• Corpus ID: 201912595

The Emergence of a Palestinian National Identity : A Theory-Driven Approach

@inproceedings{Foster2007TheEO,
  title={The Emergence of a Palestinian National Identity : A Theory-Driven Approach},
  author={Zachary J. Foster},
  year={2007}
}

• Z. Foster
• Published 2007
• Sociology

Nationalism is one of the most powerful transnation al force of the past two centuries. Although most scholars consider the phenomenon a pe culiarly modern one (Anderson 1994[1983]; Gellner 1994[1964]; Kedourie 1994[1960] ; Smith 1991b: 43-44), theories abound as to exactly when, how and why nations emerged. I ssues of nationalism in the Arab world, however, and in particular the Palestinian case, re main the subject of determined neglect (Lockman 1999; Seikaly 1991). Moreover, the little scholarship available has been charged with Orientalism (Doumani 1992) and fraudulence (Finkels tein 2003; Porath 1986). This paper will explore how the people living in hi storic Palestine, what is today Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, transitioned from a politically passive community to a nation seeking selfdetermination. I will account for the emergence of Palestinian nationalism, beginning in the 1910s throughout the 1920s and 1930s within the fra mework of Anthony D. Smith’s theory on “vertical ethnies” (Smith 1991a:43-70). The main a rgument of this paper is that the Palestinian national identity developed not as an accidental pr oduct of external historical developments (e.g. Zionism or British colonialism), but rather through a directed effort by the Palestinian intellectual class to endow the ethnic community wi th a Palestinian national consciousness.