Retelling narratives of eco-memory: settler colonialism and carceral occupation of the Jordan River

Author

Megan Rose AwwadFollow

Graduation Date

Fall 2020

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Social Science, Environment and Community

Committee Chair Name

Cutcha Risling Baldy

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Janelle Adsit

Third Committee Member Name

Nicholas Perdue

Keywords

Settler colonialism, Jordan River, Palestine, Indigenous studies, Carceral geographies, Occupation, Displacement, Critical environmental justice

Subject Categories

Environment and Community

Abstract

In this thesis, I retell and reclaim stories that have been shared and passed down within my family and family history in relation to our homeland, Palestine, and more specifically to the Jordan River. I argue that the construction of the dam in the 1960s on the Jordan River, by a zionist state, is an extension of both the settler colonial state and the treatment of the land/rivers as inherently linked with the treatment of Indigenous people. The carceral spaces and geographies settler states create are part of both the destruction of the land and the genocide Indigenous people experience. The Jordan River is a sacred site that was once a natural border and has now become a militarized border. As the colonization of the River takes place, the stories, and memories shift. The river becomes an important examination of settler colonialism and the expansion of a Zionist state and occupation of Palestine. Migration between Jordan and Palestine was a part of Indigenous Palestinians and Jordanians daily experiences prior to existences of modern states. However, with the rise of Zionism, the river becomes central to controlling the landscape and erasing the memory of both migration and the river itself leading to both ecological disasters and the Nakba (catastrophe) of the Palestine people. As a displaced Palestinian the refusal to let go of the memory of river and the liberation of our homeland becomes central to the question of Palestine and return.

Citation Style

MLA

Recommended Citation

Awwad, Megan Rose, "Retelling narratives of eco-memory: settler colonialism and carceral occupation of the Jordan River" (2020). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 453.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/453