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Once Upon a War: Memories of World War One in Palestine
Abstract
The arrival of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine in late 1917 ushered in the end of the disastrous war years that saw a large decrease in the local population as a result of the war, disease and famine. Yet, do people remember anything of World War One in Palestine? The first part of this paper, relying on a variety of written and oral sources including diaries and a collection of interviews conducted by the University of Bethlehem in the 1980s, will highlight how the local urban population of Palestine remembered episodes of the war. Forced military conscription, forced labor, confiscation of foodstuff and other resources, the spreading of infectious diseases, seem to be just some of the most common memories. However, regardless of the religious and political affiliations, it seems that the memory of the war years by those who experienced it focused on 1915, known as Sanat al-Jaraad (the Year of the Locusts): every single source available of that period reported the total destruction caused by this invasion. If the end of the hostilities meant that order was restored and starvation tackled, on the other hand the conclusion of the war saw agitation fermenting among Arabs and Zionists. The second part of the paper, relying on multiple memoirs, will show how the memory of the war was superseded by the memory of the emerging conflict between Arabs and Zionists. As a corollary, this paper will show the importance of looking at this period as one of transition. It will be suggested that histories written until a few years ago simply divided Palestine’s Ottoman and British eras, de facto missing the possibility of analyzing the war period and including it in a larger historical assessment. The last part of the paper will focus on Jerusalem to question whether memories of the war have survived to this day. Through a series of interviews conducted locally and involving an ample variety of subjects, it will be shown that despite the still visible impact of the war on buildings, planning, and other urban aspects, memories of the war remain quite feeble. The final goal is to provide a preliminary answer to the question of why the war, considered by many to be a pivotal moment in the region, seems today almost forgotten.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Palestine
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries