Love in the Time of Conflict: Resilience, Resistance, and Human Connection in Palestinian War Narratives

Abstract

This paper examines how love is depicted as a means of survival, resistance, and resilience in the current Palestinian war narratives. The study of conflict has focused on aspects of violence, displacement, trauma and political struggle, but there is less emphasis on the emotional aspect of conflict, namely love and human connection. This study examines how familial love, romantic love, communal love, and love for the homeland function as mechanisms of survival in the context of occupation, exile and militarized violence, focusing on the work of Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri, They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom and Ever Since I Did Not Die by Ramy Al-Asheq. The paper examines the emotional landscapes that are created within these texts by drawing from Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Sara Ahmed, Cathy Caruth and Cynthia Enloe and employing trauma studies, postcolonial theory, and affect theory. According to the study, “love” in Palestinian narratives is not confined to the realm of personal feeling, but is a political act of resistance to dehumanization and cultural erasure. Palestinian writers take back humanity in the face of war and displacement through the medium of storytelling, memory, care, and emotional connections to land and community. Additionally, the paper shows that the concept of emotional resiliency and inter-personal relations contradicts the dominant imagery of Palestinians as victims of conflict. Love and emotional survival are foregrounded, thus making the study relevant to the current debates on war literature, trauma studies, and postcolonial literary criticism.