‘But where shall i return? Where to?' 1948 Palestinian refugees : land and return

Abstract

The counter-narrative to a Zionist politics of denial and negation is a Palestinian historiography guided by the politics of assertion and affirmation. Palestinian refugees and their Right of Return have been marginalised by the Oslo Process and by subsequent political initiatives and developments. The Oslo Process also created a divide within Palestinian society between those who wished to focus on state building and those who continued to support the rights of the refugees. In this context, oral history assumed a heightened significance as an avenue through which refugee voices could be heard and their claims demanded. Narrating Palestine has become a tactic of resistance in the face of the denials embedded in the post-Oslo policy documents of the Palestinian "dream-right" of return. Particular themes in these narratives merit attention; such as the way they reproduce the differentiation between Palestinian refugees and their hosts. These narratives may also be enacted, by re-inscribing the refugee camps as part of Palestine.