The politics of spatialising shared pasts in (post-) colonial and diaspora times
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
This study investigates issues of mutuality in post-colonial heritage, with a specific focus on the Palestinians who returned to Palestine in the temporary period of peace (1993-2000) and those who remained and continue to endure the colonisation. With the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the State of Israel agreed to end the First Intifada (1987-1993), or “Uprising” against the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948. The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established as the legitimate government of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), constituting the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Around 100,000 Palestinians, who had been living in the diaspora since being ‘ethnically cleansed’ (Pappé 2006) during the Israeli occupations in 1948 and 1967, were allowed by the Israeli government to return to the OPT (MPC 2013, p.1). Some came only as temporary visitors, travelling under the passports of their new nationalities, but many came to stay. They returned to what they still remembered as their homeland to search for their roots, history and identity, and to contribute to the restoration of Palestine. During their exile, they had sustained their identity through the memories of what they had lost.
Upon their arrival, the returnees were confronted by significant socio-spatial changes as well as the large scale of destruction in the OPT. Those who had remained in Palestine, and had suffering internal displacement or had held on to their original homes despite the occupations, called themselves the samedeen, or “the steadfast”, and had their own experiences and memories.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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