The creation of Palestinian citizenship under an international mandate: legislation, discourses and practices, 1918-1925

摘要

The history of the development of Palestinian nationalism is vast and recent scholarship continues to focus on the creation of national identities in the modern Middle East. However, the creation of internationally recognised citizenship of the Arab Middle East during the era of mandates has not been studied in-depth. In the case of Palestine, the creation of Palestinian citizenship by the British as a colonial power was a unique yet delicate process and one which was rejected by the Arabs. The British sought to create an apolitical citizenship, one without civil or political rights, in order to satisfy both the mandate terms and the Jewish national home policy. By the time the citizenship was conferred, the Arab population of Palestine had a detailed counter-discourse to the British notion of citizenship. The Palestinians viewed their civic identity as imbued with rights of citizenship, but they saw themselves in terms of having a primordial nationality by birth. In effect, the certificate of citizenship produced by the British came out of colonial processes despite the fact that the British were instead meant to be an international trustee in Palestine. This article presents that process, with reference to the Palestinian reaction to the legislation of Palestinian mandate citizenship.View full textDownload full textKeywordsPalestine mandate, Palestine citizenship, nationality, discourses, civic identity, citizenship rightsRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2012.698487