4. “We Are the Factions”: Political Faction Membership

Abstract

Perla: During the [2007 Nahr el-Bared] conflict you were with the PFLP-GC? Um Jihad: Yes. No, no! Abu Jihad: We were taking aid from the PFLP-GC. Um Jihad: We had a sort of superficial relation (kunna hayk ya’nī innu fī ‘ilāqa satḥiyyi). Abu Jihad: A relation, a relation. Um Jihad: I used to be in the “progressive women association” [the PFLPGC women’s union]. The sister of Um Jihad: It was a belonging [to a political organization] (intimā’). You know how everyone has a political belonging? Each person had to have a belonging. Perla: I can’t keep up with the three of you! —Conversation between the author and Um Jihad, her husband, and her sister, all members of the thawra generation, Beddawi camp, July 20, 2011