Call for Re-Documentation of Palestinian Narrative and Interest in Historical Documents - News

Samih Hammoudah of the Political Science Faculty at BZU
called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli narrative on the conflict
through the re-documentation of the Palestinian narrative. He encouraged particular
attention be paid to historical documents through "formulating a national
intellectual system, based on scientific studies of documents." This call came
during a seminar entitled "Spotlights on Islamic-Christian Relations in
Ramallah during the Late Ottoman and British Mandate, according to Ramallah Records"
held by the Zaytouna Centre for Advisory Studies in Beirut.

Hammoudah referred to the archives of the Ramallah
Municipality, amounting to 126 records and decisions of the municipal council
since its inception in 1912 through the present.

He attributed the increasing Moslem presence in Ramallah
during the British Mandate to the Christian immigration from Ramallah to the
United States. He accounted for this pattern with economic and material reasons
as well as an increase in the Ramallah labor force, explaining that the Islamic
expansion in Ramallah was normal and did not encounter any aggression.

He
concluded his lecture by calling for a move from general history to a detailed
history, giving attention for cognitive and theoretical studies of history and
society, and the importance of critical reading of the Western analytical
narrative.