Remembering June 1967: The Rhetoric of Sincerity in a Twice-Told Story

Abstract

Abstract:As an interviewee in a research project on the remembrance of the 1967 war, Ali, a resident and service provider of Jerusalem’s Old City, shared exceptionally vibrant stories in Hebrew with an Israeli interviewer. Later, a Palestinian interviewer interviewed Ali about the same events in his native Arabic. Leading up to a presentation of a number of Ali’s stories told in these interviews, the article examines the conditions of interviewing within and across conflict lines and the capacity of the narrating space created in dialogue to offer conditions of truth. The parallel analysis of the two interviews and a selection of stories contained therein examines Ali’s rhetoric of sincerity. It allowed for different points of emphasis with each interviewer while maintaining Ali’s sense of inner truth.