Open AccessDIFFICULT DISTINCTIONS: Refugee Law, Humanitarian Practice, and Political Identification in Gaza
Author(s) -
FELDMAN ILANA
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
cultural anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.669
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1548-1360
pISSN - 0886-7356
DOI - 10.1525/can.2007.22.1.129
Subject(s) - refugee , argument (complex analysis) , politics , citizenship , palestine , neutrality , law , political science , refugee law , palestinian refugees , population , intersection (aeronautics) , sociology , international humanitarian law , political economy , human rights , history , geography , medicine , ancient history , demography , cartography
In this article, I explore the intersection of humanitarian practice and refugee law in shaping categories of “refugee” and “citizen” in Gaza in the first years after 1948. I examine how humanitarian practice produced enduring distinctions within the Gazan population and provided a space in which ideas about Palestinian citizenship began to take shape. A key argument is that humanitarianism, despite commitments to political neutrality, often has profound and enduring political effects. In this case, humanitarian distinctions contributed to making the “refugee” a central figure in the Palestinian political landscape. I also consider how humanitarianism in Palestine was guided by the larger, emerging postwar refugee regime, even as Palestinians were formally excluded from some of its mechanisms.