Chaire sécable de l’IISMM-EHESS | Professeur invité : Munir Fakher Eldin (Birzeit University)
Dr. Munir Fakher Eldin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Studies and serves as the Arab Center Chair in Social Sciences and Humanities at Birzeit University. He has held significant leadership roles, including Director of the Master’s Program in Israeli Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Arts (2015-2021, 2021-2024). He is currently a EUME fellow (2024-2025) at the Forum Transregionale Studein, Berlin.
Dr. Fakher Eldin’s research primarily explores the history and politics of land access in late Ottoman and British-ruled Palestine, alongside the political culture of his native Golan Heights community under Israeli occupation. His current writing project delves into the social and political histories of land registration systems during the Ottoman and British Mandate periods in Palestine, with a particular focus on the Beisan Valley (1858-1948). This work critically revisits the issue of Palestinian peasant land loss to settler colonial and capitalist expansion, blending governmental and social histories to uncover the evolving power dynamics and access to land.
Munir Fakher Eldin will take part of Visiting Professors Program designed by EHESS, on proposal of Stéphanie Latte Abdallah (CNRS, Césor) et Philippe Pétriat (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, IISMM)
LECTURES
Green Colonialism and the Politics of Indigeneity: A Case Study of the Occupied Golan Heights
The lecture will explore the ramifications of Israeli colonialism, particularly its latest manifestation known as ‘green colonialism’ driven by wind energy projects, on the ‘politics of indigeneity’ in the Golan Heights. The term “indigeneity” or its Arabic equivalent, “sukkan asliyyin,” has long served as a marker of identity for the remaining Syrian community under Israeli occupation, in their encounter with Israel’s annexation and settler appropriation of their landscape and historical legacy. Recent developments in wind energy in the region have sparked resistance not only among the natives but also among Israeli-Jewish settlers, who now advocate for a form of ‘landscape indigeneity’ (or in Lurenzo Veracini’s terms, self-indiginization) in opposition to the disruptive presence of wind turbines. Some observers speculate that this may mark the emergence of a new frontier politics, potentially aligning settlers and natives beyond the conflict lines. The lecture will delve into the historical constitution of the Syrian Jawlani community, examining the social and political changes, forms of domination and political challenges and threats they experience since 1967, in order to elucidate the evolving lines and borders between them and Israeli settlers.
Dans le cadre du séminaire “Vivant et écologies dans les crises et les guerres – sociétés arabes et mondes musulmans contemporains” animé par Stéphanie Latte Abdallah et Juliette Duclos-Valois
- Mercredi 2 avril 2025 de 12h30 à 14h30 – Salle 2.14 – Humathèque, Campus Condorcet, Cours des humanités 93300 Aubervilliers
Can there be knowledge in Palestine beyond the conflict?
Dans le cadre du cycle de rencontres “Au-delà du conflit” lancé l’an dernier à l’IISMM, Munir Fakhr El Din présentera son les programmes d’études israéliennes des universités palestiniennes puis ses proches recherches dans ce domaine qui dépasse la seule étude de la guerre. En dialogue avec des enseignants-chercheurs de l’École, comme dans les autres rencontres de ce cycle, cette présentation sera suivie d’un débat.
Dans le cadre du Cycle “Au-delà du conflit” (IISMM-EHESS)
- Mercredi 9 avril 2025 de 12h à 13h30 – Salle B3.18, IISMM, EHESS, 54 Bd Raspail 75006 Paris
Plus d’information et inscription
The Myth of Empty Land: Ottoman, British and Israeli Land Regimes and the Palestinians
Dans le cadre du séminaire de recherche (masters 1 et 2, doctorants) des étudiants de la spécialité “Histoire du Maghreb et Moyen-Orient” à l’Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, M. Fakhr El Din présentera les résultats de ses recherches sur l’histoire des régimes juridiques du foncier et de la gouvernance en Palestine depuis le code ottoman de 1858. Les trois régimes successifs présentés dans cette conférence ont conçu la Palestine comme une “terre vide” mais de manière différente, ce qui implique aussi une conception différente de place et du rôle reconnus aux habitants.
In this lecture, Prof. Munir Fakhr Eldin will introduce the main results of his research on the historical changes in the land law and governance in Palestine since the 1858 Land Code. He will explain how the three regimes—the Ottoman, the British, the Israeli—perceived of Palestine as an “empty land” in very different way and what kind of counter processes took place—i.e., how the Palestinians figure out as agents rather than simply ‘objects’ of power.
Dans le cadre du séminaire de recherche “Histoire du Maghreb et Moyen-Orient” animé par Philippe Pétriat
- Mercredi 9 avril 2025 de 15h à 17h – Salle des Commissions, Centre Panthéon, 12 place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris
A Genealogy of Title-by-Registration in Palestine: British Rule and the Unmaking of the Ottoman Order
The talk provides a genealogy of the birth of title-by-registration in Palestine under British colonial rule, tracing its conflicted origins back to the late Ottoman period. The discussion centers on a famous lawsuit filed by the heirs of Sultan Abdulhamid II in the Jaffa land court in 1933, seeking to reclaim the possessions of the late sultan in the al-Muharraqa village of the Gaza district. The disputed land, comprising about 4,800 dunums, was just a small portion of the vast land holdings accumulated by the former sultan as emlak-i humayun, or imperial estates, across various parts of the empire. The lawsuit aimed to serve as a test ase for reclaiming all such properties from the successor states. The heirs contested the Ottoman states treatment of these lands as state property, arguing that no changes had been made in the imperial land registry. They challenged the British authorities by presenting their written proofs of ownership: the Ottoman Tapu. This initiated a series of legal battles and retrials spanning Jaffa, London, and Jerusalem, which only ended with the termination of the British Mandate in 1948. British officials were dispatched to Istanbul to obtain official Turkish documents from the state archives and sought legal counsel from prominent Turkish lawyers to refute the heir; claims. Fakher Eldin addresses two main questions: Why did the Ottoman authorities not see a need to alter the Tapu records? And why did the claims wield such influence over the British government, despite a clear state action that should have swiftly resolved the case? What insights can be gained from this case about the nature of British colonial intervention in land tenure in Palestine?
Dans le cadre du Séminaire “Sciences sociales du droit” de Sciences Po Bordeaux, animé par Mariam Benalioua, Baudouin Dupret, Irene Lizzola et Marième N’Diaye.
- Mardi 15 avril de 14h à 17h – Salle Camus, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Laboratoire LAM (Les Afriques dans le Monde), 11 allée Ausone, 33600 Pessac-Bordeaux
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Chargé de diffusion scientifique (24 février 2025). Chaire sécable de l’IISMM-EHESS | Professeur invité : Munir Fakher Eldin (Birzeit University). IISMM. Consulté le 25 avril 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/13d2u