Present-Absent: 48' Palestinians Conditional Citizens
with Diana Buttu
Teach-In Session 23 - February 14, 2024
TEACHING RESOURCES
In this teach-in we explore the experiences and history of what are now known as Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is is the population of Palestinians that remained in the lands of '48 during the Nakba and mass expulsion of Palestinians. Students will learn about how the legal status and mobility of Palestinians in '48 changed over time from living under military rule until 1966 to second and third class citizenship in Israel with dozens of laws discriminating against them as non-Jews. Students will also learn about the discourse and politics in Israeli society around its Palestinian citizens and long standing and ongoing threats of being expelled.
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and analyst based in Haifa and Communications Director to the Institute for Middle East Understanding. Diana previously worked as a legal advisor the Palestinian negotiating team. Diana was one of the lawyers who challenged the legality of Israel’s apartheid wall before the International Court of Justice. She is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestine, with articles appearing in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Guardian, Foreign Policy as well as in other major US papers. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, Kellogg Northwestern and Stanford Law School. Ms. Buttu has held fellowships at Stanford and Harvard.
Bassam Haddad (Moderator) is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding the Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
Bassam Haddad (Moderator) is Founding Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011) and co-editor of A Critical Political Economy of the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021). Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the acclaimed series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine and Director of the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative (MESPI). He received MESA's Jere L. Bacharach Service Award in 2017 for his service to the profession. Currently, Bassam is working on his second Syria book titled Understanding the Syrian Calamity: Regime, Opposition, Outsiders (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).
FULL TEACH-IN
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CONTENTS
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"[Israel's] entire experience has been just as occupiers under a system of emergency laws ... where Palestinians are made to feel as though we are interlopers." - Diana Buttu
TEACHING GUIDE
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, Palestinians in Israel have faced an increasing number of measures aimed at silencing them, with calls to have their citizenship revoked. In this series, we examine what “citizenship” means and discuss some of the repressive measures.This second installment features Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and analyst based in Haifa and Communications Director to the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
- How did the legal status of Palestinians living in Israel change from 1948 until now? What kind of legal vulnerabilities and rule of law did they experience before 1966 and now?
- How is the citizenship of Palestinians in Israel second-class? What are the ways in which Palestinians are discriminated against? What kinds of laws discriminate against them and on what basis?
- What kind of discourses in Israel exist around the presence of Palestinians in Israeli society? How do Israeli Zionists talk about Palestinians as a demographic threat? How do Israeli Zionists talk about the fact that some Palestinians remained in 1948 and how to address their presence now in relation to past expulsion?
- What terms describing Palestinian citizens in Israel should be avoided and why are these terms used? What terms should we use to describe Palestinian citizens in Israel and how do these terms respect their history and experiences?
- How has the presence and citizenship of Palestinians been made 'conditional'?
- Diagram of Hierarchies of Legal Status in Israel: This project examines the various legal statuses of Jews and non-Jews living in Israel proper. Students are asked to conduct research on the various populations of both Jews and non-Jews, and citizens and non-citizens in Israel and their legal status, and how these statuses have changed over time. What rights do these groups have and not have? How do laws distinguish these populations and how are these populations discriminated against by various laws? Students will then create a visual representation of these various populations and their legal statuses for which they have total creative freedom. Students are encouraged to use any physical or digital means they have available to create this diagram, and it may take any form the students see fit.
- Virtual Ethnography of Conditional Citizenship: This project focuses on collecting and analyzing the stories and experiences of Palestinian citizens of Israel by means of semi-structured or structured interviews, surveys, focus groups, or any other forms of ethnographic research they may conduct virtually. Students are encouraged to reach out to one or a handful of Palestinian individuals, families, or groups/organizations and use any of the methodologies listed above to learn about the history and experiences of these people. Students will then write an essay describing and analyzing the experiences of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
SEGMENTS
1. Intro to Conditional CitizenshipDiana Buttu shares details and corrects myths about Palestinian citizens of Israel
4. How do Israelis Justify the Response to Oct 7?Diana Buttu talks about dehumanizing rhetoric and ways that Israeli society justifies and ignores the response to October 7
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2. On How to Refer to Palestinian Citizens of IsraelDiana Buttu shares terms to use and terms to avoid when describing Palestinian citizens of Israel
5. On Laws that Distinguish Between Palestinian CitizensDiana Buttu goes into detail about laws that discriminate on their face and laws that discriminate in practice against Palestinians
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3. Impact of Oct 7 on Palestinian Citizens of IsraelDiana Buttu goes into detail about how October 7 impacted and worsened Palestinian citizens of Israel's experiences
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SOUNDBITES
Problems with the Terms "Arab Israeli/Israeli Arab" |
Israel as a Perpetual Occupier and "Finishing the Job" |
On Attempts to Strip Palestinians of Israeli Citizenship |
