Palestinians in the Arab World: Institution Building and the Search for State

305 Pages·1988·17.2 MB·English

by  Laurie Brand

Palestinians
in the Arab World
Institution Building and
the Search for State
Laurie A. Brand
*
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Columbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
New York Guildford, Surrey
Copyright © 1988 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brand, Laurie A.
Palestinians in the Arab world.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Palestinian Arabs—Politics and government.
2. Palestinian Arabs—Societies, etc.—History.
3. Palestinian Arabs—Egypt. 4. Palestinian Arabs—Jordan.
5. Palestinian Arabs—Kuwait. I. Title.
DS113.6.B73 1988 909'.049275694 88-6101
ISBN 0-231-06722:4
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are Smyth-sewn
and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper
For my parents

Contents
Tables and Figures ix
Preface xi
A Note on Transliteration xiii
Abbreviations xv
PART I. THE FRAMEWORK
1. Diaspora, State-Building, and Arab Domestic Politics 1
2. The Long Road Back: The Evolution of a
Palestinian Entity 22
PART II. THE CASE STUDIES
Egypt
3. The Powerful Patron 41
4. GUPS: The Political Training Ground 64
5. The Search for Community: The GUPW, GUPWom,
GUPT, and PRCS 85
Kuwait
6. Opportunity in Exile 107
7. Workers and Women 126
8. Changing Organizational Horizons: The GUPS, GUPT,
and PRCS 138
Jordan
9. Identity Suppressed, Identity Denied 149
10. Addressing Community Need: The FTUJ, GUPWom,
and PRCS 186
11. Mobilizing in Education 207
viii CONTENTS
PART III. CONCLUSIONS
Diversity in Diaspora 221
Notes 239
A Note on Sources 263
Bibliography 265
Index 279
Tables and Figures
Table 1.1: Palestinian Population Distribution 9
Table 1.2: Palestinian Organizing and Regional
Developments 14
Figure 2.1: Organizational Structure of the GUPS 33
Figure 2.2: Organizational Structure of the GUPW 34
Figure 2.3: Organizational Structure of the GUPWom 35
Figure 2.4: Organizational Structure of the GUPT 36
Table 3.1: Number of Palestinians in Egypt Classified (by
Govemorate) According to Their Assistance
Category as of 1966 47
Table 6.1: Population of Kuwait, 1957-1975 113
Table 6.2: Gender Ratio in the Palestinian/Jordanian
Community in Kuwait, 1957-1970 116
Table 9.1: List of Refugee Camps—East Bank 151
Table 9.2: List of Refugee Camps—West Bank 152
Table 9.3: Central Government Actual Expenditures
(Jordan) 156
Table 9.4: Industrial Origin of Gross Domestic Product
(Jordan) 158
Table 9.5: Central Government Foreign Receipts of
Unrequited Transfers, 1950-1968 (Jordan) 159
Table 9.6: Founding of Charitable Associations on the
West Bank by District 164
Table 12.1: Marginality Framework 225
Table 12.2: Determinants of Political Marginality 226
Table 12.3: Determinants of Economic Marginality 227
Table 12.4: Determinants of State Coercive Force 228

Preface
The 1947-1949 dispersal of the Arabs of Palestine, and the subsequent
inability of their leadership to establish a Palestinian state next to the
nascent Jewish state, marked the defeat of the Palestinian national
movement. Most studies quickly skim over the 1949-1964 period, al­
though a few mention the development of Fateh or the Arab Nation­
alist Movement. In fact, however, the seeds of later PLO and Palestin­
ian nationalist development were planted in these early years. Some
bore fruit before the establishment of the PLO. Others, frustrated by
host regimes, were able to assert themselves only in the wake of the
liberation organization's founding and subsequent expansion.
This study seeks to assemble and analyze a part of the previously
neglected record of Palestinian political development. It focuses on the
Palestinian communities in three Arab host states—Egypt, Kuwait, and
Jordan—and within each examines the attempts by Palestinians to or­
ganize along corporate/sectoral lines. The emergence and differential
development of the General Union of Palestine Students, the General
Union of Palestine Workers, the General Union of Palestinian Women,
the General Union of Palestinian Teachers, and the Palestine Red Cres­
cent Society are discussed in the context of the three host societies.
The study traces their development from just after the dispersal through
the mid-1980s and suggests a new framework for understanding Pal­
estinian institutional development in Arab host countries based on the
concept of economic and political marginality.
The study of a subject so current and for which so few written ma­
terials exist could not have been accomplished without a great deal of
support and assistance. I would like to thank the U.S. Department of
Education for a Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation grant and a Ful-
bright Islamic civilization grant, which enabled me to conduct field
research. Special thanks are due my academic adviser at Columbia
University, Professor J. C. Hurewitz, for years of advice and support
and for encouraging me in the very early stages of this study to attempt
what at the time seemed impossible. For assistance during the course
of the field research I am indebted to many, but particularly to those
Palestinians who agreed to be interviewed during what was a most dif­
PREFACE xii
ficult time for them and for their national movement. Among those
Palestinians and other Arabs who provided special assistance are: Mr.
Fakhri Sarraj, director of the PLO office, Cairo; the staff of the Amer­
ican Research Center in Egypt; friends at the office of Dar al-Fata al-
cArabi, Cairo; Dr. cAbd al-Muncim cAbbas, Arab League Palestine Re­
search Unit, Cairo; Dr. M. Kazem Behbehani, vice rector for research,
Kuwait University; Dr. Ahmad Bishara, vice rector for academic af­
fairs, Kuwait University; Dr. cAbd al-Rida al-Asiri, of the political sci­
ence department, Kuwait University; Dr. Basim Sirhan of the sociology
department, Kuwait University; the staff at the archives of al-Watan
and al-Qabas, Kuwait; Mr. Najib al-Ahmad, director of the PLO office,
Amman,* friends at the American Center for Oriental Research, Am­
man,* Dr. Ascad cAbd al-Rahman of the Shoman Foundation; staff and
friends at the UNRWA headquarters and the UNRWA field office in
Amman; Dr. Hani al-cAmad, Jordan University Library,* the staff and
researchers at the Palestinian Studies Center, Damascus; and Mr. Hasan
cAbd al-Rahman, director of the Palestine Information Office, Wash­
ington, D.C. Finally, I am grateful to the Institute for Palestine Studies
for granting me a three-month leave of absence to gather additional
material to revise the study, and to Katherine La Riviere for her in­
valuable assistance in the final stages of preparation of this book.
For their comments and suggestions for revising the manuscript I
would like to thank (in alphabetical order): cAbd al-Mucim Sacid cAli,
Shafeeq Ghabra, Rashid Khalidi, Fred Lawson, cAfaf Mahfouz, Lina
Habbab al-Banna, Hasan Nafaca, William Quandt, Emile Sahliyeh, John
Swanson, and Constantine Zurayk.
Inevitably, those who assisted me or who provided comments will
differ with some aspects of my analysis. Suffice it to say that through­
out the course of the study I have striven to be fair, but also to be
honest, to present the facts and unfolding of events as the evidence
suggested. I remain ultimately responsible for the contents of the book,
for my work, and for the instances in which—wisely or not—I ac­
cepted or rejected sage advice.