Description
The Palestinian farmer and Bedouin communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta), occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), face double marginality: from the Israeli occupation and within Palestinian society. In the 1980s, the creation of an Israeli closed military zone threatened them with displacement. Following decades of legal challenge, a recent court ruling to uphold the military zone is threatening the existence of the people and their way of life in Masafer Yatta (Bröckerhoff & Soliman, 2022). This paper examines indigenous cultural heritage in the form of agricultural practices through the analytical lens of everyday resistance. Through an analysis of songs sung during the harvest, we advance the argument that in restrictive contexts, indigenous practices that are not politically articulated constitute a form of everyday resistance. The paper demonstrates an original contribution how the upholding of traditional cultural practices in Masafer Yatta contributes to unintentional, yet consequential everyday resistance in the maintenance of traditional lifestyles. It thus extends current approaches in heritage studies, bringing them into conversation with resistance and peace studies that have engaged primarily with an intentional, bottom-up use of culture.
