ארבעה אוספי מסמכים חדשים מחכים עכשיו לקיטלוג! היכנסו לאחד מהם ובואו לקחת חלק במחקר של מכון עקבות
Research
ABOUT DECIPHERING THE MILITARY RULE PROJECT
The Military Rule Cataloguing Project invites the general public to support Akevot’s research on the Military Rule era in Israel. The information collected from thousands of documents located by Akevot from various archives will be entered into our digital archive. This will enable to reveal hidden connections between people, places, processes and events, all significant to understanding the Military Rule, its function and its legacy.
Together with official documents, created by state authorities and bodies, another kind of documentation presented here for cataloguing are letters written by Palestinian citizens of Israel. These letters are addressed to the Military Governors and other state authorities, and are expressing a variety of hardships, complaints, and problems faced by the subjects of the Military Rule. Because of the power relations and context in which these letters were written, many times these letters are using a very limited, cautious language, and their tone might come across as ingratiating. Often, the letters are concise and succinct, some of them were not written by the complainants themselves but by someone else, who could read and write in Hebrew or in Arabic. These facts are crucial to the analysis and understanding of the content expressed in the letters, that cannot be fully understood outside the power relations of the era.
The documents you help catalogue will be valuable resources for policymakers and researchers and will be used in Akevot’s research and publications, including online publications, a podcast series, news articles, and a book of annotated documents. The data collected in the Arabic Letters project will be uploaded to Akevot’s website to create an open database that will allow everyone to search for names of people and places that are mentioned in the letters.
To read more about the Military Rule please visit our FAQ page.
Come and take part in the effort to take this historical chapter off of the archives’ shelves and into public discourse. At the moment the project requires fluency in Hebrew. Please sign up for our newsletter to receive updates about Akevot's activities and future crowdsourcing projects in English.
ABOUT AKEVOT INSTITUTE
Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research was founded in 2014 out of a recognition of the unique role archives can play in breaking conflict-enhancing myths, fostering fact-based discourse, and supporting the work of human rights defenders. We make archives a tool for change by researching and exposing mechanisms, processes and events who play a role in the perpetuation of the Conflict. We assist human rights defenders and civil society organizations in accessing archival documentation relevant to their work. We campaign to expand the public’s access to government archives to promote transparency and freedom of information.
Like all of Akevot’s work, the project Deciphering the Military Rule depends on the generosity of our supporters. To support our work with a donation, please click here.