Palestinian National Movement Research Articles

The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967–2005: Amal Jamal

<i>The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967–2005</i>: Amal Jamal

The Evolvement of an Arab?Palestinian National Minority in Israel

Developments in the national consciousness of Arabs in Israel are addressed in three consecutive periods, each representing a phase in the evolvement of the Arabs in Israel as a national minority, characterized by unique political and ideological developments. Following the establishment of Israel, Arab national consciousness was relatively subdued, given the imposition of a military government regime in Arab-populated areas and the physical isolation of Israel’s Arabs from the Arab world. The second period, from 1967 to 1993, symbolized the national awakening of the Arabs in Israel in a process, which came to be known as Palestinization, which was strongly influenced by their renewed contact with the Palestinians in the occupied territories and by the rise of the Palestinian national movement. During the third period, from 1993 to the present, the national dilemma of the Arabs in Israel was further accentuated by the 1993 Oslo Accords, leading to recurrent attempts by Arabs in Israel to reformulate and propose alternative models to the 1948 paradigm of minority-majority relations in Israel. This article examines these developments in terms of ideology, politics, and means of protest.

Palestine Versus the Palestinians? The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied

An iron law of the conflict over Palestine has been the refusal by the Zionist movement and its backers, first Great Britain and then the United States, to make room for the existence of Palestinians as a political community. This non-recognition is rooted in historical forces that predate the existence of the Zionist movement and the Palestinians as a people. Consequently, there is a tension between identity and territory, with obvious repercussions for the following questions: Who are the Palestinians? What do they want? And who speaks for them? This essay calls for a critical reappraisal of the relationship between the concepts ““Palestine”” and ““Palestinians,”” as well as of the state-centered project of successive phases of the Palestinian national movement.

The Palestinian National Movements: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005 (review)

Reviewed by: The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005 Gregory Mahler, Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005, by Amal Jamal. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005. 229 pp. $22.95. The first thing to say about this book, as will be obvious to any potential reader, is that it is extremely timely. The Palestinian national movement is in the news on almost a daily basis, has proven to be among the top news stories of the last six months, and it is not likely to go away in the near future. The Palestinian National Movement provides a very good and well-documented portrait of a national liberation movement that has faced challenge after challenge, frustration after frustration, and yet has not only survived but has grown stronger over time. Although discussion of more distant historical material is included where needed, the concentration of the book focuses upon the period following the Six Day War in 1967, when the nature of so many Palestinians' lives changed dramatically as Israel became the occupying power in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The first chapter of the book focuses upon the historical context of the Palestinian national movement and includes discussion of who the political elite were in Palestine and how the outcomes of the 1967 War affected the lives of Palestinians. The War resulted in an Occupying Power (Israel), and led to a mobilization of the nationalist movement in a way that it had not been mobilized previously, shifting the political process "from nation building to state building" (p. 15). There is much discussion of the changing political structures of the Palestinians under Occupation, and how the Palestinians resisted the Israeli policy of "de-Palestinianization" on a regular basis. The issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a significant one, of course, both because of interactions between the Israelis and the Palestinians and because the philosophy and practice of Israeli settlements had significant consequences for what the Israelis were prepared to let the Palestinians do. This was a large "zero-sum game," and as Israeli settlements grew there were corresponding diminutions of Palestinian communities. Jamal does a very good job of describing the efforts of the PLO leadership as they tried to coordinate Palestinian dissent and resistance to the Israeli occupation. [End Page 194] This resistance often resulted in deportations, destruction of Palestinian property, and limitations on political freedoms of Palestinians. Of great interest is Jamal's discussion of the relationship "between exterior and interior in the Palestinian national movement" (p. 38), in which decisions were often made based upon which audience was being considered—the domestic Palestinian audience, the Occupying Israeli audience, or the more external World audience. Differences between the Fatah/PLO leadership and the Palestinian National Front began to surface in strategic terms, and the Palestinian National Guidance Committee often found itself in a position of having to struggle to make peace among the various groups of Palestinian political elites. The "politics of steadfastness" (p. 63) is the term used by Jamal to discuss the Palestinian strategy for responding to Israeli policy in the occupied territories, and a substantial effort is made in this book to discuss and analyze this complicated and terribly important topic. What can be called the "politics of occupation" has been a major, indeed, the major influence affecting the lives of Palestinians over the last four decades, and the discussion presented here examines the role of the Jordanians in this challenge, the role of domestic para-political structures such as the General Federation of Trade Unions, and the role of international actors in helping to provide financial assistance to keep the Palestinian organizations going. Among the most interesting areas of analysis for this reader was the discussion of Palestinian political leadership that is offered here, and the examination of the interaction between Islamic actors and more secular actors. Jamal tells us that "after founding Hamas and experiencing direct confrontation with the occupation authorities, the religious elite of the occupied territories sought to establish itself as an authentic representative of the Palestinian masses" (p. 110). This...

My Home is Over Jordan: River as Border in Israeli and Palestinian National Mythology

‘From the River to the Sea’ rings the refrain that defines the terrain of desire for Zionist and Palestinian national movements and promises both circumscription and distinction. Since the Mediterranean operates as a different sort of frontier, the Jordan River figures as the border where both Palestinian and Israeli identities are constructed, contested and mythologised. In national myth, the Jordan is a site of beginning and transition where collective character undergoes transformation through changing modes of encountering the enemy. This article surveys Israeli and Palestinian Jordan narratives and the synecdochic process through which the River comes to signify the nation.

The Palestinian national movement: politics of contention, 1967-2005

The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005, by Amal Jamal. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005. 229 pp. $22.95. The first thing to say about this book, as will be obvious to any potential reader, is that it is extremely timely. The Palestinian national is in the news on almost a daily basis, has proven to be among the top news stories of the last six months, and it is not likely to go away in the near future. The Palestinian National Movement provides a very good and well-documented portrait of a national liberation that has faced challenge after challenge, frustration after frustration, and yet has not only survived but has grown stronger over time. Although discussion of more distant historical material is included where needed, the concentration of the book focuses upon the period following the Six Day War in 1967, when the nature of so many Palestinians' lives changed dramatically as Israel became the occupying power in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The first chapter of the book focuses upon the historical context of the Palestinian national and includes discussion of who the political elite were in Palestine and how the outcomes of the 1967 War affected the lives of Palestinians. The War resulted in an Occupying Power (Israel), and led to a mobilization of the nationalist in a way that it had not been mobilized previously, shifting the political process from nation to state building (p. 15). There is much discussion of the changing political structures of the Palestinians under Occupation, and how the Palestinians resisted the Israeli policy of de-Palestinianization on a regular basis. The issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a significant one, of course, both because of interactions the Israelis and the Palestinians and because the philosophy and practice of Israeli settlements had significant consequences for what the Israelis were prepared to let the Palestinians do. This was a large zero-sum game, and as Israeli settlements grew there were corresponding diminutions of Palestinian communities. Jamal does a very good job of describing the efforts of the PLO leadership as they tried to coordinate Palestinian dissent and resistance to the Israeli oc- cupation. This resistance often resulted in deportations, destruction of Palestinian property, and limitations on political freedoms of Palestinians. Of great interest is Jamal's discussion of the relationship between exterior and interior in the Palestinian national movement (p. 38), in which decisions were often made based upon which audience was being considered-the domestic Palestinian audience, the Occupying Istaeli audience, or the more external World audience. Differences the Fatah/PLO leadership and the Palestinian National Front began to surface in strategic terms, and the Palestinian National Guidance Committee often found itself in a position of having to struggle to make peace among the various groups of Palestinian political elites. …

Islam, Judaism, and the political role of religions in the Middle East

Foreword Adrift in Similarity, by Edward Said Introduction, by John Bunzl Part I. On Islam and Judaism, Muslims and Jews 1. A Religion's Self-Conception of The Case of Judaism and Islam, by Hans-Michael Hausaig 2. Islam and Judaism: Cultural Relations and Interaction through the Ages, by Nissim Rejwan Part II. Negotiating Religions and Identities 3. National Identity and the Role of the Other in Existential Conflicts: The Israeli-Palestinian Case, by Herbert Kelman 4. The Politicization of Muslim-Christian Relations in the Palestinian National Movement, by Helga Baumgarben Part III. Progressive Potentials within Religious Traditions 5. Democracy without Secularism? Reflections on the Idea of Islamic Democracy, by Raja Bahlul 6. Religious Roots of Tolerance with Special Reference to Judaism and Islam, by Adam Seligman Part IV. On the Use of Religion in Contemporary Middle Eastern Politics 7. Imposed Normalization and Cultural Transgression Cultural Politics in Egypt and Israel since the 1979 Peace Treaty, by Joal Beinin 8. Islamic Themes in Palestinian Political Thought, by Alexander Flores 9. Israel, Religion, and Peace, by Avishai Ehrlich

The Middle East enters the twenty-first century

Part I. The Persian Gulf and Turkey 1. The Legacy of Iraq's Past and the Promise of its Future, by Judith Yaphe 2. Iran: Slouching Toward the 21st Century, by Shaul Bakhash 3. The Arabian Peninsula Monarchies from Camp David I to Camp David II, by F. Gregory Gause III 4. From Swamp to Backyard: The Middle East in Turkish Foreign Policy, by Malik Mufti Part II. The Arab-Israeli Core Area 5. Israel Enters the 21st Century: Hegemonic Crisis in the Holy Land, by Ilan Peleg 6. The Palestinian National Movement: From Catastrophe to Disaster, by Barry Rubin 7. Jordan: Walking a Tightrope, by Yehudah Lukacs 8. Flanks, Balances, and Withdrawals: The Parameters of Syrian Policy in the Middle East since the 1979 Egyptian-Israell Peace Treaty, by David W. Lesch 9. Lebanon Since 1979: Syria, Hezbollah, and the War Against Peace in the Middle East, by Marius Deeb Part III. Egypt and North Africa 10. Egypt: Moribund Between Past and Future, by Louis Cantori 11. Militant Islam and the State in North Africa, by Mary-Jane Deeb Part IV. The Outside Powers 12. U.S. Policy Toward Israel, by Don Peretz 13. Russian Policy in the Middle East under Yeltsin and Putin, by Robert O. Freedman Epilogue: The Bush Administration, the European Union, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Impact of September 11

The Palestinian press and the general strike, April–October 1936: Filastin as a case study

During the first half of the 1930s, the Palestinian national movement confronted two main dilemmas. The first was that Britain did not intend to grant them what it had granted other Arab nations under its governance (i.e., the Egyptians and the Iraqis); the second was that their traditional leadership - the Executive Committee, led by Musa Kazim al-Husayni - and the mechanisms by which it led the national movement (arranging assemblies, organizing committees and composing memoranda of protest for the British High Commissioner) were transparent, obsolete and ineffective. The leaders of the young generation called for hardening the national movement's stance and for the use of violence in order to obtain political goals. The turning point, seemingly, was the British Mandatory government's condemning to death on 17 June 1930 of three Palestinian youths whom it found guilty of organizing the 1929 riots and arousing passions in the process. Armed underground organizations were formed after the riots, principally in Haifa and Galilee, and during the first half of the 1930s these groups attacked a number of British and Jewish targets. The dominant figure of these organizations was Shaykh 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a Syrian exile who arrived in Palestine in the early 1920s and was appointed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni, as preacher of the al-Istiqlal Mosque in Haifa. AlQassam's close connection to these underground organizations became known only after his death in November 1935; he was killed in a battle with

PAN-ISLAM OR ARAB NATIONALISM? THE MEANING OF THE 1931 JERUSALEM ISLAMIC CONGRESS RECONSIDERED

One of the most complex questions in the study of the history of Arab nationalism is that of the relationship between Islam and nationalism in collective political identity. This complexity shows itself clearly in the specific case of the Palestinian national movement during the early Mandatory period, when the Islamic political sensibilities that historically had been central to the Ottoman Empire were thoroughly intertwined with Palestinian territorial nationalism and Pan-Arabism.1 It is not difficult to identify individual Palestinian activists who expressed their political identities at various times through any or all of these categories.2 Clearly, religious and nationalist bases of social and political identity are neither mutually exclusive nor unchanging over time. Concepts of identity, whether expressed through kinship relations, citizenship, or religious and national identity, are generated, chosen, and manipulated in specific historical circumstances. As Dale Eickelman explains, “These forms do not exist as objects that can be torn from social and cultural contexts by anthropologists for recording and classification into typologies.”3 One can therefore ask, Under what circumstances did Palestinian activists choose to express their political identity in terms of nationalism?

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

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...

The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order (review)

Book Reviews 171 This development gave the Palestinian national movement much-needed autonomy from the Arab states, and also coincided with a fragmentation of the ranks. Since then the PLO, with Arafat at the helm, has attempted to monopolize the means of violence, an effort that at times has brought him into clashes with his own forces and comrades in arms. Although Arafat was never able to bring other groups under his command (not surprising given that the monopolization of the means of violence is always incomplete ), there did occur a progressive centralization and nationalization ofthe means of violence. The PLO also attempted to maintain the means ofrule through a bureaucratic apparatus, in this case one built on a neopatrimoniallogic. Although this served well the task of political survival, it also institutionalized a fairly inefficient and corrupt bureaucratic administration. The reader is treated to a systematic examination ofa statebuilding process in a nonterritorial context, and the obvious temptation is to race ahead ofthe narrative and connect these processes to post-Oslo developments. In this context a curious claim made by Sayigh is that while the PLO might have lacked many of the qualities of "stateness," it can still be treated as a "statist" entity. This fairly controversial claim seems unnecessary. His overall argument does not rest on whether or not the PLO can properly be categorized as "statist," for the theoretical and historical links can still be made to other state-building experiences without making this move. Moreover, Sayigh appears to argue that because the effects of the PLO's activities were similar to the effects produced by states in state-building contexts, then it stands to reason that the PLO was statist. I am not convinced of either the argument or the necessity ofit. But this comment, I confess, is a minor point that does not detract from the book's central arguments regarding Palestinian state-building. This is a superb book. I sincerely doubt that we will see anytime soon a more thorough, comprehensive, or convincing treatment of the Palestinian national movement. The only real regret is that Sayigh only takes us through 1993. I can hardly wait for the next installment. Michael Barnett Department of Political Science University of Wisconsin-Madison The Decline of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order, by Avraham Sela. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998). 423 pp. $24.95 (p). The back cover blurb ofAvraham Sela's new work is an unusual case of under- rather than over-selling the book it describes. This book is much more than an "extremely complete account ofthe public record ofthe diplomatic history ofthe Arab world," or 172 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, No.2 a treatment of Arab summitry alone. Beyond this, the author offers a comprehensive account ofthe regional dynamics ofinter-Arab politics, the ways these have shifted over time, and the particular position ofthe Arab-Israeli conflict within this context. Specifically, Selaargues that the Arab world has demonstrated an increasing ability to "insulate itselffrom rallying issues ofsymbolic Arab concerns and conduct its autonomous policies" (p. 341). This has occurred through a shift from transnational political symbolism (notably Arab nationalism) to a regional order based on state sovereignties, solidified by on-going processes of state-building and regime consolidation. This process of"westphalianization" ofthe regional system was accelerated by the Arab (and especially Egyptian) defeat in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and reinforced by the growing power ofthe Arab oil monarchies from the 1970s onwards. The growing focus ofthe Palestinian movement on a territorial solution in the West Bank and Gaza-and the shift ofthe movement's political center ofgravity there through the 1980s-further confirmed this transformation. With the Oslo agreement and mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO, the Palestinian issue was removed as a tool (and weapon) of domestic and regional mobilization for Arab regimes. The result, Sela suggests, is that "the 'classic' Arab-Israeli conflict is over" (p. 350). This is not a new argument, although Sela's treatment ofit is particularly well done. The salience of what Michael Hudson has called "core Arab concerns" has been explored (and often hotly...

Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993. By Yezid Sayigh. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997. 953p. $99.00 cloth, $39.95 paper.

Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993. By Yezid Sayigh. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997. 953p. $99.00 cloth, $39.95 paper.

YEZID SAYIGH, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, and Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). Pp. 96. £70.00 cloth.

Yezid Sayigh's encylopedic history focuses on the role that the idea of armed struggle played in the Palestinian national movement as it evolved over the past half-century. His central thesis is that “armed struggle provided the political impulse and organisational dynamic in the evolution of Palestinian national identity and in the formation of parastatal institutions and a bureaucratic elite, the nucleus of government” (p. vii). The concept of armed struggle reforged Palestinian national identity, mobilized Palestinians, provided political legitimization to the Palestinian movement, made the Palestinians a distinct political actor in relation to the Arab states, helped to create institutions that could form the basis of a government, and established a well-defined political elite. Thus, even though Palestinian leaders never transformed the armed struggle into a people's war along the lines of Algeria or Vietnam, and never liberated any part of Palestine by force, armed struggle served other important, statist functions.

UNRWA and the Palestinian Nation-Building Process

This paper focuses on the political dimensions of UNRWA's mandate and activities through an analysis of its relations with the Palestinian national movement. The evolution of the UNRWA-PLO relationship, from uneasy coexistence to active partnership, parallels changes in each of the two bodies: UNRWA's movement toward greater politiciza- tion, and the PLO's gradual embrace of developmental goals associ- ated with the state-building process. The article ends by touching on the problems inherent in the new development approach, particularly with reference to the refugees' right of return.

Book Reviews: British Politics since the War, The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher, Authoritarianism and Democratisation in Postcommunist Societies, Vol. 1: The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe, Vol. 2: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe, Vol. 3: Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, Vol. 4: Conflict, Cleavage, and

Book Reviews: British Politics since the War, The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher, Authoritarianism and Democratisation in Postcommunist Societies, Vol. 1: The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe, Vol. 2: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe, Vol. 3: Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, Vol. 4: Conflict, Cleavage, and

Shorter notice. Armed Struggle and the Search for State. The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Y Sayigh

Journal Article Shorter notice. Armed Struggle and the Search for State. The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Y Sayigh Get access R Ovendale R Ovendale University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 114, Issue 456, April 1999, Pages 520–521, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/114.456.520 Published: 01 April 1999

Shorter notice. Armed Struggle and the Search for State. The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Y Sayigh

Shorter notice. Armed Struggle and the Search for State. The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. Y Sayigh

Military History: Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. . Yezid Sayigh.

Military History: Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. . Yezid Sayigh.

The Near and Middle East - Yezid Sayigh: Armed struggle and the search for state: the Palestinian national movement, 1949–1993. 953 pp. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. £70.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.