The risk of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was always high, because two very different cultures coexisted in the place that has a sacral meaning for both. So, taking into account the hatred that was present in all regions of the world before the World War II, the escalation of the conflict from both parties was inevitable. The official beginning of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict cannot be precisely set and may be dated to the 1930s when the tensions between two nations started to have a violent nature that led to the independence of Israel in 1948.
Culture includes some unique values of a large group of people and may be divided into material and non material culture. Even if the material objects are not widely present, the non-material culture may have a very large impact on the ability of the nation to survive under the pressure. This happened to the Israeli people who used to live in the city of Jaffa mainly populated by the Palestinian people. To a certain degree, there was cultural relativism when the people with absolutely different ideologies could coexist. However, now because the Palestinian/Israeli relations are constantly held in the “politically contested domain” (Mann 87), this is difficult to assess objectively what happened in Jaffa and other cities, who was right or wrong in the conflict, and what could have been the other approaches to the conflict resolution. So far one may come to the conclusion that in the 1930s the Israeli and the Palestinians started to pursue the tactics of ethnocentrism that caused the conflict. Ethnocentric cultures usually see each other as inferior with the values that lack humanity. In 1948 after a very short war the Israeli declared independence. On the contrary, the Palestinians had to flee their cities and basically their society collapsed. Every year, after the Independence Day of Israel the Palestinians commemorate the Nakba Day which means the day of catastrophe. In Israeli discourse, the events are seen very differently (Mann 87).
In order to understand what happened in Jaffa, the literature and other elements of culture need to be analyzed. Mann writes that “the past is remembered differently across discursive realms shaped by geography, history and language” (Mann 88). Therefore if the opinions are different, these realms still may provide very valuable information. In 2000s the Jaffa Slope Park was built according to the planning standards that are used in Tel-Aviv. There used to be the neighborhood of Ajami in the past, but now the dominating culture is different and Jaffa is going through the process of gentrification (Mann 98). Interestingly, the construction materials, for example the tiles, were the materials from which the houses of the Palestinians had been made (Mann 99). Some other areas that have belonged to Israel since 1948 have also been emptied out and there are green areas now (Mann 102). The academics and writers help to remember such places, because they describe them in detail and make their knowledge available to the public. As the result, one may presume what kind of events happened almost 70 years ago. One of such writers is Ayman Siksek who wrote a book To Jaffa, in which the tense relations between the Palestinians and the Jewish people are analyzed. The author thinks that 1948 was the date when the tragic events started to occur (Mann 86). Siksek wrote a book in Hebrew in order not to be identified with the Palestinians or the Israelis. He wanted to show that the violence changed Jaffa forever and the Israeli-Palestinian relations entered a very dramatic phase.
In conclusion, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was one of the most tragic events in the XX century and 1948 was the year that changed the history of two nations. Despite a long period of time and the attempts to manipulate the historical facts, there is a lot of evidence about the events that took place in the first half of the XX century thanks to the literature, architecture and other attributes of culture. The work of Ayman Siksek is one of the latest contributions to the discussion of the conflict. Further research of the Israeli-Palestinian relations will help to preserve two cultures and perhaps provide the opportunities for the dialogue in the future.
Works Cited
Mann, B. An Apartment to Remember. Palestinian Memory in the Israeli context. History
and Memory, Vol.27, No.1. Spring/Summer 2015. p. 83-115.
