Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (review)

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-171
Author(s):  
Michael Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Armed Struggle ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Palestinian National Movement

YEZID SAYIGH, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949–1993 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, and Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). Pp. 96. £70.00 cloth.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-196
Author(s):  
Ann M. Lesch
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actor ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Palestinian National Movement ◽  
Past Half

Yezid Sayigh's encylopedic history focuses on the role that the idea of armed struggle played in the Palestinian national movement as it evolved over the past half-century. His central thesis is that “armed struggle provided the political impulse and organisational dynamic in the evolution of Palestinian national identity and in the formation of parastatal institutions and a bureaucratic elite, the nucleus of government” (p. vii). The concept of armed struggle reforged Palestinian national identity, mobilized Palestinians, provided political legitimization to the Palestinian movement, made the Palestinians a distinct political actor in relation to the Arab states, helped to create institutions that could form the basis of a government, and established a well-defined political elite. Thus, even though Palestinian leaders never transformed the armed struggle into a people's war along the lines of Algeria or Vietnam, and never liberated any part of Palestine by force, armed struggle served other important, statist functions.

Armed Struggle and State Formation

1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yezid Sayigh
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
Authoritarian Leadership ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Political Function ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Palestinian National Movement

Armed struggle for the liberation of Palestine has been a rallying cry of the Palestinian national movement since its emergence in the 1960s, but its results have never been more than marginal. Instead, military groups have served a primarily political function, offering Palestinians in the diaspora organizational structures for political expression and state building. However, the nature of the PLO as an exile entity attempting to unite a disparate diaspora has necessarily resulted in an authoritarian leadership wary of the administrative, civilian, and social organizations needed to form a state. Ultimately, the political patterns that developed during the armed struggle impede as much as aid the realization of an independent Palestinian state.

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