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Bethlehem
Reclaiming our heritage...
Christiane Dabdoub Nasser

Abstract:
A central issue in the Palestinian conflict as it emerges today after several decades of conflict and the disappointments of a Peace Process which has failed to engender a course towards a resolution is the issue of cultural heritage. A great deal of hype, initiated by donor governments and followed up on by Palestinian public bodies, pushed cultural heritage development, especially during the last few years, to the top of priority projects for the consolidation of the burgeoning state. It was calculated that a country as rich in history as the Palestinian Territories would thrive under the new wave of tourism and that in addition to the thousands of pilgrims who traditionally flock to the Holy Land, there was ample room to develop and open markets for less traditional forms of tourism: definitely cultural tourism but also eco-tourism, trekking and so on. By rehabilitating heritage sites and developing itineraries and activities for this rather new form of tourism, it was hoped that the nascent country would come out of its isolation after decades of occupation, and with the right direction and adequate investments, would enter the fold of democratic societies - unlike its neighbouring Arab states - and become a 'benign' neighbour to Israel. For Palestinians, this whole discourse was exciting because it promised peace but also because it put the issue of Palestinian identity, for too long stifled and caricatured, in the centrefold.

As recent developments testify, this scenario, myopic if nothing else, fell through.

However, the discourse on cultural heritage continued to intensify and spread to the grass roots, and key people in charge of different areas of cultural heritage development, both tangible and intangible, and supported by donor funding, applied their knowledge and skills to plan and promote cultural activities, reviving and enhancing traditional practices and establishing new venues for creative expression. Cultural centres started proliferating rallying increasing numbers of supporters and participants and most of them stressed the importance of the preservation of Palestinian heritage as a re-assertion of identity and a symbol of permanence in the face of continued aggressions against the land and the people.

This paper is a discussion of cultural heritage in Palestine within the context of the on-going Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the recent drive to promote cultural heritage. Using the example of this conflict, I will try to analyse how key terms such as testimony, permanence, symbols and identity, which constitute essential ingredients in national discourses, are constantly called upon to advance and legitimise cultural and political hegemony on the one side and reflect vulnerability on the other. I will then try to examine their contrasting interpretations, which are arbitrated by historic forces, and determine how each side builds its case for asserting 'legitimate' claim to a 'contested' heritage. Drawing on our Med-Voices database, I will finally try to examine how contested heritage/spaces work at the level of small communities and to what extent it shapes daily transactions and practices.

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