Identity and Religion in Palestine

Abstract

In recent years a subtle but steady transformation has been taking place in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The prominence of Hamas and the process of Islamization in the West Bank and Gaza are having repercussions on both a local and a regional level, while politics, faith, and nationalism have created a mélange of ideologies.As secularist squares up to Islamist, andHamas and Islamic Jihad vie with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the objective of the Palestinian struggle becomes trampled in the haste to draw support to either political group. In the midst of this turmoil, Palestinian secular-nationalists are defying their ideological background and turning to religion for support, hope, and survival. The Palestinian political identity is in a state of flux, and Islam’s dominant role in Palestinian society can no longer be ignored or dismissed. The emergence of Loren D. Lybarger’s Identity and Religion in Palestine is, then, a timely publication, as it provides a perceptive analysis of political identities in the Occupied Territories. Through his debut publication, Lybarger draws on interviews and experiences gathered during volunteer work with the Mennonite Central Committee in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Conducted over a period of six years – three in the 1980s in theWest Bank, two in Gaza in the early 1990s, and one in the West Bank and Gaza from 1999 to 2000 – the author breathes life into accounts of the evolving Palestinian political identity by rendering his respondents’ dilemmas, vulnerabilities, hopes, and fears with startling clarity. By incorporating a plethora of political factions, religious communities, age groups, geographical locations, and socio-economic classes, he cogently assesses the Palestinian political and religious identity. Equally, his book deepens one’s awareness of the relationship between events and the cultural and historical forces that transform the region’s social movements and political identities. Over the course of five chapters and an epilogue, Islamism and secular-nationalism are defined both in theory and practice, thus affording a comprehensive insight into the contemporary Occupied Territories ...