Islamic Politics in Palestine: Beverly Milton-Edwards

Book reviewed in this article: Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom: Michael N. Barnett, editor     

Islamic Waqf and Management of Cultural Heritage in Palestine

This paper studies the salient features that characterise the Islamic waqf and the importance of its development through history as a system for management of cultural heritage in Palestine. In an attempt to understand the value of waqf and its developmental role, this paper discusses the significance of waqf development with regard to social and economic growth. The paper concludes that Islamic waqf in Palestine is certainly not an invitation to the authority of the government to dominate the area of benevolent (caring, generous) activities in society but quite the opposite; from its beginning, the establishment of waqf was a clear representation of creating a third sector related to philanthropy (charities) that is kept away from both the profit‐motivated behaviour of individuals and the authority‐dominated action of the government and could be developed and adopted today in our society as a sustainable approach to the management of cultural heritage.     

The American Palestine Exploration Society and the Survey of Eastern Palestine

Abstract

The Survey of Western Palestine, carried out from 1871 to 1878 by the Palestine Exploration Fund, has become one of the central pieces of scientific research for this region. From its outset, it was conceived as one half of a two-fold project, the other being a survey conducted in the same manner in Transjordan. The Society that was to undertake this, in collaboration with the PEF and their work in Western Palestine, was the American Palestine Exploration Society (APES), founded in 1870. However, by the autumn of 1877, the APES had ceased to exist, and their survey was never widely published. As the first American Society to focus on the Levant as an area of study, the APES is significant, despite its failure to produce a map of lasting value. Many of the founding members went on to be significant players in later, more successful American ventures, notably the American School of Oriental Research. The PEF's archives hold a record of the relationship between the APES in New York, and the PEF in London, and chart the fortunes of the two societies, and their endeavours to map the region east of the Jordan.     

Enclosures from Below: The Mushaa’ in Contemporary Palestine

This article traces the declining fortunes of the mushaa’, a once‐prominent Levantine culture of common land. Palestinians managed to resist attempts by the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate to break up the mushaa’. Under Israeli colonization, the remaining commons are now subject to another type of appropriation: individual Palestinian contractors seize hold of mushaa’ land and build on it. This article introduces the concept of “enclosures from below”, whilst looking at the dynamics of seizure of the commons by Palestinian refugees, who once were peasants practising mushaa’ on their lands and are now landless, some having become expert contractors. I show that the contractors consider their actions to be a form of resistance against the settler colonial project, manifested in the advancing of the Wall and settlement expansion. This is described through a case study of the Shu'faat area in Jerusalem. Changing uses of mushaa’ land reflect wider tendencies in the Palestinian national project that has become increasingly individualized.