| Publication |
2011.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
In this article, contemporary Silwan is a micro-locus for considering complex narratives of individual and communal identity rooted in Jerusalem. The focus is historical and largely outside Silwan itself, framed within a theme of longing for boundaries of the state when borders are elastic and the object of longing exists outside them. An anecdote told by an Amman-based archaeologist gets directly to the heart of shared and contested identities in Silwan, and is used to open a discussion about the City of David and the predominant discourses of national identity and conflict at work there. But it is also a means of considering individual narratives of identity tied to the ancient past that are more nuanced and complex. Individuals' identification with the tradition imbued in locales such as Silwan, it is argued, was crucial to Hashemite narratives espousing both qawm i yya and wa t an i yya, particularly when Jerusalem was Jordanian, from 1950 to 1967. There were two primary means of promoting Hashemite qawm i yya and wa t. an i yya that were not mutually exclusive: 'Arab-izing' ancient history and 'Hashem-izing' Islamic and modern history. Analyzing the discourse of these processes, especially as disseminated to children through school textbooks, demonstrates that a particular issue for Jordan's Hashemite monarchs is that the ancient history they used to legitimate their position of leadership, both at the national and transnational levels, cannot be disconnected from Abrahamic scripture. In this way, the modern story spun for them by ancient history most closely resembles that of the state of Israel.
|