In Zoom In, Israeli and Palestinian authors collectively explore the contrasting perspectives on memory and remembrance through an innovative approach. Palestinian and Israeli university students are presented with a catalogue of period photographs from 1948 and then asked to provide their personal impressions. These individual reactions are then analyzed by the scholars, providing a multi-perspective commentary...

In Zoom In, Israeli and Palestinian authors collectively explore the contrasting perspectives on memory and remembrance through an innovative approach. Palestinian and Israeli university students are presented with a catalogue of period photographs from 1948 and then asked to provide their personal impressions. These individual reactions are then analyzed by the scholars, providing a multi-perspective commentary and analysis that underscores the urgent need for building greater understanding for the common history of this region. A particularly insightful case study is presented by Menachem Klein and Mahmoud Yazbak who jointly investigate how the 1948 expulsion and deportation of Palestinian refugees from the villages of Aylut and Malul are remembered today, both at the individual and collective levels, underscoring the enduring the dynamics that exist between the past and the present. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction, Catherine Cissé-van den Muijsenbergh Chapter 1 - Photographs on 1948's Palestinian Refugees with comments from students Chapter 2 - 'Aylut and Ma'lul: A Tale of Two Palestinian Villages Before and After the 1948 Nakba and the Birth of Israel, Mahmoud Yazbak and Menachem Klein Chapter 3 - Analysis on the comments 1 A Choreography of Memories, Menachem Klein 2 The Nakba and the Palestinian Silence, Mahmoud Yazbak 3 Social Silence: Transference, De-Sensitization and De-Focusing Among the Israeli Students, Efrat Ben-Ze'ev 4 The Afterlives of 1948: Photographic Remembrances in a Time of Catastrophe, Ihab Saloul 5 The Victimhood Trap, Tamir Sorek 6 Al-Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe Continues, Sami Adwan Biographies Annex Memories of Students on 1948 and the Palestinian Refugees and Students' Opinions on Historical Truth and Historical Justice ABOUT THE AUTHORS Sami Adwan, Ph.D (1987) in Education Administration, University of San Francisco, a Professor of Education and a teacher trainer at the Faculty of Education at Bethlehem University. Prof. Adwan's research focuses on Palestinian eduction and school books in building peace. Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, D.Phil. in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford (2001) and teaches at the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Ruppin Academic Center. Her research deals with Palestinian and Israeli memories of 1948, mental maps and geographical perceptions. Menachem Klein, PhD in Middle East and Islamic Studies Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His latest book is The Shift: Israel - Palestine from Border Conflict to Ethnic Struggle (2010). Ihab Saloul, Ph.D (2009) Cultural Analysis and COmparatice Literature, University of Amsterdam, a Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Media at Maastricht University, and Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam. Among his areas of interests are the study of cultural memory and identity politics. Tamir Sorek, Ph.D. (2002) Sociology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Israel Studies at the University of Florida. He taught previously at Cornell University and the University of Maryland. His scholarly interests center on the processes by which ethnic and national identities are produced. Mahmoud Yazbak, Ph. D (1996) in Middle Eastern Studies form The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor of Palestinian History, teaching at the Department of Middle Eastern History at the University of Haifa. Professor Yazbak is the author of Haifa in the Late Ottoman Period, 1864-1914: A Muslim Town in Transition (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998).