Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search for a Homeland

Preface

Preface . . . the next day they sent me back to my second home but my spirit stayed and it flies in the stones. Each burning tire carries the fire of my love for the land and my deep desire to return to the earth of my ancestors. They can’t stop me. —iron sheik, ‘‘just trying to get home,’’ camel clutch, 2003 This excerpt is from a rap song by the Palestinian American hip-hop artist Iron Sheik. The song tells the story of a young Palestinian American who tried to go to Palestine but was detained by Israeli security forces and subsequently banned from entering the country. This song, the existence of a Palestinian American rapper, his popularity with young Palestinian Americans, and my own involvement with the Palestinian community show me that the issue of return to Palestine has as much currency today as when I first started researching this question. This study of Palestinian return experiences is based on research and fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2000. It is a snapshot of a group of young returnees to Palestine who had grown up in different corners of the world as part of the Palestinian diaspora. Like a photograph, it has captured particular people at a particular moment in time.Theyears 1998–99, during which I conducted my fieldwork in the West Bank, were a time when the initial euphoric feelings about the ‘‘peace process,’’ the partial redeployment of the Israeli forces from the Occupied Territories, and the establishment of the institutions of the Palestinian National Authority had started to fade in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians around the world, in the refugee camps and cities of the Arab world, and in the diaspora communities elsewhere, were growing skeptical about the prospects foran independent Palestinian state. The findings of this study must be viewed viii palestinians born in exile in this light. Their value lies both in mapping out the range of return experiences in this particularcontext and time and in emphasizing the larger conclusions to be drawn about migration and return. In September 2000 the Occupied Territories witnessed the outbreak of a second popular uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation . This time the clashes with the Israeli forces were more intense, with the number of Palestinians killed and injured rising daily. This new uprising has been termed the Second Intifada (uprising). Since then, there have been a number of significant developments. Areas fully or partially controlled by the Palestinian Authority have been reinvaded and reoccupied by Israeli forces. Militant Palestinian groups have carried out suicide bombings in Israeli cities that have killed and injured many Israelis. The Israeli government has used a variety of ‘‘security’’ measures: targeted killings of suspected or potential suicide bombers and planners of such operations; home demolitions; rocket and helicopter attacks on Palestinian towns and villages; arrests of large numbers of young Palestinian men; curfews; and complete cutoff of the territories from economic, medical , and financial supplies. All these developments have officially sealed the fate of the peace process as a failed project.The peoples of the Middle East, in particular Israelis and Palestinians, are more than ever in need of a solution to this conflict, a just solution that can reconcile the pain and distrust between them and allow for peace and stability in the region. As I write these words, new efforts are being made to reach an agreement on a proposal termed the ‘‘road map,’’ initiated by the United States and debated among Israelis and Palestinians. The events in the Middle East since I left Ramallah in the summer of 1999 have had a significant effect on the lives of the respondents to this study. Living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have deteriorated enormously, and many Palestinians have left Palestine in search of a safe place to live. No figures are available regarding the number of Palestinians who have left since the beginning of the Second Intifada. The young returnees of this study might have been among those who left or among those who chose to stay in their homeland. The situation has made it impossible to stay in contact with all of them, and I can only assume what the effects on them might have been. Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel are united in their struggle to survive and in their suffering and loss. Palestinians in the diaspora have intensified their activities and...