Abstract
This chapter researches the emerging struggle for return from below, as a practice enriching and subverting diplomatic efforts in the post-Oslo times. Postponing the right of return from peace talks has prompted Palestinian refugees to explore alternative means for return. Groups of internally displaced Palestinians with Israeli citizenship moved to live on their sites of expulsion, challenging the Israeli law that criminalized their action. I will bring their story into a dialogue with the broader narratives of both the Palestinian national liberation movement and the Zionist settler colonial power, to unpack their dynamics of resistance. Interviews with activists showed that living with the ruins and the reproduction of history and memory of an-Nakba from below enabled them to transform their identity from ‘refugees’ to ‘citizens’, invert their vulnerability into resource for resistance, and restore the sense of urgency of an-Nakba history.
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Hammami, F. (2022). Fighting Denial of the Right to the Past: Heritage-Backed Bodily Resistance and Performance of Refugeeism and Return. In: Hammami, F., Uzer, E. (eds) Theorizing Heritage through Non-Violent Resistance. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77708-1_7
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