Remembering a Fading Past: The Israeli Occupation of the Jordan Valley Re-examined Through Oral History

My research delves into the memories of Palestinians to (re)construct, scrutinize, and map the fading narratives of the early stages of Israel’s occupation of the Jordan Valley in 1967 – a critical period and important geography whose oral history is yet to be documented.

To do so, I carry out a thorough historical examination of what appears to be intertwined strategies that Israel implemented in the Jordan Valley in 1967: the mass displacement of Palestinians, the mass demolitions of their communities, and the systematic denial of their return. Anchoring my research in the pertinent field of settler colonial studies, this examination will shed light on the implications of these strategies on the Jordan Valley and its societies, and what they can tell us about settler colonialism in Israel-Palestine and beyond. Methodologically, my research involves a multi-sited ethnography to gather and engage with the Jordan Valley’s oral history, now carried by a group of elderly Palestinians that is quickly declining in numbers, as well as extensive archival research in Palestine and Jordan.

My thesis carries two main objectives: first, to invoke a much-needed examination of the history surrounding Israel’s occupation of the Jordan Valley, drawing links to epistemological questions that stretch beyond the geographic boundaries of the case study. Secondly, by centralizing oral history, my research aims to reconstruct, through a bottom-up approach, Palestinians’ indigenous narratives of their dispossession and displacement, making original thematic and methodological contributions to the fields of Palestine Studies and Settler Colonial Studies.