Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba Through Photograph-based Storytelling : Willing the Impossible

This unprecedented ethnographic study introduces a unique photography-based storytelling method that brings together everyday Palestinians and Israelis to begin connecting rather than comparing their distinct yet organically connected histories of suffering and exile resulting from the Holocaust and the Nakba. Working with Palestinians and Israelis living in their respective Canadian diasporas who are of the Holocaust and Nakba postmemory generations–those who did not experience these traumas but are nonetheless haunted by them–this study demonstrates that storytelling and photography enable the occasions and conditions of possibility necessary for willing the impossible. That is, by narrating and then exchanging their (post)memories of the Holocaust and/or the Nakba through associated vernacular photographs, project participants were able to connect rather than compare their histories of suffering and exile; take moral, ethical, and political responsibility for one another; and imagine new forms of cohabitation grounded in justice and equitable rights for all. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-27238-7 Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Figures Part I: The Task in Hand and a Challenge Accepted Chapter 1: Introduction The Task in Hand: Contending Master Narratives and Collective Memories of the Holocaust and the Nakba Remembering the Holocaust, Forgetting the Nakba Remembering the Nakba, Reconciling the Holocaust Worldliness and the Oppositional Public Intellectual A Challenge Accepted: Willing the Impossible Creating the Occasions and Conditions of Possibility for Willing the Impossible Overview of Chapters References Chapter 2: An Impossible Yet Necessary Task The Question of Palestine: Said’s Political Vision Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba: A Contrapuntal Approach Exilic Beginnings: Dispersion and Alterity Envisioning a New Polity: Non-belonging and Binationalism The Question of Israel: Arendt’s Political Vision Wrestling with Zionism: Thoughtless Escape, Thoughtful Action There Is Always a Choice to Be Made: The Social Parvenu or the Conscious Pariah Envisioning a New Polity: Non-belonging and Binationalism References Chapter 3: Willing the Impossible Through Storytelling and Photography The Possibilities of Narrative and Photography: From Representation to Emancipation The Possibilities of Storytelling: “Fictional” Versus “Real” Stories Willing the Impossible Through Civil Imagination and the Civil Contract of Photography References Part II: Nostalgia, Continuous Hauntings, and Melancholic Resilience Chapter 4: Nick Chapter 5: Haifa Staiti Chapter 6: Amanda Qumsieh Part III: Re-education, Co-memory, and Melancholia Chapter 7: Ran Vered Chapter 8: Itai Erdal Reference Chapter 9: Ofira Roll Part IV: Willing the Impossible in the Contemporary Moment and Beyond Chapter 10: The Complete Consort Dancing Together Contrapuntally Nick Haifa Amanda Ran Itai Ofira Palestinians’ Responses to Their Own Community Palestinians’ Responses to the Other Community Israelis’ Responses to Their Own Community Israelis’ Responses to the Other Community Reference Chapter 11: Willing the Impossible in the Contemporary Moment Revisiting the Question of Palestine Connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba: A Contrapuntal Approach Exilic Beginnings: Dispersion and Alterity Envisioning a New Polity: Non-belonging and Binationalism Revisiting the Question of Israel Wrestling with Zionism: Thoughtless Escape, Thoughtful Action There Is Always a Choice to Be Made: The Social Parvenu or the Conscious Pariah Envisioning a New Polity: Non-belonging and Binationalism Revisiting Willing the Impossible Through Storytelling and Photography The Possibilities of Narrative and Photography The Possibilities of Storytelling The Civil Imagination and the Civil Contract of Photography References Chapter 12: Reflections on an Intentionally Utopian Ethnographic Project Successes and Strengths Limitations and Weaknesses A Method in Development The Possibility for Multiple New Beginnings References Index