Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews 169 Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993, by Yezid Sayigh. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 953 pp. $99.00. Yezid Sayigh's Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 is perhaps the definitive account on the subject of the Palestinian national movement. A leading scholar on Middle Eastern politics and professor at Cambridge University, Sayigh has produced a panoramic and nuanced study that charts the life of the Palestinian movement through its turning points and between-from its origins with the diaspora in 1948/49, to the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1964, to the revolutionary years between the 1967 and 1973 wars, to the PLO's steady attempt to build a state without a territory during the 1970s and 1980s, to the PLO's much anticipated return to Palestine with the signing ofthe 1993 Oslo Accords. Based on hundreds of interviews with Palestinian leaders and the rank-and-file, volumes ofprimary documents and internal memos from the various political and guerilla organizations, and a thorough reading ofthe secondary literature, this is an exhaustive and very well written book that leaves the reader in debt for Sayigh's dogged determination and skillful analysis. What distinguishes Sayigh's account ofthe Palestinian national movement from the crowd is its depth and breadth, and the analytic narrative that he uses to fashion the historical materials. In his effort to cover the events that shaped the history of the Palestinian national movement, Sayigh provides a thorough airing of the background conditions and political motivations that informed the decisions and the ultimate outcome of the event in question. Arguably the most novel aspect here is Sayigh's detailed account ofthe internal dealings and politics within the Palestinian nationalist movement, including the struggles both within the PLO and between the key constituencies and those outside the organization. Many works attempt to assess the roles and motives ofthe different players; few actually and convincingly do so. The historical details are informed by an overarching narrative that makes two central claims. The first is that the armed struggle "provided the political impulse and organizational dynamic in the evolution ofthe Palestinian national identity and in the formation of parastatal institutions and a bureaucratic elite, the nucleus of a government " (p. vii). Armed struggle, in other words, had significant effects that extended beyond the stated political or strategic goal in its conflict with Israel. Indeed, the decision to use violent rather than political or diplomatic means oftentimes compromised if not completely undercut the ability of the Palestinian national movement to obtain its publicly declared objectives. Yet armed struggle's enduring legacy was to help defme the Palestinian national identity. Social scientists and historians have long noted how violence and wars have been central to nation and state formation, observing 170 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, No.2 how these processes are central to group and identity fonnation and boundary drawing; Sayigh makes a real contribution by noting how a similar process unfolded here. Anned struggle, moreover, helped to distinguish the PLO from other Arab states and political actors. Whereas once Palestine was infused in Arab politics, and Arab politics was infused in Palestine, over time there has been a clearer demarcation and separation between the two. Although there are many factors that have led them to become disentangled and enabled the Palestinian movement to peel itselfaway from the grasp of other Arab states, anned struggle was central to this process. This was not without its cost to the Palestinian movement; the more the PLO differentiated and separated itselffrom the Arab states, the less likely Arab states were ready to sacrifice for and support the PLO. Two questionsjump out in Sayigh's discussion ofthe relationship between national identity and anned struggle. First, ifanned struggle was central to the fonnation ofthe Palestinian nationalist identity, then how might that constitutive feature have shaped the favored policies and repertoires? What other fonns ofcollective action and protest were considered and perhaps dismissed? In other words, certain policies might well have been selected not because they were more "efficient" but instead because they were viewed as more legitimate...