Memory of Place: Names of Palestinian Towns and Villages between Historical Continuity and Zionist Eradication

What are the places of Palestinian memory and what have they preserved for us? In which places has Palestinian history been stored? How were these places constituted? What is the human relationship to the land in Palestine across history? This research seeks answers to these questions and attempts to develop guidelines for investigating key locations of Palestinian memory based on historical documents. This research begins with a review of theoretical and methodological preliminaries to the study of Palestinian place-names based on Palestinian collective memory as formed by Palestinian cultural and communicative memory. The study then takes up discussion of the relationship between memory and history, reviewing identity of place and the importance of linguistic studies of Palestinian place names. Finally, it addresses the transformation of Palestinian space in the wake of the Nakba and the Zionist policy of obliterating Palestinian place names. 

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What are the places of Palestinian memory and what have they preserved for us? In which places has Palestinian history been stored? How were these places constituted? What is the human relationship to the land in Palestine across history? This research seeks answers to these questions and attempts to develop guidelines for investigating key locations of Palestinian memory based on historical documents. This research begins with a review of theoretical and methodological preliminaries to the study of Palestinian place-names based on Palestinian collective memory as formed by Palestinian cultural and communicative memory. The study then takes up discussion of the relationship between memory and history, reviewing identity of place and the importance of linguistic studies of Palestinian place names. Finally, it addresses the transformation of Palestinian space in the wake of the Nakba and the Zionist policy of obliterating Palestinian place names. 

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