09 Aug Catastrophes: Thinking Shoah and Nakba Together
One of the most systematically ignored roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the intimate connection of two catastrophes, the Shoah (“catastrophe” in Hebrew) and the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic). The annihilation of European Jewry by the Nazis (commonly referred to by the catachresis “Holocaust”) and the dispossession and forced expulsion of an estimated eight hundred thousand Palestinians from their lands before, during and after the creation of the state of Israel, a process often accompanied by murderous raids and by the destruction of hundreds of villages, are often posed as contradictory or opposites. Yet these catastrophes are inextricably linked. This link does not render the Shoah and the Nakba synonymous or comparable. Following the work of Palestinian, Israeli, and many other scholars, this Research Group studies the centrality of catastrophe in Jewish and Palestinian histories, literature, art, and philosophy. Understanding these catastrophic histories is one way to find a path out of the present Israeli genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The co-conveners of the “Catastrophes” RFG formed the group to pursue the following goals:
1) Enhance exchange on existing research;
2) Center the Nakba despite and because of its erasure and denial in the North America and
Western Europe
3) Create and promote rigorous research to pose the Shoah and the Nakba as historically
linked
4) Disseminate research results and reach a wider public;
5) Advance research on the interrelated structures of antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-
blackness, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Arab racism.
Conveners:
Bishnupriya Ghosh, English
bghosh@english.ucsb.edu
Sherene Seikaly, History
sseikaly@history.ucsb.edu
Elisabeth Weber, Germanic and Slavic
weber@gss.ucsb.edu