53
needs a new foreign policy perception that will address the
security challenges via cooperation with the region and the
international community and through the promotion of the
peace process with the Palestinians.”
49
The variety of topics, issues and research areas in which
the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel can make a unique
contribution is broad. This potential has yet to be realized,
but the above examples attest to the unique nature of the
Palestinians and their important contribution to different fields
of knowledge. The list of 100 professors
50
who signed a joint
letter against violence within Arab society is a testament to
the skills, achievements and genuine contribution that could
be elicited from the involvement of Arab-Palestinians in key
processes that until now have excluded them.
The Palestinians in Israel: The discourse
among ordinary people
In the introduction to his latest book
Nakba and Remaining –
Stories of PalestiniansWho Remained in Haifa and the Galilee
,
1948-1956, published in Arabic in Beirut in April 2016,
51
the
Israeli Arab historian Adel Manna writes: “In my childhood I
heard the story of what happened in 1948, first frommy father
and then from my mother and relatives.” Manna has chosen
to tell his personal story as background for the dramatic
historical events that occurred during that period. According
to him, the 1948-1956 period was a transformative time in
the history of the Palestinians, especially the Palestinians in
Israel – the subject of the book. The use of personal narrative
and oral history as central sources, in addition to secondary
and literary sources on the subject of the research makes
it possible to see new angles that have hitherto remained
unknown: the documentation of the personal experience of
the Palestinian villagers that until now has not found proper
expression in the discourse of the elites. This is the unique
contribution made by oral history to the research. Manna
relates to the complex nature involved in writing history in
the absence of resources – whether they are missing or are
inaccessible to researchers because the state and the military
have not yet released them for publication. He engages in
an in-depth discussion of oral history as a major tool for
collecting data (stories) from the people who experienced
the events during the period in question, and discusses
the difficulties involved in interviewing these people. In his
book, Manna positions the historiography of the elites as
opposed to the historiography of the rural population, who
survived the war and adapted to the new reality in 1948. In
doing so, he contributes to the historical discourse from a
49
_
of_the_Mitvim_Institute_-_2.pdf
50 This is a list that includes the names and place of employment
of 100 Arab-Israeli professors in Israel and abroad. They signed
a letter against the violence that is tearing Arab society apart and
undermines stability, causing a sense of insecurity in the Arabs
towns in Israel.
51 Adel Manna, Nakba and Rurvival – Stories of Palestinians Who
Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956, Beirut, 2016.
new, personal, rural perspective (most Israeli Arabs belong
to the rural population), and then later bases his analysis on
key events experienced by the rural population that were
part of their civil and regional experience and as citizens
of the world.
Manna also presents an in-depth analysis of the policy of
the Israeli establishment in the years 1948-1956 towards
the Arab-Palestinians who remained – albaqin – as he terms
Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel who survived the 1948 war
and remained in Israel. He describes the circumstances
that caused them to remain, which created a new status
for the Arab-Palestinians in Israel as a result of the policy
to refrain from deportation taken by the young state toward
villages in the Galilee. This policy resulted in good relations
between the village representatives and officials in the Israeli
government. Nevertheless, these “good relations” were
based on unbalanced power relations between the Israeli
establishment and the local Arab leadership, and left little
choice by the representatives of the Arab villages, whose
close relations with the establishment led to an ambivalent
attitude towards them on the part of the rural population.
The oral history sheds new light on these aspects of the
reality of Palestinian life in Israel after 1948 as a factor that
shaped this population too.
Writing of this type adds important value to Palestinian
historiography as a whole, and in particular the writings
of Arab Israeli historians, who bring their own story and
unique perspective on their national and civic identity and
status. The development of Palestinian historiography in
Israel is an important challenge that is highly impactful and
can contribute to deeper understandings of both Israel and
the Palestinians in Israel. The terminology that the author
uses – “remaining” and “refraining from deportation” – are
new concepts that are evidence of a new reading of the
circumstances involving the creation of the Palestinians’
status in Israel. Manna’s book will likely be just the first in a
long series of studies to be published in the coming years on
the story of the Palestinians in Israel and the circumstances
of their remaining in Israel, and in particular in each individual
town or village.
The unique nature of the Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel as a separate group within
the Palestinian People
Mustafa Kabha, an Israeli Arab-Palestinian historian, has
in recent years brought new research issues about the
Palestinians, especially Palestinians in Israel, to the surface.
For example, he studied the fate of the books collected
from Palestinian homes in Israel after the establishment of
the state and stored in the main library in Jaffa, and the fate
of Palestinian prisoners captured by Israel after 1948 and
more. In his newest book,
The Palestinians – A Nation and
Its Diaspora
, Kabha discusses the unique circumstances
that created the Arab- Palestinian minority in Israel, against
the background of a historical, social and political process
