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A POLITICS OF CARE: LOCAL NURSES IN MANDATE PALESTINE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2018

Julia R. Shatz
Julia R. Shatz*
Affiliation:
Julia R. Shatz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, Calif.; e-mail: jshatz@csufresno.edu
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Abstract

This article examines the work experiences of Palestinian Arab nurses to illuminate the operation of the colonial public health regime in Mandate Palestine. Analyzing nurses’ work in the clinics of town and village communities and their relationships with the colonial government's Department of Health, it argues that these nurses were social and political interlocutors in the system of public health, which depended upon their intimate relationships with local communities. By pulling these women out of the archives, this article complicates received wisdom among scholars about development, expertise, and the chronology of welfare. Telling the stories of these women also provides a ground-level view of the operation of daily governance in Mandate Palestine and the lived social, political, and economic realities of an often-overlooked cadre of Palestinian workers from that period.

Keywords

colonialismexpertisenursesPalestinepublic health
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , November 2018 , pp. 669 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Author's note: Research for this article was supported by generous grants from the Center for Middle East Studies and the Institute for International Studies at University of California, Berkeley. I am grateful to James Vernon, Hilary Falb Kalisman, and Tehila Sasson for their invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this piece.

References

NOTES

1 SMO to Department of Health, 12 February 1930, Israel State Archive (ISA), Record Group 10/M 6572/20.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid. In general, this article uses current standards of transliterations in spelling nurses’ names. In cases in which the nurses themselves transliterated their own names in the archival record, however, I have chosen to defer to their spellings. In those instances, the archival spellings of their names will appear in the text with the transliteration according to current standards in parentheses.

4 Government of Palestine, “Medical Licenses,” The Palestine Gazette: Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, no. 465 (6 September 1934)Google Scholar, 910 and ISA/RG 10/M 6597/2.

5 The official currency of Mandate Palestine was the Palestine Pound (£P), which circulated from 1927 to 1948. From 1917 (the date of the British occupation of Palestine) to 1927, the Egyptian Pound (£E) was the official currency of Palestine.

6 Annual Salary Reports, 1930, ISA/RG 10/M/5131/16.

7 Feldman, Ilana and Ticktin, Miriam, eds., In the Name of Humanity: The Government of Threat and Care (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Watenpaugh, Keith David, Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Although the historiography of Mandate Palestine has expanded over the past two decades to include more narratives of ordinary Palestinian lives, the realm of social welfare remains underexamined. This is in contrast to literature on the Jewish community in Mandate Palestine, which contains many works that focus on how public health and social welfare contributed to realizing Zionist goals of nation building, transformation of the physical environment, and integration of native Palestinian Jews into the European Zionist movement. See Hirsch, Dafna, “‘We are here to bring the West, not only to ourselves’: Zionist Occidentalism and the Discourse of Hygiene in Mandate Palestine,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (2009): 577–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Razi, Tammi, “Immigration and Its Discontents: Treating Children in the Psycho-Hygiene Clinic in Mandate Tel Aviv,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 11 (2012): 339–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Simmons, Erica, Hadassah and the Zionist Project (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006)Google Scholar; and Sufian, Sandra, Healing the Land and Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920–1947 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Norris, Jacob, Land of Progress: Palestine in the Age of Colonial Development, 1905–1948 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robson, Laura, Colonialism and Christianity in Mandate Palestine (Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 2011)Google Scholar; and Shamir, Ronen, The Colonies of Law: Colonialism, Zionism and Law in Early Mandate Palestine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)Google Scholar. Ronen Shamir called for a concept of “dual colonialism” to account for Palestine as both a British Crown Colony and a Zionist settler colony. Jacob Norris has looked at the intersection of Shamir's two colonialisms in the arena of resource and industry development projects, arguing for an essential place for Palestine in the narratives of 20th-century colonial development.

11 Following Rosemary Sayigh's call to write Palestinian women into history, there have been several works focusing on women, particularly their roles within the nationalist movement and, more recently, their education. See Sayigh, Rosemary, “Femmes Palestiniennes: Une Histoire en quete d'historiens, Revue d'études palestiniennes” 6 (1987): 13–33Google Scholar. Works inspired by Sayigh's piece include Fleischmann, Ellen, The Nation and Its “New” Women: The Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920–1948 (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Greenberg, Ela, Preparing the Mothers of Tomorrow: Education and Islam in Mandate Palestine (Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 2010)Google Scholar; and Enaya Othman, “Middle Ground in the Middle East: American Quakers & Palestinian Women at the Friends Girls School in Ramallah, 1889–1948” (PhD diss., Marquette University, 2009).

12 Greenberg, Ela, “Between Hardships and Respect: A Collective Biography of Arab Women Teachers in British-ruled Palestine,” Hawwa 6 (2008): 284–314CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Hodge, Joseph, Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2007)Google Scholar is an emblematic example of this kind of development history. In the case of Palestine, recent works by Jacob Norris and Sherene Seikaly have explored the issue of development during the Mandate period. Seikaly's book also roots expertise in heretofore unrecognized local actors—in her case, Palestinian businessmen, traders, and accountants. Seikaly, Sherene, Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

14 Reddy, Sujani, Nursing and Empire: Gendered Labor and Migration from India to the United States (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Data on graduating nurses compiled by the author from lists of graduate nurses that appeared in issues of The Palestine Gazette, 1923–48.

16 Bahçecik, Nefise and Alpar, Şule Ecevit, “Nursing Education in Turkey: From Past to Present,” Nurse Education Today 29 (2009): 699CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

17 Bussow, Johann, Hamidian Palestine: Politics and Society in the District of Jerusalem, 1872–1908 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 554CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campos, Michelle, Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2010), 169Google Scholar.

18 Annual Reports, Vol. 3, 1903–1910, Jerusalem and the East Mission Collection (Middle East Centre, Oxford University), GB1650161, Box 75A, File 1.

19 “Women's Work of the J&EM,” Bible Lands, IV, 54 (October, 1912), 86, Jerusalem and the East Mission Collection (Middle East Centre, Oxford University), GB165-0161, Box 126A.

20 Medical Precis Book, 1905–9, Church Missionary Society Archives (Cadbury Research Library), CMS/M/C/2/1/8.

21 Ibid.

22 Later the American University of Beirut.

23 Medical Precis Book, 1909–12, Church Missionary Society Archives (Cadbury Research Library), CMS/M/C/2/1/9.

24 Ibid.

25 Twenty-six of 108 graduate nurses listed in the Palestine Gazette from 1923 to 1929 trained at government institutions. Data on graduating nurses compiled by the author from lists of graduate nurses in The Palestine Gazette, 1923–1929.

26 Government of Palestine, “Report on Palestine Administration, July 1920–December 1921,” in Palestine and Transjordan Administration Reports, vol. 1, 1918–1924 (Great Britain: Archive Editions, 1995), 71Google Scholar.

27 Simmons, Hadassah and the Zionist Project, 7.

28 Ibid.

29 Hadassah Medical Organization, Report of Nurses Training School, 1927–28. CJH, Box 45, Folder 5.

30 Ibid.

31 McCormick, Virginia, “Nursing the World Around: Digest of the Reports Presented at the Congress of the International Council of Nurses, Montreal, July, 1929,” The American Journal of Nursing 29, 9 (September, 1929): 1073Google Scholar.

32 “Palestine,” International Nursing Review 3, 4 (October, 1928): 406.

33 Greenberg, Preparing the Mothers of Tomorrow, 180.

34 Government of Palestine, Department of Health, Annual Report for the Year 1928 (Jerusalem, 1929).

35 Greenberg, Preparing the Mothers of Tomorrow, 180.

36 Church Missionary Society, “Palestine,” The Mission Hospital: A Record of Medical Missions of the C.M.S. (December 1926): 191.

37 In addressing the communal disparity in nursing, Greenberg briefly posits that as products of missionary elementary educations, Christian women may have been taught to think differently about nursing as an acceptable means of livelihood; Greenberg, Preparing the Mothers of Tomorrow, 181.

38 Statement of Conditions of Service for Nursing Sisters in Palestine, The National Archives (TNA): CO 850/175/17.

39 Beit Sahur Local Council to SMO, 19 February 1935, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/25.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 Beit Sahur Local Council to SMO, 25 February 1935, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/25.

43 Ibid.

44 SMO to President, Local Council, 4 March 1935, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/25.

45 SMO to Department of Health, 12 February 1930, ISA/RG 10/M 6572/20.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

48 By “governance,” I refer to the constellations of power relationships that ordered daily life, regulated the operation of politics, and constructed different forms of subjectivity.

49 SMO to Department of Health, 28 June 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

50 SMO to Medical Officer, Ramallah, 18 September 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

51 Ibid.

52 Superintendent of Midwifery to SMO, 12 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

53 Ibid.

54 SMO to Medical Officer, Ramallah, 18 September 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

55 Superintendent of Midwifery to SMO, 12 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

56 Nurse Insaf Mahmud ʿAli to Department of Health, 20 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

57 SMO to Department of Health, 18 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

58 Ibid.

59 Al-Bira Local Council to SMO, 12 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

60 Al-Bira Local Council to Director of Medical Services, 8 October 1944, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/26.

61 Weldon Matthews, Confronting an Empire, Constructing a Nation: Arab Nationalists and Popular Politics in Mandate Palestine (London: I.B.Tauris, 2006), chap. 1; Robson, Colonialism and Christianity, introduction and chap. 1.

62 Deputy District Commissioner to Department of Health, 14 September 1930, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/20.

63 Nurse Suraya Dughan to Medical Officer, 17 February 1939, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/27.

64 Medical Officer to Assistant District Commissioner, Hebron, 15 August 1941, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/27.

65 Ibid.

66 Government of Palestine, “Medical Licenses,” The Palestine Gazette: Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, no. 1098 (15 May 1941), 447.

67 Nurse Daʿiq to Medical Officer, 12 December 1942, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/27.

68 Contract between Ramallah Municipal Council and Nurse Nassab Tannous, 1 June 1928, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/2.

69 Medical Officer to SMO, 24 September 1928, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/2.

70 Gender histories tend to focus on the cultural and social ideas that particular women symbolized. Especially in the interwar period, which was an era of growing nationalism and natalism as well as new ideas about scientific childrearing, it is tempting to see nurses as primarily doing the cultural work of representing such ideas.

71 Nurse salary information was compiled by the author from annual reports by the Department of Health as well as individual employment files and infant welfare center files.

72 Government of Palestine, Palestine Blue Book, 1929 (Alexandria, Egypt: Whitehead Morris Limited, 1930), 120Google Scholar.

73 Annual Salary Reports, ISA/RG 10/M/5131/14.

74 Ibid.

75 Taken from Palestine Blue Book series, 1926–45.

76 Nasimeh Awad Pension Form, TNA: CO/733/271/2.

77 Ibid.

78 Government employees of junior service officer status were ranked on grades of I–VI. In 1927, the pay scale for Grade V female employees was £E 90-6-120.

79 Ibid.

80 Nurse Regina Shiber, for example, earned £P120 per year for four years in a row in the early 1920s. In 1929, her salary had dropped to £P102 per year and did not recover to its original level until 1932. Nurse Shiber's net salary rose by 10 percent over the first twelve years of her service. Nurse Sarah Hebroni earned only £P6 more per year in 1943 than she had in 1929—an increase of just 4 percent.

81 Nurse Philomena Yazigi to Mrs. Kelsey, 26 February 1926, ISA/RG 10/M/6597/2.

82 Mrs. Kelsey to Public Health Department, 18 March 1926, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/2.

83 Director of Medical Services to Mrs. Kelsey, 28 March 1926, ISA/RG 10/M/6572/2.

84 High Commissioner of Palestine to Secretary of State for the Colonies, December 1935, TNA: CO 733/274/3.

85 Ibid.

86 Julia Khawaja Pension Application, January 1935, TNA: CO 733/271/2.

87 Phoebe Khadder Pension Forms, November 1928, TNA: CO 733/162/9.

88 Medical Board Examination Report, 27 August 1928, TNA: CO 733/162/9.

89 High Commissioner of Palestine to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 15 November 1928, TNA: CO 733/162/9.

90 Ibid.

91 High Commissioner of Palestine to Secretary of State for the Colonies, May 1929, TNA: CO 733/173/4.

92 Ibid.

93 File of Hana Abdo, 1937–48, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.

94 Ibid.

95 SMO to Matron, Watan Hospital, 24 October 1945, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.

96 Hana Chappell to Matron, Watan Hospital, 1946, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.

97 Matron to SMO, 20 February 1948, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.

98 Letter from Matron O'Rourke, 17 February 1948, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.

99 Hana Chappell to SMO, 11 December 1947, ISA/RG 10/M/5697/13.