There is a tremendous tension between the historical evolution of “Palestine” as a territorial unit, on the one hand; and of the “Palestinians” as a people, on the other. Instead of a natural fit between identity and territory, it is as if one can only exist at the expense of the other. Why is it that Palestine resists belonging to its inhabitants? How and when did they become a “people”? And can they become a single political community, divided as they are into Palestinian citizens of Israel; “residents” of Occupied Territories, and stateless refugees? To explore these questions students are introduced to recent scholarship on the modern history of Palestine and the Palestinians that unsettles nationalist narratives and imagines alternative futures.
