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From the refugee camps of the Lebanon to the relative prosperity of life in the USA, the Palestinian diaspora has been dispersed across the world. In this pioneering study, Helena Lindholm Schulz examines the ways in which Palestinian identity has been formed in the diaspora through constant longing for a homeland lost. In so doing, the author advances the debate on the relationship between diaspora and the creation of national identity as well as on nationalist politics tied to a particular territory. But The Palestinian Diasporaalso sheds light on the possibilities opened up by a transnational existence, the possibility of new, less territorialized identities, even in a diaspora as bound to the idea of an idealized homeland as the Palestinian. Members of the diaspora form new lives in new settings and the idea of homeland becomes one important, but not the only, source of identity. Ultimately though, Schulz argues, the strong attachment to Palestine makes the diaspora crucial in any understandings of how to formulate a viable strategy for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

From the refugee camps of the Lebanon to the relative prosperity of life in the USA, the Palestinian diaspora has been dispersed across the world. In this pioneering study, Helena Lindholm Schulz examines the ways in which Palestinian identity has been formed in the diaspora through constant longing for a homeland lost. In so doing, the author advances the debate on the relationship between diaspora and the creation of national identity as well as on nationalist politics tied to a particular territory. But The Palestinian Diaspora also sheds light on the possibilities opened up by a transnational existence, the possibility of new, less territorialized identities, even in a diaspora as bound to the idea of an idealized homeland as the Palestinian. Members of the diaspora form new lives in new settings and the idea of homeland becomes one important, but not the only, source of identity. Ultimately though, Schulz argues, the strong attachment to Palestine makes the diaspora crucial in any understandings of how to formulate a viable strategy for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. 1. Between Nationalism and Globalism 2. Catastrophe and Beyond 3. Palestinians in the World 4. Stateless, Rootless, Homeless: Meanings of Homeland in Exile 5. Resistance and Return: The Politics of Homeland 6. Right of Return: The Refugees and the Collapse of the Peace Process 7. New Homes and Identities in Motion 8. Coming Home? 9. Nationalism Through Transnationalism 'Schulz's The Palestinian Diaspora unpicks the complex consequences of 50 years of Palestinian exile on the self-consciousness of refugees ... Schulz assists the necessary process of rearticulating Palestinianism in terms more subtle than the nationalist narrative built by the PLO could ever allow for it.' - Tribune

The reorientation of Palestinian politics without the \"real achievement\" of sovereignty and independence created ambiguity. The Palestinian political system of today is between and betwixt, no longer representing a revolutionary liberation movement, and not yet a sovereign state. The political system in-the-making could best be described as neo-patrimonial with a charismatic leader and extensive powers extended to the repressive apparatus. This crisis of legitimacy and the internal contest between elite constellations (i.e., largely within the Fateh movement) paved the way for the al-Aqsa antifada. In turn, the uprising appears to have widened the gap between the main controllers of the PA and the challengers within Fateh.

Using the perspective of the role of fear in identity based conflicts, this article investigates the reasons for the collapse of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians as the process enfolded with the Declaration of Principles (from 1993) and ensuing agreements. The Oslo-process initially succeeded in taking identity aspects and enemy images seriously but failed to sustain this part of the process. Fear of what the other side might be capable of doing and the uncertainty that was the main result of the Camp David negotiations in the summer of 2000 provided a fertile ground for escalating violence. Thus, any conflict resolution process must take identity, fear, and enemy images seriously. However, also existing power asymmetries must be dealt with in negotiation processes.

When the Declaration of Principle between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was signed, in September 1993, hopes for change towards closer cooperation in the Middle East ensued. Regionalisation was gradually seen as an embryonic, but developing process. A decade later, Israelis and Palestinians are bitterly engulfed in a vicious cycle of violence. The US–UK led coalition war against Iraq and the following occupation have had far-reaching repercussions in the region at large. Middle East regionalisation seems to be an illusion with no real basis. The question is why the Middle East has such difficulties to build a

Schulz reviews Boundaries and Belonging: States and Societies in the Struggle to Shape Identities and Local Practice edited by Joel S. Migdal.

The term ‘diaspora’ remains in a sense problematic when applied to the Palestinian case. Yet Palestinians in exile do constitute a diaspora community. Together with Palestinians remaining in the West Bank and Gaza or in Israel, there is a Palestinian transnational community/nation. Diaspora as a defining term should perhaps be saved to designate the Palestinian community in exile, where there are features of the term that are applicable also to those not in ‘exile’. Such diasporic aspects amount to land alienation, combined with strong sentiments of attachment to that land, the combination of forced and severely restricted mobility. There is an almost mock situation, where Palestinians are forced into a transnational existence yet at the same time excluded and kept out of a great many places. Barriers and borders have a specific significance for Palestinians.

Despite their vulnerability, Palestinians (also) describe themselves as those who resist and fight, those who will never give up. In the notion of ‘struggle’, there is a great deal of pride and self-acclaimed strength. Struggle is the one component capable of challenging the Israelis as well as the general degrading situation of being refugees.

One of the grim paradoxes of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is that the foundation of the state of Israel, intended to create a safe haven for the ‘archetypical’ Jewish diaspora, spelt the immediate diasporisation of the Arab Palestinians. The territorialisation of the Jewish diaspora spurred a new ‘wandering identity’ and the Palestinians became a ‘refugee nation’ (Siddiq 1995:87). To the Palestinians, the birth of Israel is thus remembered as the catastrophe, al-nakba, to imprint the suffering caused by dispersal, exile, alienation and denial. Cohen (1997) adequately labelsboth Jewish and Palestinian diasporas ‘victim diasporas’ to indicate the ways in which they have been formed as a consequence of disasters befalling them.

He [a Palestinian] cannot say…that he does not believe in the Return. To reject the Return is to rip up the tree on which his history and raison d’être grow. The Return is the rock on which our nation in exile is founded and the social homeostatis that had cemented our people together in their encapsulated world.