Palestine in London

Palestinian and Jewish Lifeworlds after the Foundation of the State of Israel

Abstract

The article is based on Ghada Karmi’s autobiography published in 2002 and deals with the problem of forced migration and the establishment of a new life and a new identity in London. Expelled with her family from Jerusalem in 1948, Ghada describes her desire and attempts to become integrated in British society. Confronted with racism directed at the new wave of immigrants in the 1960’s, her newly-developed British identity was questioned from outside while her Palestinian identity was weakened and the Arab culture conveyed by her parents had no real meaning for her generation. The author argues that it was precisely this problem of living in a Zwischenwelt (intermediate world) that made Ghada’s generation receptive to political ideologies imported from the Middle East, such as the Panarabism of Nasser or a secular Palestinian identity symbolised by Arafat.