Radio listenership in Palestinian society: reshaping cultural practices and political debate under the British Mandate, 1930–1948

ABSTRACT

This article examines the reception of radio in Palestinian Arab society from the 1930s until the 1948 war. The article breaks new ground by reconstructing the geographical distribution of radio sets throughout Mandate Palestine and analysing the practices of radio listening. The article argues that radio built on earlier forms of communication and entertainment and depended on existing cultural practices to reach Palestinian society. Radio listening often took place in public spaces and overlapped with the consumption of other media, such as communal newspaper reading. The impact of listening in public was twofold: first, access to radio was shaped by existing social and economic hierarchies and consequently reinforced them; second, public radio listening encouraged critical media reception and cultivated political debates. This way, Palestinians undermined the intentions of the colonial government and used radio for their own ends. By investigating the experiences of radio listeners in Palestine this article sheds light not only on the cultural life of Palestinian Arabs during the British Mandate, but also on the multi-layered, multi-directional workings of media in colonial contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Mandate Palestine
• Palestinians
• radio
• reception
• media
• listenership
• culture
• colonialism

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Professor Avner Wishnitzer for supervising the research for this article and teaching me the craft of the historian. I am grateful to Dotan Halevy, Nimrod Ben-Ze’ev, Whitney McIntosh, Lelia Stadler, and my colleagues at the Siyagh Workshop of Middle Eastern History at Columbia University for commenting on earlier versions of this project, and to the two anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful feedback improved the final outcome.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For the American case, see Hayes and Battles (2011), Razlogova (2011).

2 A genre of books that document the histories of Palestinian villages that were depopulated and destroyed in the 1948 war. See Sl yomovics (1998), Davis (2011).

3 Owning a private record player, as with owning radio sets, was associated with belonging to the middle or upper classes, see Abou-Hodeib (2017, p. 112).

4 Al-Quds, 18 November 1908, p. 4, Ha-Herut Yerushalayim, 23 September 1913, p. 4, Hasan (2017, p. 110).

5 On storytellers in Jerusalem's coffeehouses see Haganah Historical Archives (HHA), 95/105a, ‘Beit Kafe Nimer Tludi ve-Adam Abu Ramila,’ 16 May 1947; ‘Qahwat Muna,’; ‘Beit ha-Kafe shel Muhammad Sa‘id Siyam,’; ‘Beit Kafe al-Dabaga,’; ‘Beit ha-Kafe Bashura,’. On performances in Jaffa's coffeehouses and cabarets see Al-Bawwab (2003, pp. 1261, 1267).

6 See for example Filastin, January 18, 1938, 3; Filastin, January 20, 1938, 3.

7 Filastin, March 1, 1945, 3.

8 Nuwayhid (1993, p. 250). For a thorough analysis of advertisements published in the press see Stanton (2013a, pp. 54–75).

9 See for example: Filastin, 19 July 1932, p. 6; al-Difa‘, 23 November 1935, p. 1; Filastin, 16 March 1941, pp. 1-2; al-Qafila, 04 April 1947, pp. 17–21.

10 Filastin, 04 April 1937, p. 1.

11 The case was different in Egypt, where newspaper editors viewed radio broadcasts as their competitors and refused to print the broadcast schedule, see Barak (2013, p. 227). In India, similar to Palestine, the newspapers published items about the early developments of radio and featured the broadcasting schedule; only when radio became more successful, newspaper editors began worrying about competition with state broadcasting, see Kaul (2014, pp. 165–166).

12 A survey of Palestine: Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946, v. II p. 870.

13 Stanton (2013a, pp. 30–31, 41, 75). For more on the construction of an imagined model middle class, see Seikaly (2015, p. 57).

14 Interview with Widad Rizq, Haifa, 09 May 2018.

15 Department of Posts and Telegraphs, 1946, Annual Report for the Year 1946, p. 9.

16 Department of Posts and Telegraphs, 1936, Annual Report 1935, p. 5.

17 Israel State Archives (ISA), W. D. Battershill to ‘my dear General,’ 22 November 1938, ISA-MandatoryOrganizations-MandateCommunications-000707w. (Also cited in Stanton 2013a, p. 103).

18 The information is based on my research and displayed on a British Government map of Palestine, ISA, ‘Palestine Index to Villages and Settlements,’ 1945, ISA-Collections-Maps-0007chw. Since the information was collected from scattered sources, it is probable to assume that more villages and cities had a radio set. The map does not include radio sets with British and Jewish owners.

19 Kanaana and Al-Ka‘abi (1980, p. 44), Mar‘i (1994, p. 120), Al-‘Adarba (1997, p. 188), Kaid (1998, p. 164), interview with Tu‘me Maghzal, al-Jesh, 22 June 2018.

20 ISA, Director of Agriculture and Fisheries to all Heads of Services, 09 December 1937, ISA-MandatoryOrganizations-MandateFishery-000nfn8.

21 Hasan (2017, pp. 97–100), interview with Widad Rizq, Haifa, 09 May 2018.

22 Interview with Ahmad ‘Abd al-Ghani ‘Aqel, ‘Ar‘ara, 09 July 2017.

23 Interview with Widad Rizq, Haifa, 09 May 2018.

24 Interview with Ahmad ‘Abd al-Ghani ‘Aqel, ‘Ar‘ara, 09 July 2017.

25 Interview with Isma‘il Abu Shhade, Jaffa, 03 July 2017.

26 Büssow (2011). According to Ryzova, turning against the older generation was immanent in constructing an effendi identity in Egypt, see Ryzova (2014, p. 8).

27 Coffeehouses were usually identified according to the clientele they served: some served the effendiyya, the so-called middle class, and some were catering the working classes. According to the historian ‘Ali Hasan al-Bawwab, each coffeehouse in Jaffa served a different group. For example, the state bureaucrats sat in one café, the orange traders in another, and the orange labourers in a third. See Al-Bawwab (2003, p. 1261, 1267).

28 Al-Muqtataf, April 1906, p. 353.

29 Aburish (1988, pp. 118, 121), Shahid (2000, p. 116), Manna (2017, p. 100), interview with Widad Rizq, Haifa, 09 May 2018.

30 See for example: Al-Difa‘, 08 April 1936, p. 6; Mir’at al-Sharq, 14 November 1936, p. 3; Filastin, 29 April 1937, p. 1; Ibid, 26 May 1938, p. 4.

31 See ISA files: Administrative Instructions: Wireless Permits Ra’anana, ISA-MandatoryOrganizations-MandateTADis-0009ree; Wireless Receiving Sets: the Property of Enemies, ISA-MandatoryOrganizations-MandateDefense-000mcxz. See also Stanton (2013a, pp. 125–129).

32 ISA, W. D. Battershill to ‘my dear General,’ 22 November 1938, ISA-MandatoryOrganizations-MandateCommunications-000707w.

33 HHA, 105/378, to E. Sason, 06 June 1940.

34 HHA, 105/300, ‘Yedi‘ot me-Yafo,’ 06 October 1943.

35 HHA, 105/378, ‘Mikhtav mi-Shkhem,’ Y.K. to E. Sason, 24 June 1940; HHA, 105/378 ‘Yedi‘ot mi-Shkhem,’ 01 October 1940; HHA, 8/KLALI/3, ‘Be-Tveriya bein ha-‘Aravim,’ 29 June 1942; HHA, 105/300, ‘Yedi‘ot me-Yafo,’ 06 October 1943.

36 Al-Difa‘, 18 February 1940, p. 1.

37 Al-Difa‘, 22 September 1940, pp. 1, 3.

38 Filastin, 22 September 1940, p. 1. For more articles that contradicted radio news items see Al-Difa‘, 11 July 1940, p. 5; Ibid, 26 December 1940, p. 2.

39 Interview with Widad Rizq, Haifa, 09 May 2018.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sahar Mor Bostock

Sahar Mor Bostock is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University. Her dissertation research focuses on the impact of development projects on the people and environment of Southern Palestine during the late Ottoman period and under the British Mandate. She examines the ways in which urban planning, transportation networks, and communication technologies shaped daily life in the desert and the interactions between Palestinian Bedouins, fellahin, urbanites, and Zionist settlers. Her previous research examined Palestinian practices of radio listening during the British Mandate and listeners’ discourse on the Palestine Broadcasting Service.