Indigenous Strangers: Palestinians and 'Ghareebat' / Female 'Strangers' in Israel

Dr. Taghreed Yahia-Younis

In this talk, Dr. Yahia-Younis examines the construction and meanings of "strangeness" and "stranger" amongst Palestinian citizens of Israel. She addresses processes and mechanisms for constructing categories of strangers, both at a macro and micro level. Her central argument revolves around the role of the Israeli state and society in constructing Palestinian citizens as strangers in their own homeland. She focuses on 'al-ghareebat' (female strangers) and the gendered nature of constructions of strangeness. Furthermore, she addresses the power of resistance and the challenges facing Palestinian citizens of Israel, particularly women who are constructed as 'strangers'. The core of this resistance is based on their construction of "indigenousness", thus she suggests the term 'indigenous strangers' to conceptualize their experience.

Bio

Dr Taghreed Yahia-Younis is a political sociologist, who obtained her PhD from the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University. Her dissertation is entitled "Strangeness, Gender and Politics: Women in Palestinian Local Politics in Israel." She has published several articles, some forthcoming, based on her PhD. Currently, Taghreed is a British Academy research fellow at Center of Gender Studies, SOAS. She works on "The Construction of Masculinities among Palestinians in Israel".

Contact email: N.S.Al-Ali@soas.ac.uk