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This concept has been discussed mainly in legal pluralism writings of legal science, anthropology of law and sociology of law. In those contexts, the concepts “normative repertoires” and “normative pluralism” refer to norms that govern society parallel to and sometimes in competition with “law” as issued by the state and enforced in the courts. See for example B. Dupret/ M. Berger/ L. al-Zwaini (eds), Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, 1999.
W. Hanks, “Discourse Genres in a Theory of Practice”, American Ethnologist 14 (1987), 668 et seq.
In 1949, the United Nations Conciliation Commission estimated the number of Palestinian refugees at 726,000, whereas in 1950, the newlyestablished United Nations Relief and Works Agency put the number at 957,000.
Following Holy and Stuchlik, by “cultural notion” I mean a notion that is part of the actors’ discourse and not of the researcher’s analytical discourse. It is a notion of which the actors are aware, which they are usually able to formulate verbally and which they are able to communicate to one another. L. Holy/ M. Stuchlik, Actions, norms and representations-Foundations of anthropological inquiry, 1983; L. Holy, Kinship, honour, and solidarity: cousin marriage in the Middle East, 1989, 14.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Drawing on the census material collected during 1995, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics provided similar numbers to the author in March 1999, that were published in M. Malki/ Y. Shalabi, Internal Migration and Palestinian Returnees, 2000.
For example A. Nour, Coming Home: A Survey of the Socio-Economic Conditions of the West Bank and Gaza Returnees Following the 1991 Gulf War, 1993; A. Hovdenak, “On the Gulf Road: Palestinian Adaptations to Labour Migration”, and E. Zureik “The Trek Back Home: Palestinians Returning Home and Their Problem of Adaptations”, in: A. Hovdenak/J. Pedersen/ D.Tuastad/E.Zureik (eds), Constructing Order: Palestinian Adaptations to Refugee Life, FAFO Report 236, 1997; R. Isotalo, “Yesterday’s Outsiders, Today’s Returnees — Transnational Processes and Cultural Encounters in the West Bank”, in: A. Linjakumpu/ K.Virtanen (eds), Under The Olive Tree. Reconsidering Mediterranean Politics and Culture, 1997; R. Isotalo, Gendering the Palestinian Return Migration: Migrants from the Gulf and Marriage as a Transnational Practice, paper presented at the Third Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence, 20–24 March 2002; S. Hanafi, Flexible Transnational Survival Practices of Palestinian Transmigrants/Returnees, and Inflexible State Policies: Crafting the Palestinian Extra-territorialized Nation-State, paper presented at the Third Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence, 20–24 March 2002.
A. Hamarneh, The Culture of Return of the Palestinian Refugees: Identity, Memory, Exile, and Homeland, paper presented at an International Conference on Israel and the Palestinian Refugees, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, 11–13 July 2003.
S. Wright, “The Politicisation of Culture”, Anthropology Today 14 (1998), 7 et seq.
For an overview of a conceptual discussion, see for example P. Werbner/ T. Modood (eds), Debating cultural hybridity: multi-cultural identities and the politics of anti-rasicm, 1997; see also S. Wright, see note 9; and R. Handler, Nationalism and the Politics of Culture in Quebec, 1988.
R. Isotalo, Different Meanings of Palestinian Nationalism: The Politicisation of Culture, 1999.
T. Swedenburg, Memories of Revolt. The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past, 1995, 95.
Isotalo, see note 11; Swedenburg, idem.
Swedenburg, ibid., 22.
J. Peteet, “Authenticity and Gender: The Presentation of Culture”, in: J. Tucker (ed.), Arab Women: Old Boundaries, New Frontiers, 1993, 49 et seq.
“Pickled heritage” is a pithy expression used by Salim Tamari for the above described phenomenon.
Isotalo, see note 11.
A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, 1996.
Ibid., 15.
G. Bowman, “A country of words, conceiving the Palestinian nation from the position of exile”, in: E. Laclau (ed.), The Making of Political Identities, 1994, 138 et seq., drawn from electronic form at <http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthr opology/department/staff/bowman/laclau.html>, 1 et seq., 1–4.
Ibid., 5.
Ibid., 6.
D. Tuastad, Aere eller ikke vaere. Slektskap og politisk orientering I en palestinsk landsby i Israel, 1993, 77.
See for example S. Tamari, Bourgeois Nostalgia and the Abandoned City, 2003, and the numerous autobiographies, novels, short stories and poetry of Palestinian writers.
See for example L. Malkki’s critical analyses of expert knowledge and other discourses that “mute,” depoliticise and dehistoricise refugees who become the mere objects of help and knowledge. L. Malkki, “Speechless emissaries: refugees, humanitarianism, and dehistoricization”, in: K. Fog Olwig/ K. Hastrup (eds), Siting Culture. The Shifting Anthropological Object, 1997.
D. Haraway, “Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective”, Feminist Studies 14 (1989), 575 et seq.
R. Isotalo, Some Theoretical and Methodological Issues within the Field of Palestinian Return Migration, paper presented at Brainstorming Workshop on Palestinian Return Migration: Socio-economic and Cultural Approaches, Ramallah, 13–14 June 2001.
See for example S. Nusseibeh, “What Next”, Ha’aretz English Edition, 24 September 2001.
Salman Abu-Sitta is a Palestinian scholar who has published several studies of what he calls “the sacred, legal, and possible” return of all Palestinian refugees to their pre-1948 homes in today’s State of Israel. See, for example, S.H. Abu-Sitta, The End of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. From Refugees to Citizens at Home, 2001. He is also one of the main interlocutors of the recent diasporic intra-Palestinian debates regarding the right of return and its implementation scenarios. “Quick and decisive response” is his expression for the negative response that he thought Nusseibeh’s proposals would receive among the refugees from 1948-areas.
“Cultural means” in regard to the Palestinian folklore movement and nationalism are discussed in Isotalo, see note 11.
Bowman, see note 21, 5.
B. Anderson, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, 1983.
“Normative repertoire” is a cluster of formal resources around legitimising principle. It is possible to call upon a multitude of justifying principles and use them according to the needs of the situation or contexts of interaction. The normative repertoire’s particularity is that its principal aim is to account for the discursive forms used in the construction of the action claiming to be founded on a norm and expressed in a norm. The repertoire is determined not so much by the circumstances but by the argumentative tactics chosen by its user. The number of repertoires any individual can use will be influenced by the individual’s own choices and the constraints of the social environment. See B. Dupret, “Legal Pluralism, Normative Pluralism and the Arab World”, in: see M. Berger/ L. al-Zwaini, Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, 1999 note 1.
See, for instance, Hovdenak, see note 7; Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Women and Men in Palestine: Trends and Statistics, 1998; Isotalo, “Yesterday’s Outsiders, Today’s Returnees — Transnational Processes and Cultural Encounters in the West Bank”, see note 7; idem, Gendering the Palestinian Return Migration: Migrants from the Gulf and Marriage as a Transnational Practice, see note 7; and S. Hanafi, The Impact of Social Capital on the Eventual Repatriation Process of Refugees: Study of Economic and Social Transnational Kinship Networks in Palestine/Israel, 2003.
S. Mahmood, “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival”, Cultural Anthropology 6 (2001), 202 et seq., 203.
Hanafi, see note 41, 13, 16.
See for example S. Altorki, “The Concept and Practice of Citizenship in Saudi Arabia”, in: S. Joseph (ed.), Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, 2000; A. Amawi, “Gender and Citizenship in Jordan”, in: idem; S. Joseph, “Women and Politics in the Middle East”, in: S. Joseph/S. Slyomovics (eds), Women and Power in the Middle East, 2001.
For instance, S. Joseph, “Theories and Dynamics of Gender, Self, and Identity in Arab Families”, in: S. Joseph (ed.), Intimate Selving in Arab Families. Gender, Self, and Identity, 1999; idem, “Searching for Baba”, in: idem; idem, “Connectivity, Love and Power in Reproduction of Power in Lebanon”, in: idem; R. Giacaman/I. Jad/P. Johnson, “For the Common Good? Gender and Social Citizenship in Palestine”, in: Joseph/Slyomovics, see note 44. Many chapters in M. Heiberg/G. Ovansen, Palestinian Society in Gaza, West Bank and Arab Jerusalem: A Survey of Living Conditions, 1993, illustrate how this familial ideology is reflected in different areas of Palestinians’ lives.
In the conclusions of his research, Palestinian sociologist Najeh Jarrar mentions that his study deals almost exclusively with male leaders and residents of refugee camps. He adds that he feels strongly that research should be conducted on women’s role in decision-making regarding integration and repatriation. N. Jarrar, Palestinian Refugee Camps in the West Bank. Attitudes Towards Repatriation and Integration, 2003; see also J. Rogge, “Repatriation of Refugees. A Not So Simple ‘Optimum’ Solution”, in: T. Allen/H. Morsink (eds), When Refugees Go Home. African Experiences, 1994.
Hanafi, see note 41.
For discussions on gender in Palestinian national and nationalistic discourses, see for instance S. Haj, “Palestinian Women and Patriarchal Relationships”, SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 17 (1992), 761 et seq.; Peteet, see note 15; J. Massad, “Conceiving the Masculine: Gender and Palestinian Nationalism”, Middle East Journal 49 (1995), 483 et seq.; T. Mayer, “Heightened Palestinian Nationalism. Military Occupation, Repression, Difference and Gender”, in: J. Tucker (ed.), Arab Women. Old Boundaries, New Frontiers, 1993; R. Giacaman/I. Jad/P. Johnson, “Transit Citizens. Gender and Citizenship under the Palestinian Authority”, in: Joseph, see note 44.
“The old man glanced back at his village and went on the road to exile... The boy survived al Nakba and became fedayi... The child grew up in a refugee camp, ignited the intifada and prepares to return home, armed with his grandfather’s memory, his father’s sacrifice and his own relentless determination to return. To all three generations, this Book of Return is dedicated.” Abu-Sitta, see note 32, 1.
Katila and Meriläinen, reflect on women’s roles as co-producers of patriarchal structures and discourses in: S. Katila/ S. Meriläinen, “A Serious Researcher or Just Another Nice Girl?, Doing Gender in a Male-Dominated Scientific Community”, Gender, Work and Organization 6 (1999), 163 et seq.
See K.B. Wilson/ J. Nunes, “Repatriation to Mozambique. Refugee initiative & agency planning in Milange District 1988–1991”, in: T. Allen/ H. Morsink (eds), When Refugees Go Home. African Experiences, 1995, 172 et seq.
In terms of state intervention at the transnational level, the Palestinian return migrants’ family relations are influenced and regulated by nation-state policies and legislation like any aspect of the “public sphere.” Isotalo, see K. Virtanen (eds), Under The Olive Tree. Reconsidering Mediterranean Politics and Culture, 1997 note 7. For recent critiques of the public/private dichotomy’s applicability in the Middle East, see, for example, Joseph/Slyomovics, see note 44.
See Isotalo, Gendering the Palestinian Return Migration: Migrants from the Gulf and Marriage as a Transnational Practice, see note 7.
Swedenburg, see note 12, 110 et seq., 138.
As ambiguous, contradictory, multiform and strangely composite, “common sense” is characterised by distinctive local and regional differences. See A. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1971, 324, 423.
Swedenburg, see note 12, 110.
R. Williams, Marxism and Literature, 1977, 122 et seq.; cf. Swedenburg, ibid., 111.
Idem.
Dupret, see Berger/ al-Zwaini, Legal Pluralism in the Arab World, 1999 note 38, 4.
Isotalo, see note 28.
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Isotalo, R. (2007). Palestinian Return: Reflections on Unifying Discourses, Dispersing Practices and Residual Narratives. In: Benvenisti, E., Gans, C., Hanafi, S. (eds) Israel and the Palestinian Refugees. Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, vol 189. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68161-8_6
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