NATIONALIZING THE SACRED - SHRINES AND SHIFTING IDENTITIES IN THE ISRAELI-OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

This article approaches transformations of social identity in situatio ns of nationalist conflict through an examination of Christian and Mus lim Palestinian interpretations of, and practices at, two shrines on t he Israeli-Occupied West Bank. The semantic multivocality of one holy place, studied in the early 1980s, is seen to reflect the diversity of interests of the various communities which revere it. The other shrin e, studied during the Palestinian uprising, is seen to be more 'fixed' in its meaning, and this apparent univalence is analysed as an expres sion of a new form of social identity generated by struggle against th e Israeli occupation. The article contrasts the new secular nationalis t identity to alternative forms of community founded on sectarian affi liation, and demonstrates how, in situations of radical social conflic t between a multi-sectarian community and a 'foreign' enemy, perceptio ns of the antagonism of the Other can generate new forms of imagined c ommunity within which communal differences are subsumed but not elided . As a consequence of the formation of a 'national' identity, local Ch ristian and Muslim traditions come to be seen as expressing simultaneo usly sectarian affiliation and an overarching national unity.