A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine

432 Pages·2020·3.581 MB·English

by  Lori A. Allen

A History of False Hope
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
A History
of fAlse Hope
Investigative Commissions in Palestine

lori Allen
Stanford University Press
stanford, California
Stanford University Press
stanford, California
© 2021 by the Board of trustees of the leland stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written
permission of stanford University press.
printed in the United states of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
library of Congress Control Number: 2020944202
Cover design: Kevin Barrett Kane
Cover image: february 1956 map of UN partition plan for palestine,
adopted November 29, 1947, with boundary of previous UNsCop
partition plan added.
typeset by Newgen in 10.25/15 Adobe Caslon pro
For Yezid
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What’s the use
of something
as unstable
and diffuse as hope—
the almost-twin
of making-do,
the isotope
of going on:
what isn’t in
the envelope
just before
it isn’t:
the always tabled
righting of the present.
Kay ryan, “Hope”
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Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xvii
List of Major Commissions on Palestine xix
Introduction. international law as a Way of Being 1
1. petitioning liberals: The King-Crane Commission 31
2. Universalizing liberal internationalism:
The Arab revolt and the Boycott of the peel Commission 71
3. The Humanitarian politics of Jewish suffering:
The Anglo-American Committee of inquiry 102
4. Third World solidarity at the General Assembly:
A UN special Committee on Human rights 144
5. The silences of Democratic listening:
The Mitchell Committee 176
6. The shift to Crime and punishment:
UN Missions renewing Hope in international law 210
Conclusion. toward an Anthropology of international law,
and Next time and Again for palestine 240
Notes 253
References 327
Index 375