Palestinians Born in Exile

In the decade following the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, some 100,000 diasporic Palestinians returned to the West Bank and Gaza. Among them were children and young adults who were born in exile and whose sense of Palestinian identity was shaped not by lived experience but rather through the transmission and re-creation of memories, images, and history. As a result, 'returning' to the homeland that had never actually been their home presented challenges and disappointments for these young Palestinians, who found their lifeways and values sometimes at odds with those of their new neighbors in the West Bank and Gaza. This original ethnography records the experiences of Palestinians born in exile who have emigrated to the Palestinian homeland. Juliane Hammer interviews young adults between the ages of 16 and 35 to learn how their Palestinian identity has been affected by living in various Arab countries or the United States and then moving to the West Bank and Gaza. Their responses underscore how much the experience of living outside of Palestine has become integral to the Palestinian national character, even as Palestinians maintain an overwhelming sense of belonging to one another as a people.

ISBN 0292702965   Pages 288 ISBN13 9780292702967 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher University of Texas Press   Weight (grammes) 426 Imprint University of Texas Press   Published in Austin, TX Format Paperback   Height (mm) 229 Publication date 15 Mar 2005   Width (mm) 152 Library of Congress 2004010011   Spine width (mm) 16 DEWEY 305.89274   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

Ch. 1		Introduction : Palestinian migration, refugees, and return		1
Ch. 2		Palestinian national identity, memory, and history		23
Ch. 3		The country of my dreams		50
Ch. 4		Return to Palestine : dreams and realities		75
Ch. 5		The return process in comparison		115
Ch. 6		Rewriting of identities in the context of diaspora and return		167
Ch. 7		Home and the future of Palestinian identities		200

"Juliane Hammer has written an excellent book that captures the Palestinian experience of exile, life in the Diaspora, and return to Palestine." Philip Mattar, United States Institute for Peace, editor of Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa "Juliane Hammer's book is a welcome addition to the relatively meager literature on Palestinians who were born in exile and "returned" to Palestine..." - Journal of Palestine Studies

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