Women and Conflict in the Middle East

Palestinian Refugees and the Response to Violence

Maria Holt

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781780761008
• eBook ISBN: 9780857735966
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

Women in conflict zones face a wide range of violence from a variety of sources: from physical and psychological trauma to political, economic and social disadvantage. Maria Holt uses her research gathered in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon and in the West Bank to look at the forms and effects of violence suffered by women in the context of the wider conflict around them. After the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Palestinian refugees fled over the border into Lebanon, and in the wake of tumult in other host states, such as Jordan, many more sought refuge there. Today more than 400, 000 Palestinians reside in Lebanon, and the theme of violence is one that informs their daily life. Holt explores these varying forms of violence, including physical personal violence and the violence of war as well as the more symbolic violence of the disintegration of daily life and erasure of homeland, furthermore highlighting ongoing exclusion and isolation Palestinians are subjected to by the Lebanese state. Nevertheless, this condition of being - but not belonging - in Lebanon has influenced refugees' perceptions of themselves.
Holt therefore analyses the daily life of Palestinians, recognising the unique community that has emerged in response to exile. In an atmosphere of violence, these refugees find coping mechanisms and appropriate strategies to counter the pressures of conflict. Adherence to religious belief and valued traditional practices, as well as involvement in political and welfare activities and, on occasion, militant activism, are some of the methods employed by women. With its systematic examination of forms of violence as well as an appreciation of daily life in the refugee camps, Women and Conflict in the Middle East makes essential reading for students of the Israel-Palestine conflict as well as those interested in the gender dimension of violence.

Chapter 1

Introduction

The Palestine of Our Imagination

Whether represented as trauma or destiny, the historical domain of violence becomes the basis for the constitution of collective narratives of origin, loss, and recovery, as well as the precondition for any future reconciliation. Rather than being unitary and stable, such narratives are always contested, and constantly are reworked and rewritten in relation to the political experiences and requirements of each successive generation.¹

Yasmine² is 46 years old. Her parents fled from Palestine in 1948 and she was born in the Ain el-Hilwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon. When she got married, she moved to Nahr al-Barid camp near Tripoli in the north and, in 2007, as a result of violence between the Islamist group Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army, she moved to the nearby camp of Baddawi. Her life in Lebanon, she said, has been violent and she has many bad memories, especially of the Israeli invasion in 1982, when she was forced to give up her education, and during the Nahr al-Barid war in 2007, when she lost her house. During the Israeli invasion, she recalled, ‘some people were killed, others died because there was no medical treatment; people were hiding in shelters but the shelters were bombed’; she witnessed people being killed and injured. Similarly, in Nahr al-Barid, ‘I saw the Lebanese army deliberately targeting civilians so that they would leave the camp. We had to abandon our house with nothing, not even our clothes’. Later, her husband was arrested by the army and accused of being associated with Fatah al-Islam. Although Nahr al-Barid was her home, she has no strong sense of belonging there or anywhere else in Lebanon. ‘Home,’ she said, ‘exists only in my imagination.’³

Yasmine's story highlights the three main themes explored in this book. First, it captures the notion of homelessness and the pain of a people driven out of their homes and transformed into stateless ‘refugees’. It is a story of forced and recurring migration, of what Aouragh calls ‘exiled mobility’.⁴ Yasmine's memories reveal a history of violence and helplessness that unites generations of Palestinians in exile, who have a strong sense of being connected to each other through traumatic memories such as these, shared experiences and present miserable living conditions; violence, in other words, acts not only to disempower but also to unify. Second, Yasmine's words illustrate the complex roles of women living in conflict zones; on the one hand, as her story indicates, they are victimized by war but, on the other, they ‘become warriors and resisters’.⁵ She herself has been politically active since she was a young woman in Ain el-Hilwe camp in the south, first with Fateh and later with Hamas. She asserted that many women are active in politics and added that, in her view, political activity decreases the possibility of violence. Despite her perceived lack of safety or belonging, she is engaged in her community as a volunteer with Hamas and a participant in protest marches and non-governmental organization (NGO) awareness sessions for women. The third element is imagination. There is a tension between the need to recreate home, a secure place in which to enact family life, and a notion of home that exists, in Yasmine's words, ‘only in the imagination’. The majority of refugees have an idea of what Palestine looks or looked like and they are aware of the symbolic meanings it possesses. This is a very powerful narrative; although it does not constantly preoccupy them, it is ready to emerge as a compelling discourse, when individuals are invited to reflect.

These three themes will be more fully explored in subsequent chapters, principally through the voices of refugee women, for whom violence and the resisting of violence are part of everyday life. I will explore the effects of violence on Palestinian refugee women in Lebanon and will argue that they rely on several sources of strength to counter the debilitating effects of violence: first, they are supported by the solidarity of the camp and national community; second, they deploy a range of narratives that are ‘always contested, and constantly are reworked and rewritten’;⁶ third, they are reassured by familiar practices that preserve the link with ‘home’; it is ‘the moral value, the traditions and the land’;⁷ and, fourth, and perhaps most importantly, they rely on the comfort of religion as both faith and a form of activism. I will make this argument by analysing women's accounts of violent incidents and the ways in which they have felt disempowered by these events and how they resisted, fought back and survived them. The responses of individual women are informed by a range of factors on the ground, from their own role in the violence, their perceptions of victimization and agency and the consequences of violent episodes. For example, the entire Palestinian nation was victimized in 1948 as the majority was forced from the land, but the effect on individuals and families was uneven and these subtle shifts in reaction emerge from listening to the accounts of those who fled and the inherited memories of their descendants.

I am challenging the notion of an unchanging scenario of Palestinian tragedy by demonstrating that individuals and families react to emergencies in the most immediate and appropriate way. There are also, I think, significant differences between the reactions of men and women and the ways in which they deal with trauma, and one of my objectives is to move the debate on from the familiar linkages between, on the one hand, women as reproducers of the nation and men as protectors of the nation's honour and, on the other, women as subordinated to male heroism. According to Palestinian legend, the woman too can ‘become a heroine by showing great courage and setting an example to other Palestinians on how to behave at [times] of great stress when weaker people may feel defeated and crushed’.⁸ What comes across strongly in the interviews with refugee women is the diversity of response, which is informed both by the ‘collective narratives of origin, loss, and recovery’ and the pressing need to address current problems. Women have demonstrated a broad range of coping mechanisms, from defiance and action to stoicism and, for some, self-pity and despair.

My focus is on violence and its effects on women's subjectivity; I ask how women define ‘violence’, how their definitions may differ from those of men, and what tools they have used to protect themselves from many forms of violence. I will argue that women's means of protection or empowerment are not constant; they change in shape and emphasis and rely sometimes on action and at other times on faith or restraint. Increasingly, from my observations, religious identity is taking a more prominent role and, for some women, has become a method of protest and self-assertion. Above all, like women everywhere, my interlocutors are complex beings, assailed by threats of violence and subjected to insecurity but, at the same time, living multi-layered and nuanced lives. A devotion to the safety and well-being of their family lies at the core of women's concerns. This is an important source of strength and continuity, and also places them within a conventional framework of Arab-Muslim practices. But their lived experiences go far beyond convention. Into her disquieting narrative, Yasmine threaded the symbols of ‘normal’ life: marriage, home-making, protection of children and involvement in the community; and yet, beyond these familiar props lies a world of terrifying uncertainty and the ultimate absence of home, and this is a reality she has had to contend with throughout her life.

Since they are identified as stateless refugees, Palestinians in Lebanon are denied a basic right of security. They will always be subject to the priorities of the host government or army, as Yasmine vividly makes clear, and are therefore never truly ‘safe’. Her narrative emphasizes, above all, the underlying violence of Palestinian life in Lebanon, whether hurt and cruelty are expressed in overt or more subtle ways. From its inception, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict ‘has been shot through with continuous violence’⁹ and the character of the enemy has tended to define the parameters of the struggle; the refusal of Israel to contemplate or recognize Palestinian national claims has led many Palestinians to conclude that violence is the only realistic way forward; the violence perpetrated by Islamist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the occupied Palestinian territory has been perceived by some refugee women as ‘inevitable’.

Palestinians have been described as ‘a bitter and frustrated community’;¹⁰ at the same time, however, they have developed characteristics of extraordinary resilience. Far from bemoaning an unjust fate, they have engaged in vigorous and multi-faceted resistance, which is both project and discourse. It is also a heroic narrative, employing language strongly associated with masculinity, which seems to exclude women. I am arguing that the ‘bitter community’ is also a ‘community of respect’, in which women's contributions are valued. In support of this argument, my project seeks to contribute towards ‘the creation of a new type of material on women’ and is thus ‘the validation of women's experiences’.¹¹ While women are honoured as preservers of national memory and protectors of tradition and are victimized, as stateless refugees in a largely unwelcoming environment and as recipients of more private, unspoken forms of violence they also assume roles through devotion to family and community and a strong commitment to their faith, of ‘warriors and resisters’.

Outside the Interior

Every direct route to the interior, and consequently the interior itself, is either blocked or pre-empted. The most we can hope for is to find margins – normally neglected surfaces and relatively isolated, irregularly placed spots – on which to put ourselves…¹²

Refugee lives are constrained within a tightly woven framework of borders and boundaries, both in perception and reality. Palestinians cannot re-enter their homeland; they are stranded on the wrong side of a border fence, restricted to the narrow alleys of refugee camps. In this unsatisfactory environment, women have developed particular characteristics and, from their narratives, it is possible to glean something of the complexities of their lives. Umm Fawzi, who was six months old when her family left Palestine and has lived in Bourj el-Barajne camp in southern Beirut since 1990, asserted that ‘no matter where we are, we will always be in Palestine’; she added that, although it is important to keep remembering Palestine, she does not like to think back too much: ‘what is in the past is in the past.’¹³ Her ambiguity is typical of many camp women who, although they emphasize their right of return, exhibit a pragmatic attitude towards the present in the sense of ‘making the best of’ their situation; this differs from male narratives of right, justice and the waging of militant struggle. Umm Fawzi's sentiment that ‘no matter where we are, we will always be in Palestine’ echoes Yasmine's sense of not belonging.

When they fled into Lebanon in 1948, Palestinians could never have imagined that they would still be there, almost 65 years later, their situation still unresolved. The experience of the Palestinian refugee community has been one of sustained violence against a whole people. It began with the traumatic displacement and scattering of up to 1 million Palestinians from their homeland to make way for the new state of Israel, continued through years of war and instability in Lebanon, and exists still in terms of lack of individual and collective rights in Lebanon and the exclusion of the refugees from the unresolved Palestinian–Israeli ‘peace process’. As regards a just resolution to the Palestinian–Israeli conflict, Rami Khouri is correct when he asserts that ‘the single most important component of peacemaking always has been and remains today the status of the Palestinian refugees – not how to resettle them or find them jobs, but how to restore to them their full human rights and dignity within the context of their national community as they define that community themselves’.¹⁴ In other words, despite their perception of themselves as a forgotten people and a growing tendency to exclude their right of return from peace negotiations, the refugees occupy a symbolically significant position at the heart of the Arab–Israeli dispute and continue to situate themselves forcefully in terms of ‘the moral value, the traditions and the land’. At the same time, their position is constantly undermined by attempts both to reduce their plight to a humanitarian problem and even to erase their national existence altogether. The theme of ‘experiencing and resisting violence’ lies at the heart of my research; this book explores the historical and contemporary struggles of Palestinians through the lens of women's experiences.

The current status of Palestinian refugees or, as they prefer to be called, aydun (‘those who would return’), inspires a deep sense of pessimism. Yet, it is necessary to look beyond perceptions of hopelessness and to appreciate the unique community that has emerged in response to exile, violence and despair; to consider, in other words, the ‘transition from being in exile to becoming Palestinian once again’¹⁵ and in this book I will explore how the lived experiences of Palestinians in exile, especially women, have shaped their identity in the early twenty-first century, and enable them to become Palestinian again. Although ‘Palestinian-ness’ remains at the centre of the refugees' identity, it is now inextricably intertwined in the reality of Lebanon and the refugees' present lives on the border of their homeland. Often, ‘the concern with boundaries and their transgression reflects not so much corporeal movements of specific groups of people but, rather, a broad concern with the “cultural displacement” of people, things and cultural products’.¹⁶ However, ‘cultural displacement’ has other, unanticipated consequences. In the words of Jean Genet:

Even more than the men […] Palestinian women seemed strong enough to sustain the resistance and accept the changes that came along with a revolution. They had already disobeyed the customs […]. The briefest and most prosaic of their tasks was but a small step in the self-assured journey towards a new, and therefore unknown, order, but which gave them a hint of a cleansing liberation for themselves, and a slowing pride for the men. They were ready to become both the wives and the mothers of heroes…¹⁷

I am interested in understanding how being – but not belonging – in Lebanon has influenced refugees' perceptions of themselves, and how the state of being uprooted has caused the Palestinian community to seek to ‘become heroic’ in order to rid itself of feelings of shame and victimization. How have Palestinian women in particular found an accommodation between their personal suffering and the national narrative of heroism and resistance? What impact has ‘living on the margins’, both in the physical sense and in terms of their relationship with the Lebanese host community, had on the development of identity? I will address the question of ‘identity on the margins’ through the narratives of Palestinian women living in the camps of Lebanon and an appreciation of the project and discourse of resistance. I have attempted in this book to synthesize their highly disparate experiences as a way of drawing conclusions about women as victims and resisters of violence.

Shape and Focus of the Book

The subjects of this book are Palestinian women in Lebanon as symbols of collective suffering and exemplars of female resistance in the face of adversity. Given their environment, women are fighting on two fronts: the domestic front, where they struggl...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Introduction: The Palestine of Our Imagination
• Chapter 2 The Intimate History of Violence
• Chapter 3 ‘Violated Spaces’: Palestinian Women and the Politics of Place
• Chapter 4 ‘She Still Has the Key’: The Multiple Violences of Exile
• Chapter 5 War and ‘Uncivil Violence’ in Lebanon
• Chapter 6 The Politics of Forgetting
• Chapter 7 Conclusion: Counter-narratives of Resistance
• Notes
• Bibliography