From Palestine to Israel , livre ebook

From Palestine to IsraelFrom Palestine to Israel
A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947–50
Ariella Azoulay
Translated by Charles S. Kamen 
 
First published 2011 by Pluto Press
345 archway r oad, l ondon n6 5aa
www.plutobooks.com
First published in Hebrew by r esling Publishing House,  
tel aviv, 2009
Copyright © ariella azoulay 2011
translation © Charles s Kamen 2011
Published with the support of Zochrot – the exhibition on 
which this book is based was curated by ariella azoulay 
and frst shown at Zochrot, t el aviv, 2009
t he right of ariella azoulay to be identifed as the author of 
this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the 
Copyright, Designs and Patents a ct 1988.
British library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from  
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isBn   978 0 7453 3169 0  Paperback
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4  From Palestine to israelCONTENTS
  introduction: Constituent Violence 1947–50  6
  a cknowledgements  17
  Bibliography  18
1   military Governmentality  20
2    socialization to the state, and the mechanisms  
of subordination    52
3    architecture of Destruction, Dispossession  
and Gaining o wnership   86
4   Creating   a Jewish Political Body and Deporting  
the Country’s arab r esidents   126
5    Borders, strategies of Uprooting, and  
Preventing r eturn   174
6   l ooting, monopolizing and expropriation   206
7   observing  “t heir Catastrophe”  232
  index  252
 5 
 
INTRODUCTION
Constit  uent 
Violence 
1 947–50
Recognizing the disaster as a necessary
condition for imagining the future
6  From Palestine to israel 
 
 
 
 
 
The war that wasn’t Jews and arabs, replacing it with a narrow conception 
t he photographs included here are historical  of “national confict” that justifes an anachronistic 
documents in every sense. analyzing them as historical  reading of the past in which “war” between them was  sheds new light on what occurred in  unavoidable. t he term “war” assumes as self-evident 
Palestine between 1947 and 1950. although the  the existence of two hostile sides which fought one 
photographs have been available to the public in  another, and mistakenly identifes the violence carried 
the archives that preserved them (mostly state and  out by the army with wartime “battles.”
Zionist archives) for 60 years, they have not yet been 
1treated as archival documents.  t his book reads  t his book traces the constituent violence carried 
them in a manner that presents a new way to write  out by the Jewish military and political leadership. 
history – history through photographs. Bringing these  “Constituent violence” is understood here, following 
photographs together allowed me to create a new  Walter Benjamin and a whole tradition of political 
archive: a civil archive which makes it possible to view  theory, as the force used to create and impose a 
the catastrophe they recorded. new political regime. t he transformation of Palestine 
Viewing the late 1940s from a military perspective,  into the state of israel was not achieved during an 
these years appear as a series of battles and strategic  unavoidable war between two nations, but by the 
objectives whose attainment is considered the  exercise of systematic and planned violence to create 
measure of success or failure. Viewing the period  a clear Jewish majority that would correspond to 
from a perspective of national sovereignty, it displays a  and justify the formation of a Jewish state and the 
series of events connected to the Zionist phantasm of  Jew-ifcation of the state organs. t his violence was 
establishing a national home for one people in an area  called the “War of liberation,” thereby giving rise to 
occupied by a mixed population, and situates two sides  a persistent confusion which even today permeates 
at the drama’s center: two mutually hostile nations  israeli and international public discourse. t his confusion 
fghting to the death in a confict only one can survive.  concerns three protagonists associated with achieving 
t hese two perspectives bury the question of whether  liberation: the British, the Palestinians and the arab 
these two sides – “Jews” and “arabs” – in fact existed  states. t his confusion permitted the falsehood of a war 
as separate, hostile parties prior to the war. t his book  for survival and justifed the continued use of violence 
proposes a civil viewpoint, one encompassing all the  under the guise of war, and these attitudes persist 
inhabitants of the country – both Jews and arabs – that  today. t he term “liberation” or “independence” implied 
allows us to reconstruct the segregation of the two  a decolonization project, liberation from a foreign 
sides and the collision between them as a product of  power, in a manner that camoufaged the colonization 
the war, which created its form and structure. of Palestine by the state of israel. t he term “liberation” 
t he historiography of this period is based primarily  is inaccurate in relation to those three elements: the 
on written documents, and describes the series of  British left the country voluntarily, and liberation from 
events that occurred in Palestine at the end of the  them did not require a war. t he Palestinians were 
1940s as a passage from “war” to “state.” Critical  certainly not the foreign power from which liberation 
historiography includes the “nakba” in this picture in a  was necessary. r ather, the Palestinians were the 
manner which portrays it as an additional consequence  inhabitants of a country who were transformed 
of the establishment of the state of israel, and as a  into foreigners and expelled from their land by the 
parallel narrative competing with the Zionist narrative  mobilization for “war.” t he violent expulsion and 
of “independence” culminating in the establishment  destruction that made the declaration of israel’s 
of the state. in analyzing the violence carried out  establishment possible led to the acceptance of israel 
in Palestine at the end of the 1940s, the critical  as a member of the United nations and ensured that 
narrative, like that of the Zionists, failed to question  henceforth future negotiations would take place only 
the applicability of the term “war.” t he civil archive  with other, recognized sovereign states. ten additional 
that is the project of this book reconstructs the past  months of constituent violence ended in march, 1949, 
without accepting the prior national assumptions. t he  with the armistice agreements between israel and a 
unproblematic adoption of the term “war” to describe  number of arab states, but notably the Palestinians 
the period establishes it at the apex of the “israel– were eliminated as offcial participants within the 
Palestine confict” in a manner that eliminates the  confict. t he agreements signed between the state of 
complex variety of exchange and interaction between  israel, which imposed itself on the population of the 
___________________________________________ region, and the arab states, transformed the demand 
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seeacknowledgementsformoreonthis. of Palestinians to return home into an illegitimate threat 
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to the sovereignty of the newly established nation- Partition Plan by the country’s arab residents, by the 
state. arab states and by the governments of Britain and 
t hese international agreements played a role in  the United states, but stipulated that United nations 
preserving the effects of the constituent violence that  recognition was irrevocable: “t his recognition by the 
imposed a Jewish state on a mixed population, while  United nations of the right of the Jewish people to 
the majority of the land’s existing inhabitants were  establish their state is irrevocable.” a ccording to the 
expelled and never allowed to return. israeli declaration, it is not the rights of the inhabitants 
Using the war as a prism through which the past  that are irrevocable, as has been the norm in various 
is read allows us not only to read the past differently,  declarations of this kind since the american r evolution, 
but also to imagine a different, civil future. t his book  but the recognition of the reality created by the new 
proposes to extract such potentialities from the rubble  regime without obtaining the agreement of all those it 
created by the nation-state’s machinery of war. would govern.
From this book’s civil perspective, past events  a gain, the partition resolution was not politically 
cannot be split and narrated along national lines.  valid for the community whose future it wished 
When the fate of the entire population is taken  to establish, nor did it attempt to preserve the 
into consideration, the expulsion, dispossession  cohabitation that had previously existed. military force 
and destruction cannot be justifed. t he events that  was needed to overcome the opposition of the majority 
occurred between 1947 and 1950 appear as the  of the land’s inhabitants and to realize the plan. in order 
struggle of a local leadership to impose its rule on  to produce such military force, the civil population had 
the entire body politic and constitute a new regime  to be recruited and made submissive. t he might of 
regardless of the wishes of its inhabitants and without  war as an existential threat had to be imposed on the 
seeking their consent. From this perspective, the civil  population; the dividing line between Jews and arabs 
society as a w