Abstract
The plight of refugees fleeing from Palestine in 1948 raises several key questions regarding their historical fragmentation as a nation and their future. From a social anthropological point of view, the existing literature seems to tackle the Palestinian case from different perspectives influenced by the mass exodus of Palestinians from their homeland. Such perceptions took for granted the recognition of the state of “refugeeness” of the exiled Palestinians around the globe, while, in reality, it is a mutual interaction between people, place, and time. In the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War at the beginning of the year 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes in Palestine to the nearby Arab countries, among them was Egypt. Some thousands settled in different areas all over Egypt. Based on a preliminary research on the literature, the author can argue that this is the first ethnographic study of the social life of the village of Jaziret Fadel and its Palestinian inhabitants in Egypt. The chapter is about tackling the historical trajectories, genealogies, memories, and present of the inhabitants of this village who seemed to be torn between two nostalgic pasts. The author's emphasis within this chapter is about how the narratives of the past memories could reveal a lot about the present time of the human societies and their future.
TopIntroduction
Jaziret Fadel is a village of Palestinians inhabitants at Al-Sharqiya province of about 5,000 people who have lived in Egypt since 1948. The village is precisely located in Al-Sharqiya province about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Cairo (Figure 1). The village has hosted scattered Palestinian refugees who fled their home village of Beersheba (Byr Sab' / Ba'ar Sab') after the 1948 exodus. There are no official records of the number of inhabitants in the village with the exception of insignificant information in newspaper articles (IRIN News, 2010; Omar, 2013). Moreover, the village was briefly mentioned in a previous ethnographic study about exiled Palestinians in Egypt done by the Palestinian researcher Oroub El-Abed, who very briefly mentioned the village within two pages (page 59 and page 199) under the name Jazirat Abu Fadil that is located 4 kilometers from Abu Kabir in the Sharqiyyah Governorate (El Abed, 2003).
Figure 1.
the village of Jaziret Fadel on Google Maps appears under the name “Ezbet El-Arab”.
Exploring the idea of memory in the context of Jaziret Fadel is not a repetitive act, as the fieldwork revealed new dimensions of memory among the same members of the community. The new opposing dimensions were noticed and observed in two different narratives when certain past memories were brought to the present by the old members of the village. The first moment was when they recalled their original home, Palestine. The second moment was when narrating their memories about their beloved family members who passed away, telling the author about their dead sons and husbands. Strangely enough, the two moments would provoke different responses from the younger generation who would describe the first narrative as being takhareef [1], while acting very respectfully while listening to the stories of the dead members of their families. A question would be: why do they coin the narratives told by their elders about Palestine as being takhareef (absurd talk) and picture the old timers as being insane or going crazy just by remembering these kinds of stories about their old home? At the same time, other narratives that were told by the same old members of their community about their dead sons and husbands would be treated as welcomed stories that ought to be listened to very humbly and respectfully. This paradoxical situation is what this chapter is about, highlighting the way in which the Palestinian inhabitants of Jaziret Fadel would treat their elders’ stories of the past and the different dimensions of memory that emerges all the way through the entire process of memory narration.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Fieldwork: The current chapter fieldwork was done by the author and it depended on participatory observation, oral history testimonies, and field notes. It took place at the village of Jaziret Fadel between March 2015 till August 2015.
Deixis of Memory: Means to point out at a certain case within time and space where the act of pointing itself could create different consequences within memory and remembrance that affect the studied community. With reference to Pierre Nora’s symbolic topology which highlights the powerful character of memory as a constructive agent of human communities that can establish nations and societies. It refers to ‘places of memory’ within the field site to put your finger on “the specific and symbolic sites where memory resides” ( Nora, 1989 ).
Jaziret Fadel: Jaziret Fadel represents the field site of this chapter. It is a village of Palestinians inhabitants at Al-Sharqiya province of about 5,000 people who have lived in Egypt since 1948. The village is precisely located in Al-Sharqiya province about 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Cairo.
Palestinian Refugees: Are defined by the UN agency that was created in December 1949 to support the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees under the name The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East - UNRWA, as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period from 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict” ( UNRWA, 2015a ).