Paper short abstract:

Our poster will present "Project 1967", a research endeavor in which personal stories of both Israelis and Palestinians were collected, providing a wealth of testimonies from people who directly witnessed and experienced the Six-Day War.

Paper long abstract:

In June 1967, a war broke out in the Middle East, that immeasurably reshaped everyday life in the region. Our poster will present "Project 1967", a research endeavor in which personal stories of both Israelis and Palestinians were collected, providing a wealth of testimonies from people who directly witnessed and experienced the war. These multi-layered stories portray conflicting, basically irreconcilable realities, but also overarching memories and sentiments held in common. The stories point to fascinating avenues relating to changing spatial perceptions, the impact of language on memories, as well as many other topics that involve rumors, conspiracies and even jokes, as people talk about war through genres.

In our research in progress, being conducted fifty years after that dramatic war, the main belligerents, the Israelis and the Palestinians disagree on almost everything. For example, while the Israelis call the event "the Six-Day War," the Palestinians talk about the Naksa, meaning "the defeat". The Israelis speak of six days of heroic fighting, while Palestinians talk about a quick occupation, that took no more than two days.

"Project 1967" is being conducted as a collaborative venture involving researchers from the University of Göttingen, the Hebrew University and Al Quds University. Over nearly two years the researchers have conducted dozens of interviews with Jerusalemites from different parties, including men and women, soldiers and civilians, residents and refugees.

Our poster will display the ways we have been collecting and analyzing the materials, focusing on several enlightening and thought-provoking cases.