Adel Manna
(Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem)

Chair: Elias Khoury
(Beirut / Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 2016/17)

Abstract
It is well-known that in 1948 about 750,000 Palestinians were depopulated and only 156,000 Palestinians survived the war in Israel. In his talk “Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956”, Adel Manna will focus on the large numbers of Palestinians that remained rather than the refugees. The presentation is based on his recently published book in Arabic on this topic (Beirut and Ramallah: Institute of Palestine Studies, 2016). This research is bringing up new questions about “non-expulsion” and survival of Palestinians during the war and after. The answers to the questions are given from the survivors’ perspective using all sources available on both sides of the divide. In addition to Israeli archives, Arab press and private collections of documents and other written sources, oral testimonies are integrated in the bottom-up history of that eventful era. The chapters of the book are shedding new light on the dynamics and tactics of survival in the aftermath of the Nakba. Examples of expulsions and return to the Galilee will illustrate the fact that the struggle for survival of this community continued long after the 1948 war up to 1956 at least.

Adel Manna is a historian specializing in the history of Palestine during the Ottoman period and the Palestinians in the 20th century. Manna taught history of the Middle East in several Israeli and Palestinian universities since the early 1980s. Currently, he is a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His book “Nakba and Survival: The Story of Palestinians Who Remained in Haifa and the Galilee, 1948-1956” will be published in Hebrew by the Van Leer Institute in February 2017.

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