Screening Identity: Palestinian National Culture and Intercommunal Dynamics in Haifa’s Cinematic Landscape

Focusing on the vibrant cinema scene in Haifa during the Mandate period, this article looks into the city’s Palestinian cultural history and the dialectic intercommunal relations between Jews and Arabs. It analyzes the persistent struggle of Haifa’s Palestinian community to establish a new Arab-owned cinema as part of a broader effort to develop a Palestinian national culture. The article demonstrates how Palestinian entrepreneurs sought to use cinema as an essential means in the formation of a distinct national culture and identity in the context of the escalating national conflict. At the same time, it highlights how cinemas effectively functioned as a shared space of daily intercommunal encounters and cultural collaboration between ordinary Arabs and Jews in Haifa.