Past Projects
A short list of some of my published and forthcoming work.
History Lessons for Jared Kushner
"When you’re rewriting rules—or eschewing them altogether—you likely have little use for 'history lessons.'"
Some unsolicited advice for Jared Kushner as he works on negotiating a resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Published on The Spoke - the blog of the Albright Institute at Wellesley College.
Teacher, Preacher, Soldier, Martyr: Rethinking 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam
When Shaykh 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam died in a gunfight with the Palestine Police Force in November 1935, the Government of the British Mandate for Palestine was ill prepared for the public outpouring of popular support and inspiration the imam from Haifa’s death would give to Arab Palestinian political aspirations. Al-Qassam soon became a powerful symbol in the nationalist fight against the British colonial power and subsequently the State of Israel. Al-Qassam remains a potent figure in Arab nationalist, Palestinian nationalist, and modern “Islamist” circles. The purpose of this paper is thus twofold: first, to provide an overview of the current state of the historiography on al-Qassam; and second, to add to that historiography with a recontextualized narrative of al-Qassam’s life and death. This latter part of the paper aims to fill some of the gaps with additional sources and place the findings alongside contemporary historical scholarship on political identity and nationalist movements in Palestine and the wider Mashriq. This article contends that the claims made on al-Qassam by contemporary Palestinian, “Islamic” nationalists have silenced the multiple contexts available if one considers the entirety of al-Qassam’s life. Viewed in this light, it is possible that al-Qassam never considered himself a “Palestinian” at all.
W. J. T. Mitchell's Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9/11 to the Present
A review of Cloning Terror, published in the Journal of American Culture.
Great Figures in Palestinian History
A short biographical essay on 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam and his position in the history of Palestine, published in the book Great Figures in Palestinian History.
The Transnational City: Haifa in the British Mandate
This article looks at the ways in which Haifa became more than a centre for national politics during the inter-war period, but a vibrant transnational, regional hub for a particular kind of pan-Arab nationalist politics.