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Providing counter-narratives: the positive role of hostels in the Israeli-Palestinian context
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism. (European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR))ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6082-5085
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism. (European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR))ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3887-681X
2020 (English)In: Tourism Geographies, ISSN 1461-6688, E-ISSN 1470-1340, Vol. 22, no 4-5, p. 848-871Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Previous research suggests that tourism has a role to play in challenging the destructive dominant narratives of the IsraeliPalestinian context – discourses that traditionally have, and still do, revolve around sectarianism, Othering and violence. Our case study focuses on a hostel in the Palestinian city of Ramallah that boldly attempts to challenge the way tourists view the IsraeliPalestinian context and Palestine as a tourism destination. We examine how the hostel attempts to achieve this and the ways in which being a hostel (as opposed to a hotel) helps its guests with this reframing through in-depth qualitative interviews conducted on-site with members of the hostel management and staff, and through participant observation conducted by the researchers in Ramallah. Findings shed light on the hostel’s ability to enable Israelis and Palestinians to cooperate within tourism, and how Palestine has much more to offer tourists than conflict-related tourism, thus challenging the master narratives of the region which have suggested quite the contrary. A key finding is the hostel’s on-going attempt to remove ignorance about the situation in the region and promote fact-based learning. The results also suggest that the very characteristics of a hostel assist in achieving this mission through the intimate interactions that are inherent in a hostel setting. Hostels can, therefore, be part of a wider approach to ensuring tourism is used to promote alternative, positive narratives of contested space, as opposed to promoting division and externalising the conflict, as is so often the case

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2020. Vol. 22, no 4-5, p. 848-871
Keywords [en]
Palestine, Israel, Ramallah, tourism, backpackers, hostels, contested space, peace, cross-cultural understanding
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-37357DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2019.1669215ISI: 000487649100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85073970417OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-37357DiVA, id: diva2:1354322
Available from: 2019-09-25 Created: 2019-09-25 Last updated: 2022-11-23Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Making Room for Peace: Challenging Intractable Conflict Through Tourism
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Making Room for Peace: Challenging Intractable Conflict Through Tourism
2022 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Grounded in an understanding of tourism as a political phenomenon that has consequential impacts on how we understand people and space, and in an understanding of peacebuilding as a participatory process that must involve ordinary citizens, this thesis explores the relationship between tourism and peace. Taking inspiration from the confidence of global organisations and tourism scholars that tourism has a role in peacebuilding, I explore how tourism could serve to challenge conflicts that are deemed intractable - conflicts that are particularly hard to solve. In choosing one of the most intractable conflicts of all, and a popular tourism destination, my thesis focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian context. This is a context where tourism has more often than not been a force for cementing sectarian narratives that fuel the conflict and in aggravating the asymmetrical division between Israelis and Palestinians. However, with new alternative forms of tourism and tourists arriving in the region, there is hope still for tourism in a process of regional peace. Using the results of four published articles, I demonstrate how there are several approaches to challenging the intractability of this conflict. Articles I and II look at two Palestinian accommodation providers that have curated provocative and artful tourism spaces that tackle the conflict head on. In these cases, tourism is envisioned as a source of education about the conflict and a forum for dialogue with the Other. Article III compares and contrasts an Israeli youth hostel chain and a Palestinian hiking trail that both use the biblical figure of Abraham as an inspiration for rising above the conflict and materialising a vision of cross-cultural harmony. Here, tourism is an exercise in highlighting commonalities and forwarding fruitful visions of regional peace. In Article IV, a radically different approach is taken where non-tourism, in the form of a tourism boycott of an Israeli mega-event, is forwarded as the best way to challenge the conflict’s asymmetry. Illuminating these cases through a variety of mostly qualitative methods, I debate the strengths and weaknesses of these differing approaches and suggest that while tourism demonstrates a remarkable ability to challenge the conflict’s nefarious master narratives, it simultaneously struggles to tackle the entrenched structural injustices in the Israeli/tourist-Palestinian relationship. Instead of supporting one approach over another, I use my findings to highlight that how peace is approached through tourism is entirely a reflection of how a certain group understands the concept of peace. With different visions of peace being enacted through tourism, challenging intractable conflicts through tourism must be seen as an ongoing process of negotiating differing visions of peace in tourism contexts. Taken in its entirety, the thesis makes several contributions to the ongoing discussion about tourism’s role in peacebuilding. These include highlighting the value of peace and conflict studies literature to tourism studies, and the need for creative methodologies that tackle the emotional and messy dimensions of tourism in conflict settings.

Abstract [sv]

Baserat på en förståelse av turism som ett politiskt fenomen som har åtföljande effekter på hur vi förstår människor och rum, och på en förståelse av fredsbyggande som en medverkandeprocess där vanliga medborgare måste involveras, så utforskar den här avhandlingen relationen mellan turism och fred. Genom att ta inspiration från den övertygelse som globala organisationer och akademiker inom turism har, i att turism har en roll i fredsbyggande, så undersöker jag hur turism skulle kunna utmana konflikter som anses särskilt svåra att lösa. Jag har i min avhandling valt att fokusera på den israelisk-palestinska kontexten, vilken är en av de mest svårlösliga konflikterna, men samtidigt en populär turistdestination. Detta är en kontext där turism har mer ofta än sällan varit en kraft för att cementera sekteristiska narrativ som eldar på konflikten och som förvärrar den asymmetriska maktuppdelningen mellan israeler och palestinier. Nya, alternativa former av turism och turister har emellertid börjat anlända till regionen, och det finns på så vis fortfarande hopp om turism som en del av en fredsprocess i regionen. Genom att använda resultat av fyra artiklar visar jag att det finns flera tillvägagångssätt att utmana den här konfliktens svårhanterlighet. Artikel I och II tittar på två palestinska turistlogier som har utformat provokativa och konstnärliga rum för turism som tacklar konflikten rakt på. I dessa fall ses turism som en källa till utbildning om konflikten och ett forum för dialog med De Andra. Artikel III jämför och kontrasterar en israelisk vandrarhemskedja och en palestinsk vandringsled som bägge använder den bibliska personen Abraham som en inspiration för att höja sig över konflikten och förverkliga en vision om mångkulturell harmoni. I denna artikel är turism en övning i att lyfta fram gemenskap och förmedla fruktbara visioner om fred i regionen. Artikel IV tar ett radikalt annorlunda grepp där icke-turism, i form av en turismbojkott av ett israeliskt evenemang, lyfts fram som det bästa sättet att utmana konfliktens asymmetri. Jag belyser dessa fall genom att använda mig av olika, mestadels kvalitativa, metoder. Jag diskuterar styrkor och svagheter med dessa olika tillvägagångssätt och föreslår att även om turism visar en anmärkningsvärd förmåga att utmana konfliktens vedervärdiga narrativ, så kämpar den samtidigt med att tackla de djupt rotade strukturella orättvisor som finns i den israelisk/turist-palestinska relationen. I stället för att ta parti för ett tillvägagångssätt framför ett annat så använder jag mina resultat för att lyfta fram att hur fred och turism kan närma sig varandra är helt beroende av hur en viss grupp förstår begreppet fred. Med olika perspektiv på hur fred kan komma till uttryck genom turism så måste svårlösliga konflikter som utmanas genom turism ses som en pågående process av förhandlingar mellan olika sätt att se på fred i en turismkontext. Tagen i sin helhet så ger denna avhandling flera bidrag till den pågående diskussionen om turismens roll i fredsbyggande. Dessa inkluderar värdet av att litteratur inom freds- och konfliktstudier används inom studier av turism, samt att kreativa metodologier är nödvändiga för att hantera känslosamma och trassliga dimensioner av turism i konfliktområden.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sundsvall: Mid Sweden University, 2022. p. 290
Series
Mid Sweden University doctoral thesis, ISSN 1652-893X ; 381
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-46501 (URN)978-91-89341-83-8 (ISBN)
Public defence
2022-12-09, F234, Kunskapens väg 8, Östersund, 10:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2022-11-23 Created: 2022-11-23 Last updated: 2022-11-23Bibliographically approved

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Shepherd, JackLaven, Daniel

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