6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank
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Alexis Whitacre
Abstract
In the West Bank, conflict tourism is aided by the proliferation of new media and has become a phenomenon used by Palestinians to invite foreign tourists to actively produce media that constructs or relays particular views about the nature of the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its effects on life in Palestinian refugee camps. Drawing from disciplines like new media, tourism studies, and conflict studies, this chapter analyzes what compels tourists to visit non-traditional sites like the refugee camp and examines how camp tourists use social media to engage with the traumascape of the camp and represent the Palestine-Israel conflict. Foregrounding camp inhabitants’ agency in promoting the camp as a tourist destination, the chapter highlights the complexity of camp tourism and its digital representation and questions whether tourist intervention constitutes exploitation or advocacy. The chapter notes why tourists are encouraged to digitally document camp reality and how tourists’ social media representations of the camp help shape perceptions of the complex and enduring Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It also highlights the perceived effects of tourism and new media on local host communities from Palestinian refugees’ points of view.
Abstract
In the West Bank, conflict tourism is aided by the proliferation of new media and has become a phenomenon used by Palestinians to invite foreign tourists to actively produce media that constructs or relays particular views about the nature of the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and its effects on life in Palestinian refugee camps. Drawing from disciplines like new media, tourism studies, and conflict studies, this chapter analyzes what compels tourists to visit non-traditional sites like the refugee camp and examines how camp tourists use social media to engage with the traumascape of the camp and represent the Palestine-Israel conflict. Foregrounding camp inhabitants’ agency in promoting the camp as a tourist destination, the chapter highlights the complexity of camp tourism and its digital representation and questions whether tourist intervention constitutes exploitation or advocacy. The chapter notes why tourists are encouraged to digitally document camp reality and how tourists’ social media representations of the camp help shape perceptions of the complex and enduring Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It also highlights the perceived effects of tourism and new media on local host communities from Palestinian refugees’ points of view.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
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Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
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Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
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Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
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Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Foreword 1
- 1 Dark tourism: The need for a critical approach 5
-
Part I: Dark tourism, affect and emotions
- 2 Atmospheric instability in dark tourism: Spatial construction of conflicting affective atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (USA) 33
- 3 Understanding the emotions of visitors to Chernobyl 53
-
Part II: Dark tourism and critical animal studies
- 4 Animals as dark tourism attractions: A prototype 77
- 5 Meet, greet and eat: Farmed animals as dark tourism attractions 89
-
Part III: Dark tourism and critical memory studies
- 6 Trading paradise for Palestine: Dark tourism to refugee camps in the West Bank 109
- 7 The scope of dark tourism-scapes: Exclusion zones and their creative boundedness from Chornobyl to Montserrat 129
- 8 Exploring the intersections between dark tourism and Arctic traumascapes in the Anthropocene: The case of Finnish Lapland 147
- 9 “Despicable and disgusting”: Emotional labor, and the fear of dark tourism 163
- 10 Welcome to Revachol: Disco Elysium as virtual dark tourism 181
-
Part IV: Dark tourism, power and identity
- 11 Sites of (dark) consciences: Investigating dark tourism cosmologies in a postcolonial landscape 203
- 12 Towards a postcolonial museum? Experiencing legacies of colonialism in dark tourism museum exhibits 219
- 13 Exhibiting power: Dark tourism and crime in the police museum 245
- 14 Representations in UK witches tours: Walking over the roots of misogyny 261
- 15 Critical theories in dark tourism: Over the years and beyond 277
- List of contributors 285
- List of figures 291
- Index 293
