The memory of ordinary, everyday intercultural or interreligious relationships, in brief
A large Galilean village of Arabic speakers, Druze, Christian, Muslim and Jewish, which is much discussed as an example of the harmony between religions before the rise of modern nationalisms from the nineteenth century in Palestine and Israel. Peqi’in has seen many disputes, in which religious differences often feature. Nevertheless, residents have long lived together, and the communities have buried their dead alongside each other in the same village cemetery. The pride of residents in their centuries-old harmonious coexistence is better known than the disputes over property rights or other interests.
The context in which these relationships made a difference at the time
Buqei’a/Peqi’in lies in a region which historically was distant from the centres of political power in the region. According to local tradition, Moslems arrived there in the 11th century, Christians in the 12th, Jews in the 16th, and Druze were recorded here by the 14th century, and settled in greater numbers in the 18th century, from which time Druze residents because the majority in the village.
Here, families of Druze, Muslims, Jews and Christians of different denominations were occupied in a variety of occupations, supported by the locality’s rich agriculture – and by their distance from the burdens of city life, be it disease or taxation. The villagers shared a mother tongue in Arabic, though their religious worship could be in a variety of languages. The villagers’ wealth enabled each religious community to maintain a house of worship, and to assimilate immigrant families from different cultural backgrounds. From historical synopses of the village’s history, and from journalistic accounts, it is difficult to get a sense of the relationships between families in the village from different backgrounds, and equally to find information about their engagement with each others’ religious celebrations and services. A journalist from the LA Times in 1987 indicated that property disputes across communities were exacerbated by competing narratives about the village’s religious heritage. The means by which local disputes have historically been resolved here are also not uncovered in much of the literature.
What has happened since, which makes the memory valuable
The development of separate national movements in Palestine in the early twentieth century made the survival of this multi religious, multilingual community of great interest – the ructions caused by elite-level politics in the region already made the diversity of the local population here unusual in the seventeenth century. In 1936, the Jewish population left in the face of the Arab revolt. After the war, one family, the Zinatis, returned. There remains a great deal of fascination in international attention given to the village, accompanied by discussion of the competing historical claims of historians who seek to fit Buqei’a/Peqiin’s history to alternative narratives, the one claiming Jews were settled here for 2000 years (a claim made by local Jews as well as outsiders), the other (which is the view supported by historical evidence) showing that Jews have been living here, at different times alongside Muslims, Druze and Christians, since the sixteenth century.
How might the memory be used in bringing people together in practice now?
The village is widely seen, by commentators from a wide range of political perspectives, as an example of the relationships that might bind ordinary people in the Holy Land in the absence of nationalistic hostility.
Additional context/Some additional reading
Adam Tanner, ‘Two Jews Among Arabs: Israelis Seek Heritage in Ancient Galilee Village’, LA Times, 26 July 1987. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-07-26-mn-1288-story.html