CrossRoads: European cultural diplomacy and Arab Christians in Palestine. A connected history during the formative years of the Middle East.
This project aims to revisit the relationship between the European cultural agenda and the local identity formation process, and social and religious transformations of Arab Christian communities in Palestine, when the British ruled via the Mandate. What was the role of culture in European policies regarding the Arabs of Palestine? How did Arab Christians use culture to define their place in the proto-national and religious configuration between 1920 and 1950?
This project proposed a connected history of the Arab Christian communities in Palestine during the formative years of the Middle East (1920-1950) and the birth of the cultural diplomacy via an interdisciplinary and entangled approach, relying on mainly unpublished sources. It investigated the relationship between the European cultural agenda and the local identity formation process, and social and religious transformations of Arab Christian communities in Palestine.
Questions What was the role of culture in European policies regarding the Arabs of Palestine? How did Arab Christians use culture to define their place in the proto-national and religious configuration between 1920 and 1950? This project begun with the assumption that the history of Arab Christianity must be studied in the wider context of European and global developments, and via its cultural elements.
Hypothesis 1. Mandate authorities addressed Muslim and Jewish communities (via legal frameworks, proto-national agenda, sectarian policies) but not Christian communities, leaving them somewhat apart. One result was that they over-proportionally invested in culture as a cornerstone of their identity. 2. Palestine was a nexus of cultural milieus (European actors and Jewish immigrants). Their culture played a major role in the construction of the Jewish nation and this process impacted the Arab Christian communities’ sense of ‘cultural promotion’. 3. Following WWI, international relations were becoming inexorably linked to political ideology and rivalry between European states took on a cultural component. 4. Supranational religious actors (Vatican, Orthodox Patriarchates) promoted diverse linguistic and cultural agendas by investing in cultural associations.