[-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour

[larissa sansour]

In the case of Palestine, ex-territorialisation is not
only a condition of the discourse, but crucial to understanding the predicament
and psyche of the Palestinian people - just as it has been central to
Jewish identity for centuries, if you will. It's important to keep in mind that
displacement in a Palestinian context is very much also an internal matter -
with refugee camps scattered all across the occupied territories. Also, the
issue of right of return weighs heavily on the political dialogue.

As Isak mentioned earlier this condition should not only
be looked at as complicated but also as expansive. 

In some of my pieces I address exactly that. In A Space Exodus,
for example, by infusing into the tragedy of ex-territorialisation gone absurd
with a sense of conquest and pride (however fictitious).




Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 15:31:37 -0800
From: isakberbic at yahoo.com
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour

On the paradox of the: “emphasis on "geopolitics" where, [one is] creating art from outside of the geographic center upon which [one] reflects.” 






I find Larissa’s particular situation quite enlightening. Thank you for your thoughts on this remarkable experience. I have found that this is also shared by many Palestinians today. In the United Arab Emirates, most Palestinians arrived after 1967, and have worked, married, given birth to children, grown up in this country. I would like to mention that there is no naturalization process in the Gulf states, and many others in the Middle East. Some Palestinians in the UAE have acquired/earned Jordanian passports, or Canadian, etc. as a way of coping with the international requirement of holding an accepted and effective document. 


I agree that, today more than ever, for those who are holding multiple citizenships, living / lived in multiple cities, belong to diasporas, are expatriates, are exiled or are asylum seekers - a territorialization of cultural discourses to a geography (literally) becomes complicated. As a matter of fact, not only complicated, but contested and hopefully expanded. 


Isak Berbic
February 6th, 2011
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
From: larissa sansour <lsansour at hotmail.com>
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, February 5, 2011 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Introducing Isak Berbic and Larissa Sansour

 



 



Thanks Timothy for your feedback. I’ll start by
addressing your second question. 

  

I mentioned the collective unconscious
understanding in my work in relation to terminology often used in the media
without much indication of critical reflection – or maybe the opposite is
exactly true: that critical reflection is indeed there and that the choice of
terminology therefore reveals a tacit agreement with the political intentions
conveyed. In any case, when it comes to the crisis in the Middle East, the
terminology adopted – whether it’s for reasons of ideology, diplomacy or
ignorance – often leads to an inadequate understanding by the public of the
actual situation on the ground. 

  

For example, a term such as ‘conflict’ is
misleading as it suggests equality of power on both sides rather than a
clear-cut occupation enforced by one of the biggest armies in the world. The
‘security fence’ is another misleading term employed in an attempt to
camouflage the by no means purely defensive purposes of this piece of
architecture.  In reality, Israel’s
‘security fence’ is more of a land grab tool as well as an apartheid wall, used
to separate Israelis from Palestinians and Palestinian towns from other
Palestinian towns. 

  

There are obviously many more examples of
such terminology used in covering the Middle East crisis that ends up building
a picture for people outside of Palestine far removed from what the actual
situation is. Of course, you can see a ­­side of this same pattern being
repeated more or less in news coverage of events in Egypt. 

  

  

In your first question, you mention a
possible paradox. I don’t think there is one. The Palestinian experience is
very much linked to migration and displacement. To single out, say, only those
who live in Palestine as better representatives of what it means to be
Palestinian, would paint a very incomplete picture. 

Many Palestinian refugees are still
considered stateless in the countries they fled to while others are not
integrated or granted proper rights in others. 

The Palestinian psyche is a troubled one. Many Palestinians see
themselves as citizens in flux, regardless of where they live, waiting for the
right to return home. In that way, the
Palestinian diaspora is as central to the Palestinian identity as are those who
live in Palestine. One must not forget that many Palestinians are refugees in
Palestine itself and are waiting for the day when they can go back to their
towns and cities of origin. 

  

On an autobiographical note, I myself was
born in East Jerusalem and grew up in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. My first
language is Arabic. I was forced to leave Palestine at the age of 15 when the
first Intifada broke out. Even though I have lived abroad ever since, I have
never seen myself as an observer from a distance, from somewhere outside of some
sort of more genuine Palestinian context. 

Until recently, I had no other documents
than my Palestinian passport and Palestinian ID (issued by the state of Israel)
and that of course very much influenced my sense of belonging or lack of,  in whatever country I lived or worked
in. Perhaps this is also what separates geography from identity in my
understanding. Many Palestinians that live abroad live secret lives hiding the
fact that they are Palestinian – in order to avoid harassment or a
confrontation with the stereotypical perceptions that many carry towards
Palestinians. In a sense that also informs their identity. 

  

I make most of my work in Palestine as I
think it is very important to document the reality on the ground there, where a
lot of effort by Israel has been made to erase Palestinian history and culture
reinforcing a longtime Zionist rhetoric of ‘a land with no people for a people
without a land’. Whenever I go back to Palestine, I am subjected to the same
humiliating treatment and human rights violations that the Israeli government
forces on any Palestinian no matter what your country of residence, what other
foreign passports you are holding or whatever social class you belong to. In
Israel’s understanding, once a Palestinian, always a Palestinian. 
Larissa


      
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