Manifold Nakbas and the Making of a Palestinian Diaspora in the Americas

ABSTRACTThis article considers how ongoing Palestinian dispossession, manifold Nakbas (catastrophes), stemming from the active frontiers of Israeli settler colonialism and catalyzed by religious nationalism and international impunity, continues to extend and expand the Palestinian diaspora into the Americas and other regions. This also structures Palestinian personhood beyond the active space of the settler-colony. I utilize three seemingly disparate cases to make this argument. I begin with Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza in May 2021. I then offer a personal account, followed by ethnographic research conducted with Palestinian Iraq War refugees resettled in Brazil and also examine other military conflicts in the Middle East that have resulted in continual forced Palestinian displacements. Throughout, I demonstrate how Israeli settler colonialism is not an event but a structure (Wolfe. Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology: The Politics and Poetics of an Ethnographic Event. London: Cassell, 1999) which impacts Palestinian life far outside of the original space of displacement.KEYWORDS: Manifold NakbasPalestinesettler colonialismdispossessiondiasporasrefugees Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Majid, “Even Fish Not Spared of Israeli.”2 HRW, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities.”3 Ibid.4 Ibid.5 Sayegh, “Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965),” 217. These protestations have endured and taken different forms. Pink-washing for example, wherein Israel is marketed as a queer haven in the midst of an otherwise dangerous and virulently homophobic Middle East. Queer Palestinians, however, are always already excluded.6 Ibid.7 I borrow this term from sociologists Leisy Abrego and Cecilia Menjívar who trace the various ways in which the judicial system in the US has legitimated its abuses toward undocumented migrants by codifying it in law. “Legal violence” authorizes material and psychic violence in three vital spheres of life: Family, Work, and School, “through which immigrants experience the effects of the law” (1384). Fear of family separation because of deportation; enduring difficult and sometimes abusive work conditions without reporting for fear of being discovered as undocumented; loss of hope for continuing education because of little prospects of getting funding as a result of undocumented status.8 Abrego and Menjívar, “Legal Violence.”9 Sayegh, “Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965),” 218.10 Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation of Anthropology.11 Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, claimed that in Palestine Zionists would “form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism” (Herzl, 1988, as cited in Erakat, 2019, 28).12 Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination,” 388.13 Sayegh, “Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965),” 207.14 Ibid.15 Shihab Nye, “There Will be Peace in the Holy Land.”16 Ibid., 44.17 “Christie’s Dubai to Offer the Iconic Jamal al-Mahamel II.” One of the notable differences between the old and new piece is the tie that fastens the orb to the porter’s head. The original piece featured a braided rope, which porters pointed out would easily slip. Therefore, a flat tether would be more accurate and akin to what porters in the old city used when carrying heavy loads.18 Shihab Nye, “There Will be Peace in the Holy Land,” 44.19 In Jardim’s, “Os imigrantes palestinos na América Latina,” see specifically 172–3.20 Baeza, “Les Palestiniens d’Amerique Latine”; Munem and Hamid, “Diasporic Palestinian Communities in Brazil.”21 Hillal, “Class Transformation in the West Bank and Gaza.”22 Brazilian immigration law required proof of health and literacy: Law 7.967 enacted 27 August 1945.23 “Yemen Crisis.” There could be additional reasons to boycott Saudi Arabia more broadly, but it is not within the scope of this article.24 “Hajj 2020: The Economic Impact.”25 Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” 388.26 UNGA, RES 194, No. 11: “Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.” https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/document/ip-ares-194.php.27 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Key Figures on the 2014 Hostilities.”28 “Gaza Beach Bombing.”29 “Netanyahu: Israel Seeks ‘Sustainable Quiet’.”30 Wolfe, Settler Colonialism and the Transformation, 2.31 While the lived experiences of [forced] migration during the mid-20th century had an impact on the manner in which Palestinians self-identify as immigrants and/or refugees, these Palestinians from Iraq only held Refugee status in the country.32 Human Rights Watch Report 2006.33 Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees, 154.34 Shiblak, “Residency Status and Civil Rights of Palestinian Refugees.”35 Fictive village name to maintain anonymity.36 Since arriving in Brazil, Um Nasser had been asked by different people, including news sources, about the trajectory of her displacements. As such, she was able to concisely trace and recount her multiple dispersals.37 Palestinians, since 1948, have been designated as a particular refugee group. Because of this, there is one UN agency exclusively dedicated to the providing assistance to Palestinians across the Middle East, UNRWA. As cited by Randa Farah in “The Marginalization of Palestinian Refugees,” UNRWA developed its own definition of a Palestine refugee, which is “any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period of 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict” (163). The latest data by UNRWA indicates there are 5.6 million registered Palestinian refugees in the countries in which it operates alone (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Palestine). See https://www.unrwa.org/?id=47 (accessed 1 September 2021). Jerash camp was originally set up by UNRWA for Palestinian refugees from Gaza; it is commonly referred to as the Gaza camp. Today Jerash houses more than 24,000 refugees.38 This conflict and the rooting out of the PLO from Jordan during this period began in September 1970 is known as Black September Khalidi, Palestinian Identity, 197; Takkenberg, The Status of Palestinian Refugees, 17.39 Peteet, Landscapes of Hope and Despair; 11, 142–5.40 Rashid Khalidi notes “Phalangists and allied militias [were] backed indirectly by both Israel and Syria,” as confirmed six years later, in 1982, by then Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, during a Knesset session (198, 264).41 Protracted refugees, according to UNHCR, are those who belong to a group of 25,000 people or more who have been in exile for more than five years. See “Protracted Refugee Situations.” More recently, UNHCR has changed its definition, excluding the 25,000 or more numerical criteria to be considered a protracted refugee.42 This data is as of December 2020 from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, https://www.internal-displacement.org/countries/syria (accessed 1 October 2021).43 UNRWA, https://www.unrwa.org/syria-crisis (accessed 1 October 2021).44 UN News Centre, “Senior UN Official Spotlights Plight.”45 Syrian Network for Human Rights (full report imbedded), https://sn4hr.org/blog/2020/07/29/55316/, 29 July 2020 (accessed 1 October 2021).46 al-Aswad, “Palestinians’ Homes Stolen Once Again.”47 Reliefweb, https://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/syria-10-years-multiple-hardships-palestine-refugees, 15 March 2021 (accessed 25 October 2021).48 OBMigra, https://datamigra.mj.gov.br/#/public (accessed 18 August 2023).49 For more details see https://bdsmovement.net/.50 The fraternal twins Muna and Mohammed El-Kurd particularly come to mind.51 These were the border protests which sought the Palestinian right of return and to also lift the air, sea, and land blockade on Gaza that has made the territory akin to an open-air prison. The protests took place every Friday from Land Day in 30 March 2018 to 27 December 2019. During this period over 36,000 Palestinians were injured and more than 215 killed. https://www.un.org/unispal/.52 “AAA Membership Endorses.”53 “Latin American Anthropologists Pass Resolution.”Additional informationNotes on contributorsBahia MunemBahia Munem is a full-time lecturer with an appointment in the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, where she teaches courses in Race & Ethnic Studies, Gender & Migration, and Ethnic and Religious Differences in Latin America. She holds a PhD and MA in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Rutgers University.