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The Art of Resistance in the Palestinian Struggle Against Israel

Year 2020, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 45 - 80, 30.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.26513/tocd.635076

Abstract

This manuscript aims to assess Palestinian street art’s effectiveness as a resistance tool and political instrument in the struggle waged against Israel. It concludes by employing Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power that Palestinian street art is an effective instrument on account of its ability to instill in Palestinian collective consciousness a sense of resistance. By utilizing Mouffe’s definition of politics as being a constant struggle between hegemonic and counterhegemonic forces, this work also holds that street art serves Palestinians as a means to reaffirm their political existence and develop an alternative political imagination against the Israeli-imposed reality. This manuscript also broaches the oft-discussed issue of visual diversity in Palestinian street art scene and concludes that eclectic content may serve as a contributive force, if the counterhegemonic character of Palestinian street art is adhered to.

References

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  • Alatout, Samer. “Walls As Technologies of Government: The Double Construction of Geographies of Peace and Conflict in Israeli Politics, 2002–Present”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 99, No. 5, (2009): 956-968.
  • Boullata, Kamal. “Art under Siege”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, (2004): 70-84.
  • Boullata, Kamal. “Artists Re-Member Palestine in Beirut”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, (2003): 22-38.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Polity Press: 1991.
  • “Daily life in Gaza – in Pictures”. 8 June 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/jun/08/daily-life-gaza-in-pictures.
  • De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
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  • Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. London: Continuum, 2012.
  • Editorial Board. “Visual Culture and Remembering the Forgotten”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Vol. 61, (2015): 3-5.
  • Gal-Ezer, Miri. “The Third Space? From Modern Art Gallery to Modern Museum in Umm El-Fahem”, Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Dario Miccoli and Tudor Parfitt (eds.), in Memory and Ethnicity: Ethnic Museums in Israel and the Diaspora, New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 121-168.
  • Gould, Rebecca. “The Materiality of Resistance: Israel’s Apartheid Wall in an Age of Globalization”, Social Text 118, Vol. 32, No 1, (2014): 1-22.
  • Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971.
  • Hasson, Nir. “'First Monumental Zionist Work of Art' Uncovered in Jerusalem”, Haaretz, 15 October 2012, https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-reviving-the-first-monumental-zionist-artwork-1.5192847.
  • Jannol, Hannah. “Banksy in the West Bank: Whose Art Is It Anyway?”, 13 July 2018, https://www.jweekly.com/2018/07/13/banksy-in-the-west-bank-whose-art-is-it-anyway/.
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  • Larkin, Craig. “Jerusalem’s Separation Wall and Global Message Board: Graffiti, Murals, and the Art of Sumud”, The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1, Special Issue: Cultures of Resistance, (2014): 134-169.
  • Lovatt, Hugh. “From National Resistance to Global Movement – An Intro to Palestinian Graffiti (PHOTOS)”, 3 March 2015, https://yourmiddleeast.com/2015/03/03/from-national-resistance-to-global-movement-ae-an-intro-to-palestinian-graffiti-photos/.
  • Mac Greigair, Gawan. “Nazareth's Mystery Mural as an Emblem of Palestinian Resistance”, 2 November 2107, https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2017/11/13/nazareths-mystery-mural-as-an-emblem-of-palestinian-resistance.
  • Manor, Dalia. Art in Zion: The Genesis of Modern National Art in Jewish Palestine. London: Routledge, 2005.
  • Masalha, Nur. “Naji al-Ali, Edward Said and Civil Liberation Theology in Palestine”, Holy Land Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, (2012): 109-134.
  • Massad, Joseph. “Permission to Paint: Palestinian Art and the Colonial Encounter”, Art of Journal, Vol. 66, No. 3, (2007): 126-133.
  • Medien, Kathryn. “Palestine in Deleuze”, Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 36, No. 5, (2019): 1-22.
  • Mouffe, Chantal. “Hegemony and Ideology in Gramsci”, Chantal Mouffe (ed.), in Gramsci and Marxist Theory, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, 168-204.
  • Mouffe, Chantal et al. “Every Form of Art Has a Political Dimension”, Grey Room, Vol. 2, (2001): 99-125.
  • Musleh, Maath. “Taking Back Palestine’s Sreets: Exclusive Interview with Underground Jerusalem Graffiti Artist”, 29 August 2012, https://electronicintifada.net/content/taking-back-palestines-streets-exclusive-interview-underground-jerusalem-graffiti-artist.
  • “Palestinians to Netanyahu: You Will Never Break Our Will”, The Jerusalem Post, 11 September 2019, https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Palestinians-to-Netanyahu-You-will-never-break-our-will-601398.
  • Parry, William. Against the Wall: Art of Resistance in Palestine. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010.
  • Perlmutter, David D. “Photojournalism and Foreign Affairs”, Orbis, Vol. 49, No 1, (2005): 109-122.
  • Peteet, Julie. “The Writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada”, Cultural Anthropology, Vol 11, No 2, (1996): 139-159.
  • Saad, Rhonda A. “Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present by Kamal Boullata”, The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1, (2010): 330-333.
  • Said, Ben. “Protest Art: Is Graffiti on the West Bank Wall Losing Its Meaning?”, 4 November 2017, https://www.trtworld.com/mea/protest-art-is-graffiti-on-the-west-bank-wall-losing-its-meaning--11931.
  • Shapiro, Michael J. Methods and Nations: Cultural Governance and the Indigenous Subject. London: Routledge, 2004.
  • Shavit, Ari. “An Interview with Edward Said”, Politics and Culture, Vol. 3, (2000), https://politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/an-interview-with-edward-said-2/.
  • Sternhell, Zeev. Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State. Trans. David Maisel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
  • Toenjes, Ashley. “This Wall Speaks: Graffiti and Transnational Networks in Palestine”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Vol. 61, (2015): 55-68.
  • Tripp, Charles. The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  • Weizman, Eyal. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. London: Verso, 2007.
  • Wiles, Rich. “Palestinian Graffiti: 'Tagging' Resistance”, 26 November 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/palestinian-graffiti-tagging-resistance-2013112015849368961.html.
Year 2020, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 45 - 80, 30.06.2020
https://doi.org/10.26513/tocd.635076

Abstract

References

  • Achar, Gilbert. The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. London: Saqi Books, 2010.
  • Alatout, Samer. “Walls As Technologies of Government: The Double Construction of Geographies of Peace and Conflict in Israeli Politics, 2002–Present”, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 99, No. 5, (2009): 956-968.
  • Boullata, Kamal. “Art under Siege”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, (2004): 70-84.
  • Boullata, Kamal. “Artists Re-Member Palestine in Beirut”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, (2003): 22-38.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Polity Press: 1991.
  • “Daily life in Gaza – in Pictures”. 8 June 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/jun/08/daily-life-gaza-in-pictures.
  • De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
  • Deleuze, Gilles. “Stones”, David Lapoujade (ed.), in Two Regimes of Madness: Texts and Interviews 1975-1995, New York: Semiotext(e), 2007, 338-340.
  • Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix. A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. London: Continuum, 2012.
  • Editorial Board. “Visual Culture and Remembering the Forgotten”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Vol. 61, (2015): 3-5.
  • Gal-Ezer, Miri. “The Third Space? From Modern Art Gallery to Modern Museum in Umm El-Fahem”, Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Dario Miccoli and Tudor Parfitt (eds.), in Memory and Ethnicity: Ethnic Museums in Israel and the Diaspora, New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013, 121-168.
  • Gould, Rebecca. “The Materiality of Resistance: Israel’s Apartheid Wall in an Age of Globalization”, Social Text 118, Vol. 32, No 1, (2014): 1-22.
  • Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. Trans. Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers, 1971.
  • Hasson, Nir. “'First Monumental Zionist Work of Art' Uncovered in Jerusalem”, Haaretz, 15 October 2012, https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-reviving-the-first-monumental-zionist-artwork-1.5192847.
  • Jannol, Hannah. “Banksy in the West Bank: Whose Art Is It Anyway?”, 13 July 2018, https://www.jweekly.com/2018/07/13/banksy-in-the-west-bank-whose-art-is-it-anyway/.
  • Khalili, Laleh. Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The Politics of National Commemoration. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  • Larkin, Craig. “Jerusalem’s Separation Wall and Global Message Board: Graffiti, Murals, and the Art of Sumud”, The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1, Special Issue: Cultures of Resistance, (2014): 134-169.
  • Lovatt, Hugh. “From National Resistance to Global Movement – An Intro to Palestinian Graffiti (PHOTOS)”, 3 March 2015, https://yourmiddleeast.com/2015/03/03/from-national-resistance-to-global-movement-ae-an-intro-to-palestinian-graffiti-photos/.
  • Mac Greigair, Gawan. “Nazareth's Mystery Mural as an Emblem of Palestinian Resistance”, 2 November 2107, https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2017/11/13/nazareths-mystery-mural-as-an-emblem-of-palestinian-resistance.
  • Manor, Dalia. Art in Zion: The Genesis of Modern National Art in Jewish Palestine. London: Routledge, 2005.
  • Masalha, Nur. “Naji al-Ali, Edward Said and Civil Liberation Theology in Palestine”, Holy Land Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2, (2012): 109-134.
  • Massad, Joseph. “Permission to Paint: Palestinian Art and the Colonial Encounter”, Art of Journal, Vol. 66, No. 3, (2007): 126-133.
  • Medien, Kathryn. “Palestine in Deleuze”, Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 36, No. 5, (2019): 1-22.
  • Mouffe, Chantal. “Hegemony and Ideology in Gramsci”, Chantal Mouffe (ed.), in Gramsci and Marxist Theory, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, 168-204.
  • Mouffe, Chantal et al. “Every Form of Art Has a Political Dimension”, Grey Room, Vol. 2, (2001): 99-125.
  • Musleh, Maath. “Taking Back Palestine’s Sreets: Exclusive Interview with Underground Jerusalem Graffiti Artist”, 29 August 2012, https://electronicintifada.net/content/taking-back-palestines-streets-exclusive-interview-underground-jerusalem-graffiti-artist.
  • “Palestinians to Netanyahu: You Will Never Break Our Will”, The Jerusalem Post, 11 September 2019, https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Palestinians-to-Netanyahu-You-will-never-break-our-will-601398.
  • Parry, William. Against the Wall: Art of Resistance in Palestine. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2010.
  • Perlmutter, David D. “Photojournalism and Foreign Affairs”, Orbis, Vol. 49, No 1, (2005): 109-122.
  • Peteet, Julie. “The Writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada”, Cultural Anthropology, Vol 11, No 2, (1996): 139-159.
  • Saad, Rhonda A. “Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present by Kamal Boullata”, The Arab Studies Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1, (2010): 330-333.
  • Said, Ben. “Protest Art: Is Graffiti on the West Bank Wall Losing Its Meaning?”, 4 November 2017, https://www.trtworld.com/mea/protest-art-is-graffiti-on-the-west-bank-wall-losing-its-meaning--11931.
  • Shapiro, Michael J. Methods and Nations: Cultural Governance and the Indigenous Subject. London: Routledge, 2004.
  • Shavit, Ari. “An Interview with Edward Said”, Politics and Culture, Vol. 3, (2000), https://politicsandculture.org/2010/08/10/an-interview-with-edward-said-2/.
  • Sternhell, Zeev. Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State. Trans. David Maisel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
  • Toenjes, Ashley. “This Wall Speaks: Graffiti and Transnational Networks in Palestine”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Vol. 61, (2015): 55-68.
  • Tripp, Charles. The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  • Weizman, Eyal. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. London: Verso, 2007.
  • Wiles, Rich. “Palestinian Graffiti: 'Tagging' Resistance”, 26 November 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/11/palestinian-graffiti-tagging-resistance-2013112015849368961.html.
There are 39 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Makaleler
Authors

Eray Alım 0000-0001-7543-8021

Publication Date June 30, 2020
Acceptance Date April 1, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Volume: 7 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Alım, E. (2020). The Art of Resistance in the Palestinian Struggle Against Israel. Türkiye Ortadoğu Çalışmaları Dergisi, 7(1), 45-80. https://doi.org/10.26513/tocd.635076

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