The Future of the Past: Palestinian Cultural Assets, Restitution and the Politics of Reconciliation
Gish Amit holds degrees from the University of Tel-Aviv (BA, Philosophy) and from Ben-Gurion University (MA, PhD, Hebrew Literature). Between 2007 and 2011, he gave courses on cultural aspects of the Zionist movement at Ben-Gurion University. Amit's dissertation "Ex-Libris: the Jewish National and University Library 1945-1955" examines the collecting of Palestinian libraries in the 1948 war, the appropriation of manuscripts of Jewish emigrants from Yemen, and the redistribution of Jewish cultural property following the Holocaust. Based on unpublished documents and drawing on postcolonial theory, the study illuminates the relation between the state of Israel, the history of the Jewish diasporas and the Palestinian past of the country. The dissertation will be published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Among Amit's publications are "A Strange Monument: On the Collecting of Palestinian Libraries in the 1948 War", Journal of Palestine Studies (2011), "Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem: The Correspondence Regarding the Redistribution of Jewish Cultural Assets after WWII" (in Hebrew), Mita'am (2009) and the book The Unheard Voice: A Different View on Children at Schools (in Hebrew), with Gadi Avidan and Chen Lampert (2005).
The Future of the Past: Palestinian Cultural Assets, Restitution and the Politics of Reconciliation
During his stay in Berlin as a EUME fellow, Amit will expand upon his dissertation project by examining the future of the Palestinian cultural assets. Alongside consideration of the questions of amendment, historical responsibility, reconciliation and restitution, it will outline an alternative genealogy of the concept of the right of return from a theoretical perspective of managing a cultural heritage.
