Castle and Cage: Meanings of Home for Palestinian Children and Families

Abstract

Many children in Palestine live in an environment characterized by the constant threat of violence in their homes, schools, and neighborhood communities. It is within this context that an examination of the meaning of home is relevant. For home tends to represent a beloved and "safe" place for children in families in the context of political violence. Yet, as this paper illustrates, the meaning of home is much more complicated, and can be both positive and negative. Drawing from qualitative research with 18 families living in Palestine, home is first considered as a positive physical space, or a castle, for families affected by occupation and political violence. As a castle, home serves as (1) a site of family practices, (2) a center of identity, and (3) a place of protection. Secondly, this paper will conceptualize home as a cage for many of these same families, exploring (1) the unhealthy conditions that families live in, (2) the lack of privacy that characterizes many homes, and (3) the feeling that one is a prisoner within one's home. The paper ends by suggesting how practitioners and policymakers can better understand children and families multiple meanings of home in order to encourage the positive and mitigate the negative elements of home.

A model of paternal protection in the context of political violence: Insights from the occupied Palestinian territories

“…To protect their children, fathers also regulated their children’s everyday mobility. This method of paternal protection resonates with previous findings from research with Palestinian families that describe the home as both a castle – or place of safety – and a cage – or site of restriction – for some families (Akesson, 2014a, 2014c; Harker, 2009; Jamal, 2009).…”

Constructing Impossibility: Israeli State Discourses about Palestinian Child Labour

“…Morrison, 2015). Yet, several more recent studies (see Akesson, 2014aAkesson, ,b, 2015Denov and Akesson, 2013;Marshall, 2013Marshall, , 2014Viterbo, 2012) provide a desperately needed multidisciplinary analysis of Palestinian childhood. Varying in terms of method and frames of analysis, these studies all display how Palestinian children are both more susceptible to the harm and hardships caused by the occupation, and yet remain resilient and are able to challenge these excises.…”

The Right to Home: Domicide as a Violation of Child and Family Rights in the Context of Political Violence

“…Similarly, Tuan (1977) describes home as a place where one can rest and recover with the basics for human life: tools, food and shelter. In the context of political violence, home can offer children and families an element of physical and emotional protection from violence in the community (Akesson, 2014a). Thirdly, home as heaven is more symbolic, helping individuals to develop a collective identity and to connect others through shared history and the creation of intentional communities (Duyvendak, 2011).…”

“…Nevertheless, this idealised vision of home has been criticised for failing to recognise the differences between people, including power relations as well as the intersectional realities of gender, race, ethnicity, mobility, sexuality and gender identity and their relationship to place (Blunt and Dowling, 2006;Cresswell, 2004). For example, the home may represent a site of gender oppression (Rose, 1993), restricted movement (Akesson, 2014a), insular nationalism (Massey, 1992) or even the foundation of an occupying state (Weizman, 2007). Home can also be a site of domestic violence, abuse and insecurity.…”

“…Home can also be a site of domestic violence, abuse and insecurity. In the context of political violence, home can be a stifling place for children when they are restricted by their caregivers to stay inside the home in order to avoid contact with violence in the community (Akesson, 2014a). In this way, home in the context of political violence represents the blurring of the lines between the private home space and the public battlefield (Hyndman and Alwis, 2004).…”