I'd like to start this thread by making clear what the palestinian national identity IS NOT:
It's not the result of international legal documents, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Palestinian Citizenship Order etc, etc...
Anyone who has ever followed RoccoR and Tinmore's endless debates over the legal maze that marked the partition of Palestine is familiar with the exagerated importance they attribute to formal legal concepts of citizenship and nationality established by the Mandate.
The international legal framework that led to the creation of Israel has its importance in the overall debate but the creation of the palestinian national identity is not one of them.
The creation of national identities derived from colonialism like the american, south african and palestinian national identities is a long-term historical-political, sociological-psychological process that spans over the period of years, decades and even centuries and are not the result of signed documents conferring citizenships, nationalities and other unimportant legal formalities but of the gradual acceptance of the new identity by the inhabitants of the land.
Let's use the IP conflict itself to illustrate how national identities are infinitelly more important than legal concepts like citizenship:
The turning point in which the idea of Palestine as the national homeland of their inhabitants finally supplanted the idea of Southern Syria, the idea of uniting Palestine with Syria was when french troops invaded Damacus and toppled the Kingdom of Syria, in 1920.
From that moment on, the arab elites in Palestine realized they were on their own in their struggle to save their homeland from Zionism, abandonned Pan-syrianism and started to spread the idea of Palestine as their national homeland.
In the few months after July, 12 the palestinian national identity, at long last, won the battle against the syrian identity and, in the next years and decades, began to slowly spread and being internalized from the arab elites in Palestine to the common man on the streets of Jerusalem, Haifa and throughout the countryside.
Why was Jordan's decision to confer Jordanian CITIZENSHIP to palestinian refugees and WB residents a miserable failure that ended in open war, in Black September?
Because in 1954 the basic foundation of the palestinian NATIONAL IDENTITY was already formed, those individuals already thought about themselves as a distinct group within the arab nation just like americans think about themselves as a separate people within the Anglosphere and at that stage no conferring of jordanian citizenship could change this psychological reality anymore.
In their minds, the struggle for the land lost to Israel separated them from Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians.
Before 1920, before the triumph and gradual consolidation of the palestinian NATIONAL IDENTITY this act might have made a difference (highly, extremely unlikely, I'm really just trying to make my point clear).
But by 1954, Abdullah might just as well have conferred them american, chinese or russian CITIZENSHIP... they would all be equally disregarded by the people as a worthless piece of paper that did not reflect who they were:
THE GROUP OF ARABS WHO EXPERIENCED A UNIQUE HISTORIC PLIGHT, JEWISH COLONIZATION AND DISPOSSESSION.
The abysmal failure of Jordan's attempt to "Jordanize" the palestinian people that culminated in Black September is a testament to the fact that NATIONAL IDENTITIES are infinitely more important than legal concepts like CITIZENSHIP.
But try and convince RoccoR and Tinmore of this reality and see what you get.
Rocco and Tinmore reduce the whole universe to international legislation. In their minds there's no room for sociological, psychological concepts...
The entire cosmos is reduced to treaties, covenants, agreements, mandates, etc, etc...
Their obssession with Law leads them to believe that the palestinian national identity, the american national identity cannot possibly be the result of long-term historical, sociological processes... they can only be the result of treaties, citizenship acts, etc, etc...
I'm gonna analyze some of their posts and you're gonna understand what I mean.
It's not the result of international legal documents, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Palestinian Citizenship Order etc, etc...
Anyone who has ever followed RoccoR and Tinmore's endless debates over the legal maze that marked the partition of Palestine is familiar with the exagerated importance they attribute to formal legal concepts of citizenship and nationality established by the Mandate.
The international legal framework that led to the creation of Israel has its importance in the overall debate but the creation of the palestinian national identity is not one of them.
The creation of national identities derived from colonialism like the american, south african and palestinian national identities is a long-term historical-political, sociological-psychological process that spans over the period of years, decades and even centuries and are not the result of signed documents conferring citizenships, nationalities and other unimportant legal formalities but of the gradual acceptance of the new identity by the inhabitants of the land.
Let's use the IP conflict itself to illustrate how national identities are infinitelly more important than legal concepts like citizenship:
The turning point in which the idea of Palestine as the national homeland of their inhabitants finally supplanted the idea of Southern Syria, the idea of uniting Palestine with Syria was when french troops invaded Damacus and toppled the Kingdom of Syria, in 1920.
From that moment on, the arab elites in Palestine realized they were on their own in their struggle to save their homeland from Zionism, abandonned Pan-syrianism and started to spread the idea of Palestine as their national homeland.
In the few months after July, 12 the palestinian national identity, at long last, won the battle against the syrian identity and, in the next years and decades, began to slowly spread and being internalized from the arab elites in Palestine to the common man on the streets of Jerusalem, Haifa and throughout the countryside.
Why was Jordan's decision to confer Jordanian CITIZENSHIP to palestinian refugees and WB residents a miserable failure that ended in open war, in Black September?
Because in 1954 the basic foundation of the palestinian NATIONAL IDENTITY was already formed, those individuals already thought about themselves as a distinct group within the arab nation just like americans think about themselves as a separate people within the Anglosphere and at that stage no conferring of jordanian citizenship could change this psychological reality anymore.
In their minds, the struggle for the land lost to Israel separated them from Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians.
Before 1920, before the triumph and gradual consolidation of the palestinian NATIONAL IDENTITY this act might have made a difference (highly, extremely unlikely, I'm really just trying to make my point clear).
But by 1954, Abdullah might just as well have conferred them american, chinese or russian CITIZENSHIP... they would all be equally disregarded by the people as a worthless piece of paper that did not reflect who they were:
THE GROUP OF ARABS WHO EXPERIENCED A UNIQUE HISTORIC PLIGHT, JEWISH COLONIZATION AND DISPOSSESSION.
The abysmal failure of Jordan's attempt to "Jordanize" the palestinian people that culminated in Black September is a testament to the fact that NATIONAL IDENTITIES are infinitely more important than legal concepts like CITIZENSHIP.
But try and convince RoccoR and Tinmore of this reality and see what you get.
Rocco and Tinmore reduce the whole universe to international legislation. In their minds there's no room for sociological, psychological concepts...
The entire cosmos is reduced to treaties, covenants, agreements, mandates, etc, etc...
Their obssession with Law leads them to believe that the palestinian national identity, the american national identity cannot possibly be the result of long-term historical, sociological processes... they can only be the result of treaties, citizenship acts, etc, etc...
I'm gonna analyze some of their posts and you're gonna understand what I mean.
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