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Paper short abstract:

In a "difficult" mixed neighborhood of wider Tunis, I compare the complex dynamics of co-presence with the pre-packaged democratic training repertoires of hope through dialogue. Counter-intuitively to liberal aspirations and techniques, I argue that this co-presence is more politically potent.

Paper long abstract:

In the widely demonized “sha’bi” (poor, densely inhabited) borough of Hay Ettadhamun, the heavy hand of Ben Ali’s police state was partly lifted in 2011, only to be joined by the softer touch of international aid architecture. Such architecture promoted the training of local residents in dispassionate ‘dialogue’ for the purpose of ‘conflict resolution’. As in numerous other contexts, this security and democracy promotion nexus envisioned an intimate intervention into the everyday conflicts largely wrought by colonial, nationalist authoritarian, and currently neoliberal political configurations. Among these conflicts were physical confrontations between salafi youth and their equally young ideological opponents over the regulation of resident movement, behaviour, and modes of communication. Based on participant observation inside a small neighbourhood NGO staging a persistent contra-puntal presence in the otherwise salafi-controlled terrain of a specific “huma”(neighborhood), this presentation compares the complex dynamics of co-presence with the pre-packaged democratic training repertoires of hope for conflict resolution through dialogue. The presentation argues that, counter-intuitively to the liberal aspirations and techniques of engendering a moderate deliberating public, this tense 'unresolved' co-presence sustains a joint experience of socio-economic marginalization in Tunisia that is extremely potent: 1) By pointing the finger at the continuous state neglect of marginalized Tunisians, this tense togetherness amplifies an otherwise silenced critique of the various foreclosures of (neo)liberal democratic consolidation 2) It intervenes in the time narrative of liberal democratic transition reconfiguring, among other things, the relationship between revolution and democracy. This relationship appears as non-consecutive, but, rather, as overlapping.

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Paper short abstract:

I analyse the ambiguities in the life and work of self-titled “last Rabbi of the quartiers nord”, who, barely able to make a minyan is marginalised by Marseille’s community for his work with local Mosque-based groups to provide food, clothes, toys and education to some of the city’s poorest people.

Paper long abstract:

The words rabbin (Rabbi) and quartiers nord (northern neighbourhoods) do not go together. The first term, Rabbi, is synonymous with security, and increasingly so since l’alyah de l’interieur (Jewish displacement and re-convergence elsewhere in French conurbations). The second, quartiers nord, situated in the poor North of Marseille calls to mind high-rise social housing, socio-economic issues, youth disaffection and parallel economies particularly drug trafficking. Though neither image has any absolute truth, in such a discursive context it seems incredible to experience those words in tandem. The self-titled “last Rabbi of the quartiers nord”, marginalised territorially, monetarily and in terms of legitimacy by the city’s mainstream organised communities, concentrated in the wealthier south, while barely able to make a minyan works tirelessly with local French Arab Muslim Mosque-based civil society groups to provide food, clothes, toys and education to some of the city’s poorest people. Though his work is not Orthodox his vision of the world is traditional and conservative, for him groups have essences and we all have our place in society, conflict thus arises from change. Politically, his vision, strongly influenced by an immovable Zionism, aligns with the North African traditionalism of his synagogue. Intercommunal relations are therefore possible but hybridity cannot result from them. Through his biography and my exchanges with him I want to explore the tensions inherent in providing local human solidarity and relating to one’s neighbours through a racialised imagination and as well as his own precarity and marginality from the city’s Jewish centre.

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Paper long abstract:

Many institutions work to promote an image of peace and brotherhood between Jews and Muslims. In this respect, music concerts play a prominent role. This can be explained by the proximity and affinity that really exists between repertoires sung on both sides by Jews and Muslims, especially those from North Africa. Jewish and Muslim musicians are programmed in the same concert, sometimes playing and singing together on the scene, in Arabic and in Hebrew. This is the case recently in concerts programmed in Paris by the Institut du Monde Arabe (2022). It is also frequently the case in Strasbourg where there is a festival dedicated to such interfaith musical encounters ( Sacrées Journées). This presentation will focus on the activity of this Festival and the rhetoric with which it presents itself. But beyond the institutional and official aspect, this presentation will approach what is at stake between Jewish and Muslim musicians who participate in such activities. More generally, this presentation will examine the way in which musical practice brings Jews and Muslims together for concrete musical reasons, far from institutional rhetoric.

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Paper short abstract:

While Western-funded secular peace initiatives in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict use dialogue and sincere speech, local religious initiatives are characterized by joking and teasing. This talk examines how these divergent genres and speech styles correlate to different theories of reconciliation.

Paper long abstract:

For a long time, peace initiatives in Israel/Palestine have been funded by American and European liberals who seek to promote dialogue between Jews and Palestinians. These initiatives are largely ignored by the target population and attended only by secular elites from both sides. For nearly a decade however, grassroots peace initiatives seek to address the question of peace from the perspective of Israel and Palestine’s large religious and non-liberal populations have begun to emerge. In particular, I have conducted research between Muslim Palestinians and Mizrahi Jews (of Middle Eastern origin), groups with significant cultural commonalities. One of the differences I found between Western-funded secular/liberal and local religious/non-liberal peace groups is the genre and speech styles employed in the exchanges. Secular/liberal peace initiatives use “dialogue”, characterized by a serious and somber tone, sincere speech, confession, and emotional self-exposure, while the religious/non-liberal initiatives I have observed are characterized by joking, teasing, and wordplay. These divergent genres and speech styles correlate to different theories of reconciliation. The sincerity of liberal groups assumes an individualized self-representation, and reflects a theory of reconciliation based on personal transformation, corresponding with Western models of reconciliation such as contact hypothesis (Gordon Allport) and Habermasian people-to-people dialogue (Hélène Pfeil). By contrast, religious/non-liberal peace initiatives' use of joking assumes a more collective self-representation, and reveals a theory of reconciliation based on intercommunal solidarity and group negotiation. The theories of reconciliation that underlie these initiatives are less formalized but do correspond to the insights of Adam Seligman and John Paul Lederach.