A Coherent Inconsistency: Italian Cultural Diplomacy in Palestine, 1918–1938

While following a broad chronology divided between Italy in the liberal era and later under the fascist regime, this chapter attempts to present an overview of Italian cultural activities and their various purposes and development. During the liberal era, Italian cultural policies were for the most part designed to target the needs of Italian communities. While the early phase of fascist rule was essentially a continuation of the previous regime, the 1930s marked a major shift in the understanding and promotion of cultural policies in the Middle East, especially in Palestine. This chapter will show how the fascist regime inconsistently supported both the Arabs and the Zionists in its quest to challenge the British.

The Palestine Society: Cultural Diplomacy and Scholarship in Late Tsarist Russia and the Soviet State

This chapter focuses on the role of Russian institutions in Palestine before, during and after WWI. The task of the first Russian mission was the control over the distribution of Russian donations, supporting Orthodoxy against Catholic and Protestant proselytisation and organising pilgrimages. Being founded with both political and philanthropic aims, the Russian organisations in Palestine supported the local Orthodox Arab population. Along with the traditional colonial modes of “soft power” in Palestine and Greater Syria (acquiring land and organising schools), on the eve and during WWI more flexible trends appear, providing a dialogue and cooperation with both the Greek Patriarchate and the Arab party. After the revolution of 1917 the Russian presence in Palestine was reduced to a few institutions of the Russian Church Abroad, and lost its political significance.

Continuities and Discontinuities in the Austrian Catholic Orient Mission to Palestine, 1915–1938

The Habsburg Monarchy had a long history of relations with Palestine. In the nineteenth century, Austria participated in the “peaceful crusade” forming a special “Jerusalem milieu”. Its actors collected donations to establish several institutions. After 1918, the meaning of “Austria” was completely different from before the First World War. Yet, the (Christian Social) elites of the small Austrian First Republic and the politicians of authoritarian Austria still took an interest in matters concerning the Holy Land. In 1927, an Austrian consulate re-opened in the Holy City. The hospice in Jerusalem and the hospital of the Order of St John of God in Nazareth survived the years of turmoil. Austrian cultural diplomacy in the Mandate period continued to maintain good contacts with the local Arab population and gained new dimensions.

Epilogue

In this epilogue, Ouahes considers the context of cultural diplomacy through secular networks within a broader Arab milieu, both in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Europe. Comparing the complexities of three politicised arenas of cultural diplomacy—education, newspapers and humanitarianism—this epilogue considers the interactions between various Western powers and new Arab political formations. Contrasting the French Mission Laique, the secularisation of American apparatus and the rise of Bolshevism after the Russian Revolution in 1917, it shows the strong competition among foreign powers for spheres of influence in Arab communities. Just as importantly, it also shows Arab contestations of colonial ambitions and the ways in which cultural diplomacy was deployed in aid of Arab political agendas.

Introduction Part III European Soft Power and Christian Cultures at the Crossroads in Mandate Palestine

A short section introduction to Part III “Influencing the Other: European Private and Governmental Actors”

Diaspora-Building and Cultural Diplomacy: The Greek Community of Jerusalem in Late Ottoman Times and the Mandate

This chapter explores the history of the Greek diasporic community of Jerusalem in late Ottoman times and the formative years of the British Mandate. It focuses on the creation of the Greek Colony and its central community institution, the so-called Greek Club, as well as the role of Greek cultural diplomacy both with the Greek community and with Arabs of the Greek Orthodox denomination, in its development. It addresses the establishment and development of the Jerusalem Greek diaspora; its relation to the Greek state; and its links to the Orthodox Patriarchate. Overall, the chapter suggests that Greece could influence, but not control, the decision-making process within the community. The Greek diaspora was excluded from systematic influence in Church administration, lacking power over communal education, and hence politically dependent on the Church.

Orthodox Clubs and Associations: Cultural, Educational and Religious Networks Between Palestine and Transjordan, 1925–1950

Since the late nineteenth century, Orthodox Arab laymen had organised themselves into associations starting in the main cities of Palestine, a dynamic which quickly spread to Transjordan, leading to the creation of local Orthodox committees in most parishes. This chapter considers the history of the Greek Orthodox associations in Transjordan from 1925 to 1950 and the influence of regional networks in the structuration of religious, social and intellectual life in Amman and more generally Transjordan. By approaching cultural diplomacy “from below”, this chapter highlights the pivotal role of Orthodox laity in promoting cultural, intellectual and political production in Transjordan. Through those activities they could negotiate local sovereignty but also political and communal space, away from the influence of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Competition in the Cultural Sector: Handicrafts and the Rise of the Trade Fair in British Mandate Palestine

On the eve of Palestine’s violent ethno-national clashes of the 1930s, two simultaneous, competing trade fairs were mounted in Palestine: the Levant Fair in Tel Aviv (1932) and the First National Arab Fair in Jerusalem (1933). This chapter sketches a lineage of trade fairs in Palestine in the decades immediately prior to the debut of these duelling “national” fairs to investigate the roots of this typology within Palestine and its rise as a space for political action and debate. Undergirding the evolution of the trade fair in Palestine, the author argues, was the formation of a “cultural sector”—a conglomerate of institutions delimited by a distinct regional focus, furthering cultural development as part of both economic and political missions.

Cultural Affiliation and Identity Constructs Under the British Mandate for Palestine

In her conclusion, van Kessel reflects on the nature of cultural diplomacy, its success and failures in Palestine. She considers the different actors’ approaches to cultural diplomacy and the impact of those approaches on processes of identity formation. She also considers the shifting frameworks on cultural diplomacy arguing that both scholars and practitioners have blurred the lines between more orthodox readings that cultural relations were produced by private initiatives, while cultural diplomacy was the domain of government initiatives. She then compares the cases presented in this volume within a broader range of Mediterranean geography to consider the ways in which some of the actors behaved in other contexts. She concludes that the nature of cultural diplomacy in Palestine created overlaps, and sometimes conflicts, between confessional allegiances and nationalism for Christian Palestinians.

Introduction Part II Colonial Hegemony, Arab Virtù and the Philosophy of History: Excavating, Exhibiting and Cultural Diplomacy in the Palestine Mandate

A short section introduction to Part II “Showing and Telling: Cultural and Historical Entanglements under the Mandate”