Emplaced Resistances in Occupied Palestine

Book excerpt: In this deeply personal study, Hammad illuminates a deep agenda of place, meaning, and resistance in territorial struggles through the telling of a less-heard story of how women, men, and young people understand their world and their lives in the occupied Palestinian West Bank landscape. Taking a case study of a contested and divided Palestinian village situated in the heart of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and known for its sustained, non-violent protest against the Separation Wall that cuts through its lived spaces, Hammad examines how villagers live, experience, interpret, and attempt to resist infringements on their property and person. The study considers the spectrum of ways that people resist in this context, examining not only the overt weekly protests but also the everyday acts and subjectivities of resistance of its residents, young and old. It offers valuable theoretical insight into the extent and ways that meanings of place hold the potential to mediate, shape, and sustain resistance struggles through the voices and experiences of people. The backdrop of the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Palestinians’ struggle over space, place, and history—which continues to play out in the present—makes this book politically relevant and empowering as it brings voices from a secluded contested village to the world.