Emergency Telephone: The June 1967 War and Its Impact on Nablus as Reflected in the Correspondence between Hamdi Kanaan and Akram Zuaytir

​This study examines the correspondence that took place between Hamdi Kanaan and Akram Zuaytir during the weeks and months immediately following the June 1967 War. Their exchange sheds light on the way in which, although the war had disrupted traditional means of communication such as visits and telephone calls, it had inaugurated another form of communication that highlighted the growing value of replacing formal relationships with personal ones that facilitated solutions to newly arising issues facing the city of Nablus. These two men's correspondence, which often served as a kind of diary, fills out the details of certain events that were obscured in other sources, as they documented budding political positions and ideas, as well as the socioeconomic conditions that prevailed under the Israeli occupation of Palestine and changes that were taking place. In particular, this correspondence revealed certain things that Kanaan had concealed in his memoir, such as the covert ways in which he bolstered the resilience of the inhabitants of both Nablus and the surrounding region. The language in which the letters were written conveys the psychological states that were being experienced by both men, as well as the compound factors that shaped their mindsets over time, and the impact such supportive personal bonds had on people's ability to persevere and survive.

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​This study examines the correspondence that took place between Hamdi Kanaan and Akram Zuaytir during the weeks and months immediately following the June 1967 War. Their exchange sheds light on the way in which, although the war had disrupted traditional means of communication such as visits and telephone calls, it had inaugurated another form of communication that highlighted the growing value of replacing formal relationships with personal ones that facilitated solutions to newly arising issues facing the city of Nablus. These two men's correspondence, which often served as a kind of diary, fills out the details of certain events that were obscured in other sources, as they documented budding political positions and ideas, as well as the socioeconomic conditions that prevailed under the Israeli occupation of Palestine and changes that were taking place. In particular, this correspondence revealed certain things that Kanaan had concealed in his memoir, such as the covert ways in which he bolstered the resilience of the inhabitants of both Nablus and the surrounding region. The language in which the letters were written conveys the psychological states that were being experienced by both men, as well as the compound factors that shaped their mindsets over time, and the impact such supportive personal bonds had on people's ability to persevere and survive.

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