On Diaspora

This book documents life within Gaza. But what of all those Palestinians, including many from the Gaza district, who live on the outside? In Seeking Palestine, Raja Shehadeh writes, “Palestine evokes a particular obligation of belonging in its far-flung ‘inhabitants,’ for whom insistent memory becomes a mode of habitation.” There are at least 12 million Palestinians living in diaspora, more than are living within the land itself. Half of these live in the Arab world, whether in permanent refugee camps or as long-term stateless residents in other countries. They have lived through various waves of exile, impelled by ethnic cleansings or discriminatory rules and regulations meant to rid the land of its native inhabitants by way of “indirect transfer.” Then there are those who chose to migrate voluntarily, for economic reasons or, in the case of Abu Ameen, for “peace of mind.”