Palestinians in the Arab World Institution Building and the Search for State Laurie A. Brand * g? Columbia University Press New York Columbia University Press New York Guildford, Surrey Copyright © 1988 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brand, Laurie A. Palestinians in the Arab world. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Palestinian Arabs—Politics and government. 2. Palestinian Arabs—Societies, etc.—History. 3. Palestinian Arabs—Egypt. 4. Palestinian Arabs—Jordan. 5. Palestinian Arabs—Kuwait. I. Title. DS113.6.B73 1988 909'.049275694 88-6101 ISBN 0-231-06722:4 Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are Smyth-sewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper For my parents Contents Tables and Figures ix Preface xi A Note on Transliteration xiii Abbreviations xv PART I. THE FRAMEWORK 1. Diaspora, State-Building, and Arab Domestic Politics 1 2. The Long Road Back: The Evolution of a Palestinian Entity 22 PART II. THE CASE STUDIES Egypt 3. The Powerful Patron 41 4. GUPS: The Political Training Ground 64 5. The Search for Community: The GUPW, GUPWom, GUPT, and PRCS 85 Kuwait 6. Opportunity in Exile 107 7. Workers and Women 126 8. Changing Organizational Horizons: The GUPS, GUPT, and PRCS 138 Jordan 9. Identity Suppressed, Identity Denied 149 10. Addressing Community Need: The FTUJ, GUPWom, and PRCS 186 11. Mobilizing in Education 207 viii CONTENTS PART III. CONCLUSIONS Diversity in Diaspora 221 Notes 239 A Note on Sources 263 Bibliography 265 Index 279 Tables and Figures Table 1.1: Palestinian Population Distribution 9 Table 1.2: Palestinian Organizing and Regional Developments 14 Figure 2.1: Organizational Structure of the GUPS 33 Figure 2.2: Organizational Structure of the GUPW 34 Figure 2.3: Organizational Structure of the GUPWom 35 Figure 2.4: Organizational Structure of the GUPT 36 Table 3.1: Number of Palestinians in Egypt Classified (by Govemorate) According to Their Assistance Category as of 1966 47 Table 6.1: Population of Kuwait, 1957-1975 113 Table 6.2: Gender Ratio in the Palestinian/Jordanian Community in Kuwait, 1957-1970 116 Table 9.1: List of Refugee Camps—East Bank 151 Table 9.2: List of Refugee Camps—West Bank 152 Table 9.3: Central Government Actual Expenditures (Jordan) 156 Table 9.4: Industrial Origin of Gross Domestic Product (Jordan) 158 Table 9.5: Central Government Foreign Receipts of Unrequited Transfers, 1950-1968 (Jordan) 159 Table 9.6: Founding of Charitable Associations on the West Bank by District 164 Table 12.1: Marginality Framework 225 Table 12.2: Determinants of Political Marginality 226 Table 12.3: Determinants of Economic Marginality 227 Table 12.4: Determinants of State Coercive Force 228 Preface The 1947-1949 dispersal of the Arabs of Palestine, and the subsequent inability of their leadership to establish a Palestinian state next to the nascent Jewish state, marked the defeat of the Palestinian national movement. Most studies quickly skim over the 1949-1964 period, al­ though a few mention the development of Fateh or the Arab Nation­ alist Movement. In fact, however, the seeds of later PLO and Palestin­ ian nationalist development were planted in these early years. Some bore fruit before the establishment of the PLO. Others, frustrated by host regimes, were able to assert themselves only in the wake of the liberation organization's founding and subsequent expansion. This study seeks to assemble and analyze a part of the previously neglected record of Palestinian political development. It focuses on the Palestinian communities in three Arab host states—Egypt, Kuwait, and Jordan—and within each examines the attempts by Palestinians to or­ ganize along corporate/sectoral lines. The emergence and differential development of the General Union of Palestine Students, the General Union of Palestine Workers, the General Union of Palestinian Women, the General Union of Palestinian Teachers, and the Palestine Red Cres­ cent Society are discussed in the context of the three host societies. The study traces their development from just after the dispersal through the mid-1980s and suggests a new framework for understanding Pal­ estinian institutional development in Arab host countries based on the concept of economic and political marginality. The study of a subject so current and for which so few written ma­ terials exist could not have been accomplished without a great deal of support and assistance. I would like to thank the U.S. Department of Education for a Fulbright-Hays doctoral dissertation grant and a Ful- bright Islamic civilization grant, which enabled me to conduct field research. Special thanks are due my academic adviser at Columbia University, Professor J. C. Hurewitz, for years of advice and support and for encouraging me in the very early stages of this study to attempt what at the time seemed impossible. For assistance during the course of the field research I am indebted to many, but particularly to those Palestinians who agreed to be interviewed during what was a most dif­ PREFACE xii ficult time for them and for their national movement. Among those Palestinians and other Arabs who provided special assistance are: Mr. Fakhri Sarraj, director of the PLO office, Cairo; the staff of the Amer­ ican Research Center in Egypt; friends at the office of Dar al-Fata al- cArabi, Cairo; Dr. cAbd al-Muncim cAbbas, Arab League Palestine Re­ search Unit, Cairo; Dr. M. Kazem Behbehani, vice rector for research, Kuwait University; Dr. Ahmad Bishara, vice rector for academic af­ fairs, Kuwait University; Dr. cAbd al-Rida al-Asiri, of the political sci­ ence department, Kuwait University; Dr. Basim Sirhan of the sociology department, Kuwait University; the staff at the archives of al-Watan and al-Qabas, Kuwait; Mr. Najib al-Ahmad, director of the PLO office, Amman,* friends at the American Center for Oriental Research, Am­ man,* Dr. Ascad cAbd al-Rahman of the Shoman Foundation; staff and friends at the UNRWA headquarters and the UNRWA field office in Amman; Dr. Hani al-cAmad, Jordan University Library,* the staff and researchers at the Palestinian Studies Center, Damascus; and Mr. Hasan cAbd al-Rahman, director of the Palestine Information Office, Wash­ ington, D.C. Finally, I am grateful to the Institute for Palestine Studies for granting me a three-month leave of absence to gather additional material to revise the study, and to Katherine La Riviere for her in­ valuable assistance in the final stages of preparation of this book. For their comments and suggestions for revising the manuscript I would like to thank (in alphabetical order): cAbd al-Mucim Sacid cAli, Shafeeq Ghabra, Rashid Khalidi, Fred Lawson, cAfaf Mahfouz, Lina Habbab al-Banna, Hasan Nafaca, William Quandt, Emile Sahliyeh, John Swanson, and Constantine Zurayk. Inevitably, those who assisted me or who provided comments will differ with some aspects of my analysis. Suffice it to say that through­ out the course of the study I have striven to be fair, but also to be honest, to present the facts and unfolding of events as the evidence suggested. I remain ultimately responsible for the contents of the book, for my work, and for the instances in which—wisely or not—I ac­ cepted or rejected sage advice.