PhD Thesis
Title: Remembering a Fading Past: The Israeli Occupation of the Jordan Valley Re-Examined Through Oral History
PhD Supervisor & 2nd Reader: Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou and Riccardo Bocco
External co-supervisor: Ilan Pappé (University of Exeter)
Expected completion date: 2025
In June 1967, the Israeli military forces occupied the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, a central Palestinian geography and home to thriving communities that had formed an integral part in Palestine’s social and economic fabrics. Under the swift blows of the War of 1967, Israel displaced most of the Jordan Valley’s Palestinian population—the majority of whom were 1948 Nakba refugees—and systematically prevented their return; demolished several of their depopulated communities; and has been establishing and expanding Israeli settlements in the area ever since. Until today, this crucial period of the Jordan Valley’s past and its connections to the present remain overlooked, preserved in the memories of Palestinians. This research project draws from the oral histories of Palestinians and pertinent archives to reconstruct and scrutinize the fading narratives of the Jordan Valley’s occupation in 1967 and its aftermath. Anchored in the field of settler colonial studies, this research adopts a bottom-up approach to shed light on the consequences of the Jordan Valley’s occupation on the lives of Palestinians, and what they can tell us about the logic and manifestations of settler colonialism in Palestine and beyond.
Profile
Atwa Jaber's research interests lie at the intersection between history, anthropology, and geography. He holds a BA in law and public administration from Birzeit University and a MA in development studies from the Geneva Graduate Institute. He previously worked and conducted research with the Global Health Center, the Small Arms Survey, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Oxfam, and the United Nations.
Research Interests
- Forced Displacement and Collective Memories
- History of Settler Colonialism
- Indigenous History
- Social History
- Oral History
Relevant Publications and Works
- Atwa Jaber, “No Bridge Will Take You Home: The Jordan Valley Exodus Remembered Through The UNRWA Archives”, Jerusalem Quarterly, Special Issue: UNRWA Archives (Part 2), no. 94, 2023
- Atwa Jaber, “The Israeli Annexation of The Jordan Valley: Exploring a History of Settler-Colonial Expansion.,” in Contemporary Debates on the Question of Palestine, ed. Riccardo Bocco and Ibrahim Saïd (Geneva: Graduate Institute Publications, in press).
- Jaber, Atwa. “La corsa di Israele all’annessione della Valle del Giordano: un’analisi storica (Israel’s Race to Annex the Jordan Valley: A Historical Analysis).” In Il Ponte rivista di politica, economia e cultura, Palestinesi: Special Issue, edited by Lanfranco Binni, Riccardo Bocco, Wasim Dahmash, and Barbara Gagliardi, 1:100–113. Florence, 2020
afiliations
- Research Fellow of the Institute for Palestine Studies (Beirut, Lebanon), the Palestinian American Research Center (Ramallah, Palestine), and the European Center for Palestine Studies (Exeter, UK).
- Member of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES), Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS), Societé Suisse Moyen Orient et Civilisation Islamique (SSMOCI), and Conférence universitaire de Suisse occidentale (CUSO).
Academic Work Experience
Research Experience
- Research Assistant at the Global Health Center (2021-2023)
- Research Assistant at the Small Arms Survey (2019)
Fellowships, Grants and Awards
- Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) Palestine Fellowship 2023-2024
- Swiss National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Fellowship (Doc.CH) 2021-2024
- Graduate Institute Sibylle Pastré Scholarship 2020-2021
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