Irene Calis is a political anthropologist at Rhodes University, South Africa. She holds a PhD in anthropology from the London School of Economics & Political Science and her current book project examines the everyday, intimate workings of political oppression for rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank. The ethnographic study raises broader questions about the nature of “everyday" itself in such contexts, and of human survival.
Does Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people constitute apartheid? And is apartheid the best framework to apply to Palestine and the Palestinians to achieve freedom, justice, and equality? As 2018 marks 70 years since the Nakba - or catastrophe - began, this collection of Al-Shabaka analysis over the years helps shed light on the debate.
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The frequent comparisons of Israel with Apartheid South Africa may obscure more fundamental questions Palestinians should be asking. From her present base in today’s South Africa, where “whiteness” still lives on the back of “blackness”, Al-Shabaka Policy Member Irene Calis argues that the post-Apartheid moment should alert Palestinians to take stock and reframe both the form of their campaigns as well as the terms of any proposed resolution.
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