New review: ‘Rhetorics of Belonging’

Electronic Intifada, 28th March 2014

When it is read in universities or for the pages of publications such as The New York Review of Books or literary supplements of London newspapers, Bernard writes, Palestinian and Israeli literature is usually seen as representing a national narrative.
This emphasis on “narrative” rather than justice can, Bernard argues, be dangerous to Palestinians.
Increased “receptivity” to the “Palestinian narrative,” she asserts, has created a situation where to hear what Palestinians have to say — and then to juxtapose it against the Holocaust and centuries of European pogroms — allows Western liberals to carry on ignoring Palestinian rights while offering a briefly sympathetic ear.

The full review is here.