Hidden from View - Palestinian Women and Cities

On Sunday, May 6, 2018, at 19:30 a special evening to launch Manar Hassan’s book "Hidden from the Eye - Palestinian Women and Cities" was conducted jointly by the Wahat al-Salam spiritual center and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. The event was held at WAS-NS.

It was a very moving evening. The audience came from all over the country - people who knew Manar Hassan or her work surrounded her with warmth and love.

Prof. Hanna Herzog of Tel Aviv University and of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem chaired the proceedings. Herzog’s field of specialization includes sociology, political media and gender sociology, minority research, minority parties, Palestinian women, and electoral analysis.

Prof. Yehouda Shenhav, editor of the series, "The Principles of Reading and Criticism" (in which the book was published), and editor-in-chief of the Ketubah series of Western translations, offered words of praise.

WAS-NS member Dr. Nihaya Daoud from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev spoke about the book and gave a brief overview of it. Her presentation was titled "Social cohesion in the village and in the city - and Palestinian women’s movements".

Eli Aminov, a political activist and an old friend of Manar, spoke about her endeavors during her years in Jerusalem and Haifa, and spoke about the tragedy of 1948, as it is expressed in the book.

Dr. Iris Agmon, a historian at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discussed the arduous route that Manar needed to travel in order to glean information about Palestinian cities before 1948 and the activities of women and women’s organizations in them. She spoke at length about the archives of the Shariah courts, which provide a primary source for various studies of Arab society from the Ottoman period until today.

Finally Dr. Manar Hassan herself spoke, from her position of author of the book and member of the faculty of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. She brought fascinating stories and examples of life in the Palestinian cities before 1948. She succeeded in "bringing to life" a world that disappeared after the war and the Nakba. There is no doubt that her book is an important contribution to the memory and historical documentation of that world.