Joel Beinin, “Mixing, Separation, and Violence in Urban Spaces and the Rural Frontier in Palestine.” Arab Studies Journal Vol. XXI No. 1 (Spring 2013).
Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this article?
Joel Beinin (JB): It grew out of a conference on late Ottoman Palestine at the University of Lausanne. I was invited to make a link between the democratic possibilities opened by the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the state of affairs one hundred years later. We tend to think we have made a lot of progress since then. With respect to the question of co-existence of the ethno-national and religious communities in Palestine, it seems the opposite has occurred.
J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures does the article address?
JB: The main thrust is to reexamine the idea of "the frontier" as primarily a rural space. The argument is that Zionism, despite the ideological orientation of Labor Zionism and the central role of kibbutzim and agriculture in the Zionist self-imagination, became over time an increasingly urban settlement project. Consequently, the violence associated with frontiers also became increasingly concentrated in urban areas—exemplified by Jerusalem and Hebron today.
J: How does this article connect to and/or depart from your previous research?
JB: It's not the sort of thing I normally research and write about. But then I realized I could combine the late Ottoman narrative, which is based on secondary literature, with some research I had been doing on Palestinian-Israeli-international joint struggle against the occupation since the second intifada and say something new.
J: Who do you hope will read this article, and what sort of impact would you like it to have?
JB: Whenever I write about Israel-Palestine, one of my objectives is to bring to the forefront nuances and unexpected elements of the issue. Some people in the political movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, who are undoubtedly well- intentioned, tend to have a very simple and even cartoonish version of the history of the conflict. I've always believed that having a fuller and more complex understanding of the issue can help those who are actively engaged in the struggle for justice and peace.
Most activists aren't likely to read something like this. But perhaps it will trickle down. Beyond those interested in Israel-Palestine and the Arab world more broadly, I think that using the frame of settler-colonialism can undermine exceptionalist versions of the history and make the conflict understandable in the same terms we would use to discuss settler colonialism in North America, Australia, Algeria, Kenya, etc.