MADAR as a Case Study7
Johnny Mansour
THE PRODUCTION of knowledge for the Palestinians under the circumstances of confronting the current colonial Israeli project is based on the power relations between the two parties. The knowledge that Palestinians accumulate about Israel can actually be employed as a tool of resistance.
Palestinian research and studies on Israel have undergone a strong shift in orientation as a result of the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the subsequent formation of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and the return of many exiled Palestinians to the homeland. This shift coincided with the beginning of the establishment of administrative, economic, social and cultural institutions of governance, as well as various research centers focused either on Palestinian or Israeli affairs. Several centers for political and strategic studies in a number of cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were formed, but chief among them is The Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) in Ramallah, established in 2000.
The post-Oslo period was marked by Palestinian research centers being continuously dependent on the capabilities and experiences of 1948 Palestinians. Their proficiency in the Hebrew language and, more importantly, their direct knowledge of Israeli society and politics at the internal and external levels and in various fields of life, have been particularly useful. Living within Israeli society, 1948 Palestinians are able to contextually analyze internal events. That is, the essence of the conflict can only be understood from within it. Consequently, the participation and contributions of 1948 Palestinians are of great value to Palestinian research centers.
Unfortunately to date, these research centers study only Israel, but not other countries, whether Arab or Islamic, in the region or outside of it, while Israeli research centers in Israel study the Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and other peoples.
While working as a freelancer at MADAR, I have learned that the Palestinian research centers are careful when dealing with sensitive political issues. This caution derives from their deference to the agendas of their donors, most of whom are from Western and some Far Eastern countries. While the political agendas of NGOs remain largely undeclared, they can still be deduced by reviewing the outputs of their projects, including research, seminars, lectures and reports. NGOs’ funding of these centers enables their guidance of the research, which relates to the objectives of the donors, whether joint or separate. Therefore, researchers at these centers do not enjoy the freedom necessary to enable independent decision making. Given the current political and economic conditions, Palestinians’ cumulative knowledge sometimes goes in a direction designed to satisfy their donors and, at other times, these centers can be absorbed in self-criticism and accountability.8 In general, cumulative knowledge is a key element in developing the Palestinian capabilities and the capacities necessary to analyze situations and predict the future through a strategic vision, rather than speculation.
On its website, MADAR defines itself as “an independent research center specializing in Israeli affairs, based in Ramallah, Palestine. MADAR was established in 2000 by a group of Palestinian intellectuals and academics.” MADAR’s goals include the following:
MADAR was created to meet the urgent Palestinian and Arab need for a research center that is dedicated to studying Israeli affairs. Its main goal is to produce solid and critical research and analysis about the Israeli scene. It aspires to make an avant-garde contribution and to provide Palestinian and Arab decision-makers and citizens with access to a comprehensive scientifically sound body of knowledge on the different aspects of Israel.9
These goals and vision are reflected in MADAR’s publications, both in-print and digital. They also enable a deepening of understanding of the choices made regarding the topics presented for research and discussion. MADAR publishes an Arabic language newspaper titled The Israeli Scene, distributed bi-weekly along with the Palestinian newspaper, Al-Ayyam, published in Ramallah. In terms of research, MADAR has, so far, issued 24 research publications in Arabic on various policy/political issues, two studies on economics and one research on military/security issues. Another 12 studies have been published on social/sociological issues, in addition to three research papers on literature and two on theater. MADAR also published six studies on illegal Israeli settlements. In terms of content in Hebrew, MADAR has published 44 translations of such publications up to now.
As the numbers above clearly show, translations into Arabic of original Hebrew content, focused on political, historical and social areas within the Israeli society, are nearly double the number of research publications produced by MADAR. MADAR’s administration deems these translations necessary to familiarize the Palestinians with Israeli research on the conflict and society in Israel. Not surprisingly, calls are being made for more Palestinian research on Israel, based on the Palestinian understanding of, and interaction with, the Israeli society and state.
MADAR also produces a quarterly Arabic language journal titled Israeli Affairs, of which 81 issues have been published so far. This quarterly journal is broader in terms of Palestinian participants from 1948 Palestine and elsewhere, as well as by those Israelis interested in presenting their ideas and visions in a Palestinian journal published in Ramallah, as part of their dialogue with Palestinians.
MADAR has issued annual reports since 2005. These address key political, military/security, economic, social, and cultural research on Israel including a detailed report on Palestinians in Israel. They are considered a year-long summary of the Palestinian vision towards events in Israel. The participants are mostly 1948 Palestinians familiar with life in Israel.
Reflecting on my decade-long freelance work experience with MADAR, beginning in the early 2000s, I can say that Palestinians, in general, and academics and politicians in particular, have a clear interest in Palestinian and Israeli affairs. The actual research, however, is conducted under abnormal political and administrative circumstances for two reasons. The first is the Israeli military presence and its ability to penetrate self-governing, semi-autonomous Palestinian areas. The second is the limited political-administrative Palestinian Authority overseeing the management of municipal, day-to-day Palestinian affairs. The Israeli military has, additionally, established an apartheid regime by locking up millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, utilizing barriers such as the Apartheid Wall, settler-only roads, the confiscation of private lands and the building of settler housing units on Palestinian lands of private ownership, including in Area C of the West Bank.
Operating under a complicated set of contradictory realities, MADAR is, therefore, motivated to conduct multi-directional studies, some of which directly relate to Israel, while others are focused on the Palestinian question itself.
Research centers, whether MADAR or other centers, seek to establish the Palestinian narrative not only from the standpoint of confronting the misrepresentations in the Zionist-Israeli narrative, but also to form an independent Palestinian narrative. This enables actual confrontation and resistance to be directed towards a realistic forward-looking formulation of the Palestinian narrative in contrast to the Zionist-Israeli one, which denies the existence of the Palestinian people and their narrative, and is effectively working to impose its own, instead.
I have always been concerned with the Palestinian narrative, not only because I am a historian and have a vested interest in the Palestinian cause, but also because I come from a home that was directly affected by the Nakba in various ways. My father was born in Haifa in 1928, to parents who migrated from the village of Jish (District of Safad) in 1920 to Haifa in search of a livelihood.
In Haifa, my father lived an intensely active life, studying at the Salesian Fathers School (a congregation of Italian origin). This school closed down during the Second World War and my father ended up working in the English army camps as a result. There, he met Arab and Jewish workers from all over Palestine. He learned Hebrew with the help of a Jewish worker, teaching him Arabic in exchange. By the end of World War II, my father was able to collect enough money to support his parents and brothers to buy a house for the family near the Bahai Temple. However, the family did not enjoy the house for long because of the harsh and painful battles for Haifa during the Nakba, resulting in the family being expelled, along with others. Immediately after the operations ended, a family of settlers occupied their house.
My father and his brothers fled to Lebanon. Later, he managed to return to the family home in Jish but could not readjust to village life. He tried to return to Haifa several times after 1948, but the Israeli authorities did not grant him a permit to do so until the early 1950s. Once granted the permit, my father immediately went to the family home, only to find a Jewish family had already taken it. The settler occupying the house kicked him out, and he later learned that an unfair law—called the Absentee Property Law of 1950—issued by the Israeli Knesset deprived him of his right to his home and property because he had left Palestine for a while and returned after this immoral law took effect.
My mother, born in 1934, hails from the displaced Palestinian village of Al-Mansura. This village lies on the Lebanese-Palestinian border. At the end of October and early November 1948, the family was displaced from their home and village and denied the opportunity to return. Half of the family went to the villages of Rmaych (or Rmeish) and Ain Ebel in southern Lebanon. The other half fled to the village of Fassuta. That is when the borders closed, so my grandfather and his brother could not meet their other brothers across the border. They died without fulfilling their dream of reuniting and bringing back the missing part of the family living in the diaspora. The trauma of expulsion and violence haunted my mother for a very long time. Only 14 years old at the time of the Nakba, she was separated from her friends and extended family, never to meet them again. My mother lived with her parents and brothers in a small room in Fassuta village for a long time until her father managed to arrange a larger house for the family to live in.
Years later, during my frequent travels from Haifa to Ramallah, I often thought of the stories of the Nakba that I heard of over the years from my parents and their families.
Indeed, I used to travel once or twice a month from Haifa to Ramallah, where MADAR is headquartered. I would be accompanied by the late writer, Salman Natour, who helped establish MADAR and edited its magazine. During our travels, we exchanged conversations about the importance of exposing our people in the West Bank to the internal dynamics of life in Israel so that they would be able to understand and interact with Israelis. However, our conversations were often cut short on these issues once we entered the West Bank areas under Israeli control and saw the settlements taking over Palestinian lands, including private lands. We saw the human suffering, especially at checkpoints, and the Israeli military occupation’s brutal and unjust treatment of West Bank Palestinians—not that we 1948 Palestinians were treated any differently. Sometimes, we are subjected to intense interrogation and relentless questioning. Our vehicles are also routinely searched, while we endure long hours of humiliation at Israeli checkpoints.
This is when I most recall the stories of the Nakba, especially those related to Haifa. The stories about the city, recounted at home, had a profound effect on me. I decided to dig deep into the history of Haifa and its Arab identity. I followed how its Arab residents had labored tirelessly to develop the city and drive its urbanization over many decades. Their work now benefitted only those who had taken over the city by force and displaced its resident population. This scenario has left its mark on my writings on the history of Haifa and other cities in Palestine.
The trauma of the Nakba still lingers on, even persists in various forms, partly because the third generation of the Nakba survivors are still suffering from its effects and implications. The personal and the public have blended together, as did entire families’ personal narratives and the general Palestinian narrative. This blend has affected the way the narrative is written and published and the way it is transmitted to the Palestinians and the Israelis, with the goal of offering an alternative narrative to the monopolistic and fabricated Zionist and Israeli narrative. Therefore, I published a number of books on Haifa’s political, social and cultural history and its role over time. I believe Palestinian society needs to engage in a cultural dialogue concerning the history of their cities so that they are able to reconnect with their homeland and fight for its liberation. This dialogue would strengthen Palestinians’ self-perception as well as their connection to and relationship with their land—as part of their Palestinian identity. The act of writing the Palestinian narrative is, in itself, a dialogue with Palestinian history, first and foremost.
However, I wonder what dialogue would be possible in the future between the two parties if Israel continues with its aggression against the Palestinians? A dialogue between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, not just a dialogue between politicians.
Indeed, MADAR inevitably found itself in a state of dialogue with the Israeli narrative through its research projects, translations and reports of all kinds. However, this dialogue is quite limited. The political establishment, i.e., the Palestinian Authority, imposes caveats and restrictions on research centers, including MADAR, despite it being an independent center licensed and registered with official government departments. Its administrative board10 accordingly takes into account the policy orientation of the Palestinian Authority, albeit indirectly. What does this mean? A number of publications by international (European, American and African) human rights organizations and research centers have concluded that Israel is an Apartheid State. These NGOs have an impact on the political decisions of the governments of many countries, even though states themselves are yet to take declare that the regime in Israel, and its occupation of the Palestinian territories, constitutes an apartheid regime.11 Such findings would not be directly addressed by many Palestinian centers, and certain related terminology would not be used. MADAR, on the other hand, has described Israel as an apartheid state that was established and maintained through settler-colonialism. Israel’s discriminative policies were emphasized in various research about the apartheid in Palestine. This, however, is still limited to research only, and the political discourse of MADAR remains cautious when engaging in a normative approach towards the phenomenon of the Israeli occupation. Of note, translations and articles on this subject have, in fact, been issued regularly by MADAR, albeit under the names of their authors, with a disclaimer that they only reflect the opinions of their authors, not of MADAR.
Still, MADAR enjoys a more open space to develop political discussions and dialogues when compared with higher education institutions, namely universities. Palestinian universities that have departments for historical studies and/or political science are limited to providing education without producing any significant publications. This indicates how essential the role of research centers is in providing new, effective and efficient research on pertinent issues.
The absence of a critical academic, media and political movement places more responsibility on research centers to take on this mission. This does not mean that the research centers have resources at their disposal that universities cannot afford. Rather, while universities are essentially institutions that produce knowledge, in the Palestinian context, they are establishments limited to coursework and teaching.
Most of the researchers at MADAR work part-time, and also work in other places to supplement their income in order to make a living wage. They do not enjoy the same work conditions and standards as Israeli researchers. Researchers in Israel are dedicated to their research and are paid well. Salaries at senior levels can be quite high, allowing researchers to expand and further improve their research and conclusions. This is not the only concern for Palestinian researchers; they are also constantly subjected to Israel’s policies and practices of cognitive erasure. That is, Israel subjects Palestinians to an almost complete denial of their presence on their land. Therefore, the research practices carried out by the Israeli research centers go hand in hand with the Israeli practices on the ground. Research centers in Israel constitute a supportive machine for the Zionist-Israeli narrative being imposed by the Israeli political establishment, while excluding and denying the Palestinian narrative.
The ongoing Israeli Occupation makes life in Palestine under the Palestinian Authority unstable. Israel has sought to confirm its narrative by relying, among other tactics, on channels of biblical indoctrination. This is impossible except by reducing the existing human, spatial, cultural and civilizational Palestinian presence on the ground. This has also meant that Israel seeks to dismantle the Arab world and turn it into isolated states, scattered here and there, spreading crises in an effort to demonstrate that Israel is not the core reason for conflict in the region. This is exactly what Israel has done with regard to Iran; Israel demonized Iran and aligned countries in the Gulf with its anti-Iran politics under the claim that Iran is the enemy, not Israel. At the same time, the normalization of relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, particularly Gulf states, reflects an effort to paint Israel as a stable State, creating a false image of the conflict as being neutralized or reduced. Every part of the process of dismantling the Arab world affects the Palestinian issue.
Palestinian research centers are aware of such transformations but cannot address them on a research level, because of issue related to funding, not only for the centers themselves but also for the Palestinian Authority. Rather than being confrontational, several of these centers tend to focus their work on historical and applied research in sociology and economics. Meanwhile, research addressing the outlook for the future remains constricted and limited.
Therefore, Palestinian research capacity and output remain in a constant state of catching up with Israel’s research and studies while also remaining limited and confined to specific topics. There have been discussions and proposals to study and emulate some, or all, of the Israeli systems of governance. The discussions focus on this question: will we ever reach a level parallel to Israel’s in its studies on Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims? I tend not to follow this line of questioning, simply because I believe that cumulative knowledge is sufficient, only when it is of high quality and when key issues are prioritized. Issues such as sports, health and education in Israel may attract Palestinian interest.
The role that 1948 Palestinians play in advancing such knowledge cannot be overlooked. Based on my experience, their contribution is not limited to their knowledge and proficiency in Hebrew, which is also essential. Their day-to-day interactions are intertwined with the Israeli (Jewish) society, even though many live in Arab neighborhoods separate from Jewish ones, or in Arab villages and towns independent of Jewish towns. Nevertheless, they share many of the common spaces with Israelis because of work, study and other activities deemed essential to daily life. These shared spaces enable 1948 Palestinians to palpably capture the pulse of the Israeli street in everyday life. Life in Israel is dynamic and active. On a daily basis, key issues are discussed by the media and social networks from all political orientations. The media outlets spare no effort in their discussions of key issues, with great accuracy and attention paid to detail, while incorporating diverse opinions. The public, broadly speaking, interacts with these issues. Sometimes, their interactions leave a profound impact on the political process and the practices of the government, its ministries and departments.
On the other hand, the cumulative knowledge that is collected by MADAR and published through various means (books, magazines, pamphlets and reports—digitally or in print) reflects the politics of 1948 Palestinians, who choose which topics need to be addressed and presented. Doing so helps Palestinians under Israel’s military occupation understand the dynamics and trends in Israel. My role, along with other colleagues from 1948 Palestine, is not limited to helping Palestinians understand the nature of the political, economic, and social movement in Israel. Rather, it also includes spreading the spirit of solidarity among us, as one people under an occupation practicing two types of control. The first one is the 1948 Israeli occupation that displaced and expelled Palestinians from their properties and land, only to grant them an Israeli identity and render them as “citizens” of the State, the same state that caused their Nakba. The second is the 1967 occupation of the rest of the Palestinian territories. Under international law, this is a military occupation that oppresses Palestinians, tightens the blockade on them, renders their armed resistance unacceptable, and falsely portrays them as terrorists, murderers and criminals. Any sane person in the world understands that it is the legal and moral right of the Palestinians to resist the occupation.
An important question in this context is: can research be considered a type of Palestinian-Israeli dialogue?12 Certain trends indicate that research is a dialogue and discussion of issues that each party deems important. It does not necessarily mean imposing an opinion. Note that the Zionist-Israeli narrative is racing against time to impose itself as the standard, while denying the Palestinian narrative any legitimacy. However, the Palestinian narrative, unlike the Zionist one, is slowly and deliberately penetrating into various segments of Israeli society. The Palestinian narrative is taking over outside Israel, even though the process of making the Israeli audience aware of it still faces several challenges—even huge impediments, and sometimes falling on deaf ears.
Over the course of two decades in particular, 1948 Palestinians have contributed to two scenes or situations: they have contributed to the Palestinian scene by introducing the Palestinians to events in Israel and by helping improve their knowledge about life and its dynamics in Israel. 1948 Palestinians have also contributed to converging intra-Palestinian dialogue among educated and academic Palestinian segments. In this context, MADAR’s experience demonstrates the opportunity for such convergence between the two scenes through dynamic research and dialogue.
There are several ways of dialogue on central issues, especially when talking about conflict between two or more parties, as in the Arab-Palestinian and Israeli case. One of these methods is found in political, military, social, economic, and cultural research that becomes part of the landscape of competition and the race for expansion and domination in politics, culture and others. Research dialogue does not necessarily mean relying on the amount of research, as much as it is focusing on how this research is conducted and who its audience is.
I saw in the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) a model for such a dialogue. A research center’s dialogue should not mean its acceptance of the opinions, directions and recommendations of other centers, especially when they are from their enemy (considering that Israel is a persistent enemy, for the Palestinians and the Arabs, in general) or affiliated with it. The accumulation of knowledge in MADAR creates a certain type of connection between the reader and the main issues discussed in Israel. This connection contributes to the deconstruction of the Israeli-imposed reality from a progressive research identity and is essential to the decolonization of the Israeli settler-colonialist regime.13 The way MADAR works, and its vision, both reveal shifts in its conduct of research and studies and even its choice of translations of Israeli publications. After a decade of work at MADAR, it has become clear that independent research centers enjoy dynamism and space wider than that available for, and in, Palestinian universities. However, the issue of funding and meeting donor expectations is yet to be addressed, and still has a negative impact on these research centers. Their ability to expand and reach a larger audience through various topics remains limited, and is heavily connected to the donors, their ability to fund the centers and their will to help them in their organizational aspirations. This is clearly a rich avenue for future pursuit in the Palestinian struggle.
7 This essay was originally written in Arabic and was translated by Ahmed Almassri.
8 K. Nakhleh, Globalized Palestine: The National Sell-Out of a Homeland (The Red Sea Press, Inc., 2011; First edition).
9 MADAR Center, last accessed on October 9, 2021, https://www.madarcenter.org/en/about-us/an-up-close-view.
10 MADAR Center Administrative Board, last accessed on October 9, 2021 https://www.madarcenter.org/en/about-us/administrative-board
11 J. Dugard and J. Reynolds, “Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” in European Journal of International Law, Vol. 24, Issue 3 (August 2013), 867–913.
12 C. MacInnis and John P. Portelli, “Dialogue as Research,” Journal of Thought, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer 2002), 33–44.
13 Based on a conversation with Honaida Ghanem, the director of MADAR, May 10, 2021.