. The second section examines the encounter between “diachronic neighbors” and the chain of dispossession that has been in operation in the broader Jewish-Palestinian context, focusing on the relationship between past and present occupants. Finally, the third section elaborates on the idea of the Palestinian-turned-Israeli home as palimpsest, exposing various layers of past and present occupation and ownership and placing the house itself in the focus. This section is followed by a discussion of the overall effect of this ownership and property discourse on Palestinian identity-making in its individual, communal, and national senses, highlighting its significance in any future resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

KEYWORDS

  • Palestine
  • Israel
  • 20th century
  • return
  • property
  • dispossession
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