Period: 20 September - 15 November 2005. 1 March - 31 March 2006. Country: East Jerusalem
(1) Palestinian Resistance in East Jerusalem during the Intifada Period: the Politics of Memory over “the Sacred Space”
TOBINA Hiromi  (Division of Southeast Asian Area Studies)
Key Words: East Jerusalem, the Intifada Period, Palestinian Society, the Politics of Memory, ‘the Sacred Space’

Photo 1:A shop on Al-Wad street in the Old City, a signboard on which the photographs of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque are attached.
Photo 2: The table sheet of Al-Buraq Restaurant. The Buraq is the creature which the Prophet Muhammad rode on when he came to Jerusalem during the Night Journey.
(2) The aim of the dissertation is to clarify the situation concerning the occupation in East Jerusalem and to detail the various types of Palestinian resistance that do not depend on "direct or physical violence". I focus especially on the situation in the Old City. In capturing the "violence" of the occupation and the resistance to it, existing research has paid attention to the occupation and resistance through the "direct or physical violence" involved. However, this research does not sufficiently critique the essentialist discourses behind terms like "'Jew' vs. Arab Muslim" and "religious conflict". Hidden therefore is the total picture of the conflict and of the various problems of the occupation, together with the ways in which people cope with those problems. This research tries to hold onto just such a total picture.

(3) I conducted empirical research through field research in East Jerusalem. The results are as follows:

  1.  "Various problems under the occupation" and the Palestinian "response to them" in the Old City. The occupation operates through "indirect violence". Examples of the policies involved include those concerning "taxes" and "residence rights". Difficult for people to handle, these policies produce very concrete problems that are closely related to daily life.
  2. The analytical framework: The distinctiveness of the status, "the occupied city," is closely related to various problems that Palestinians face in East Jerusalem under the occupation and to the ways in which the Palestinians respond to those problems. The distinctiveness of "being a Jerusalem resident (the Jerusalemite Identity)" is an effective analytical framework through which to research both the occupation and the types of Palestinian resistance in East Jerusalem that do not depend on "direct or physical violence"
 
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