The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians
by Sa'ed Atshan and Katharina Galor
Duke University Press, 2020 Cloth: 978-1-4780-0785-2 | Paper: 978-1-4780-0837-8 | eISBN: 978-1-4780-1201-6 Library of Congress Classification DD74.A87 2020
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Berlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and one of the world’s largest Israeli diaspora communities. Germany’s guilt about the Nazi Holocaust has led to a public disavowal of anti-Semitism and strong support for the Israeli state. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Berlin report experiencing increasing levels of racism and Islamophobia. In The Moral Triangle Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans in Berlin to explore these asymmetric relationships in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the private sphere. They show how these relationships stem from narratives surrounding moral responsibility, the Holocaust, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and Germany’s recent welcoming of Middle Eastern refugees. They also point to spaces for activism and solidarity among Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians in Berlin that can help foster restorative justice and account for multiple forms of trauma. Highlighting their interlocutors’ experiences, memories, and hopes, Atshan and Galor demonstrate the myriad ways in which migration, trauma, and contemporary state politics are inextricably linked.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Sa’ed Atshan is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique.
Katharina Galor is Hirschfeld Visiting Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University. She is the author of Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology between Science and Ideology.
REVIEWS
“Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor are engaged in rich and rare dialogues—with each other and their informants—that redefine the ‘moral triangle’ between Palestinians, Jews, and Germans as they act, react, interact, resist, and reconcile in Berlin. In a spirit of affective affiliation they draw on psychic compulsions and political circumstances that haunt the histories of cohabitation. Survival, trauma, grace, forgiveness, desperation, and hospitality are issues that stir the conscience and consciousness of this remarkable book. The Moral Triangle exceeds its geometry to provide a many-sided, plural perspective on living together in difference with dignity.”
-- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
“The Moral Triangle takes up one of the most complex topics in the contemporary world: the ethically fraught relationships between Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians. But Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor's book is also much more than an original and urgently needed study; it is itself an ethical document that exemplifies how scholarship can confront thorny moral and political problems with generosity, nuance, and a strong sense of restorative justice. This uniquely powerful book will make a significant and salutary intervention for both academic and general readerships.”
-- Michael Rothberg, author of The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators
“[The Moral Triangle] shines in its impressionistic and fast-paced reportage style. Galor and Atshan tap into narratives of perpetrators and victims, trauma and its afterlives, responsibility and reconciliation, morality, and memory.”
-- Anna-E. Younes Journal of Palestine Studies
“Guilt and a sense of culpability for their country’s past crimes against the Jewish people have led many Germans—particularly the country’s government—to adopt highly supportive positions vis-a-vis Israel. In The Moral Triangle, scholars Saed Atshan and Katharina Galor dare to explore the sensitive intricacies of this issue. . . . The results of their work are fascinating and groundbreaking.”
-- Dale Sprusansky Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction. The Triangle
1. Trauma, Holocaust, Nakba
2. Victim and Perpetrator
3. Germany and Israel/Palestine
4. Germany and Migration
5. Elusive Demography
6. Neue Heimat Berlin?
7. Moral Responsibility
8. Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia
9. Urban Spaces and Voices
10. Points of Intersection
11. Between Guilt and Censorship
Conclusion. Restorative Justice
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
A
B
D
G
H
I
K
M
N
P
S
T
W
Z
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians
by Sa'ed Atshan and Katharina Galor
Duke University Press, 2020 Cloth: 978-1-4780-0785-2 Paper: 978-1-4780-0837-8 eISBN: 978-1-4780-1201-6
Berlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and one of the world’s largest Israeli diaspora communities. Germany’s guilt about the Nazi Holocaust has led to a public disavowal of anti-Semitism and strong support for the Israeli state. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Berlin report experiencing increasing levels of racism and Islamophobia. In The Moral Triangle Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans in Berlin to explore these asymmetric relationships in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the private sphere. They show how these relationships stem from narratives surrounding moral responsibility, the Holocaust, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and Germany’s recent welcoming of Middle Eastern refugees. They also point to spaces for activism and solidarity among Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians in Berlin that can help foster restorative justice and account for multiple forms of trauma. Highlighting their interlocutors’ experiences, memories, and hopes, Atshan and Galor demonstrate the myriad ways in which migration, trauma, and contemporary state politics are inextricably linked.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Sa’ed Atshan is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique.
Katharina Galor is Hirschfeld Visiting Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University. She is the author of Finding Jerusalem: Archaeology between Science and Ideology.
REVIEWS
“Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor are engaged in rich and rare dialogues—with each other and their informants—that redefine the ‘moral triangle’ between Palestinians, Jews, and Germans as they act, react, interact, resist, and reconcile in Berlin. In a spirit of affective affiliation they draw on psychic compulsions and political circumstances that haunt the histories of cohabitation. Survival, trauma, grace, forgiveness, desperation, and hospitality are issues that stir the conscience and consciousness of this remarkable book. The Moral Triangle exceeds its geometry to provide a many-sided, plural perspective on living together in difference with dignity.”
-- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University
“The Moral Triangle takes up one of the most complex topics in the contemporary world: the ethically fraught relationships between Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians. But Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor's book is also much more than an original and urgently needed study; it is itself an ethical document that exemplifies how scholarship can confront thorny moral and political problems with generosity, nuance, and a strong sense of restorative justice. This uniquely powerful book will make a significant and salutary intervention for both academic and general readerships.”
-- Michael Rothberg, author of The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators
“[The Moral Triangle] shines in its impressionistic and fast-paced reportage style. Galor and Atshan tap into narratives of perpetrators and victims, trauma and its afterlives, responsibility and reconciliation, morality, and memory.”
-- Anna-E. Younes Journal of Palestine Studies
“Guilt and a sense of culpability for their country’s past crimes against the Jewish people have led many Germans—particularly the country’s government—to adopt highly supportive positions vis-a-vis Israel. In The Moral Triangle, scholars Saed Atshan and Katharina Galor dare to explore the sensitive intricacies of this issue. . . . The results of their work are fascinating and groundbreaking.”
-- Dale Sprusansky Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction. The Triangle
1. Trauma, Holocaust, Nakba
2. Victim and Perpetrator
3. Germany and Israel/Palestine
4. Germany and Migration
5. Elusive Demography
6. Neue Heimat Berlin?
7. Moral Responsibility
8. Racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia
9. Urban Spaces and Voices
10. Points of Intersection
11. Between Guilt and Censorship
Conclusion. Restorative Justice
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
A
B
D
G
H
I
K
M
N
P
S
T
W
Z
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE