Tactics and Strategies of Power: The Construction of Spaces of Belonging for Palestinian Women in Jaffa–Tel Aviv

Citation:

Hamdan-Saliba, Hanaa, and Tovi Fenster. 2012. “Tactics and Strategies of Power: The Construction of Spaces of Belonging for Palestinian Women in Jaffa–Tel Aviv.” Women’s Studies International Forum 35 (4): 203–13. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2012.03.022.

Authors: Hanaa Hamdan-Saliba, Tovi Fenster

Abstract:

Adopting a qualitative method, the study examines the everyday tactics that sixty Palestinian women from Jaffa employ in order to cope with various strategies of power – gender, cultural, national and global – that limit their everyday spatial practices. Based on the narratives of these women, the study suggests to distinguish between pro-active and non-active tactics which create or diminish the construction of spaces of belonging on the base of daily negotiations, and ways of maneuvering that Palestinian women use against these strategies of power. Pro-active tactics create alternative spaces; enable the manipulation of social and cultural codes; and create the home as a space of independence. Non-active tactics work against ethnic allocation; discriminatory Palestinian and Jewish development and Islamization of space. The study considers spaces of belonging, which are created by daily negotiations and tactics, to be the “third space”, not only the space occupied by oppressed and marginalized groups, but also a space of opportunities that affords these women the possibility of making changes in their spatial practices.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Religion Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel, Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2012