Did Palestinian Nationalism emerge in reaction to Zionism?
PRO (yes)
CON (no)
Baruch Kimmerling, PhD, Professor of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Joel S. Migdal, PhD, Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington, in their 2003 book The Palestinian People: A History, wrote:
"Had it not been for the pressures exerted on the Arabs of Palestine by
the Zionist movement, the very concept of a Palestinian people would
not have developed; and Palestinians quite accurately understand their
society's essential, existential status as the direct result of Jewish
political rejuvenation and settlement."
David K. Shipler, MA, author and journalist, in the 2002 edition of Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land, wrote:
"Their sense of distinctiveness as a Palestinian people has come not
from an ancient source but largely in reaction to the creation and
growth of Israel on part of the land where they lived. Their
Palestinian awakening, even with its pre-state origins, was heightened
by the upheavals of Israel's birth in 1948 and the refusal of the Arab
governments to accept the presence of the tiny Jewish state on the edge
of Arab territory."
Rashid Khalidi, PhD, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, in his 1997 book titled Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, wrote:
"Important though Zionism was in the
formation of Palestinian identity -- as the primary 'other' faced by
the Palestinians for much of this century -- the argument that Zionism
was the main factor in provoking the emergence of Palestinian identity
ignores one key fact: a universal process was unfolding in the Middle
East during this period, involving an increasing identification with
the new states created by the post-World War I partitions."
Deborah J. Gerner, PhD, Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas, in her 1994 book titled One Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict Over Palestine, wrote:
"Despite the
pan-Arab rhetoric of Syrian and Iraqi leaders, protection of
Palestinian national rights was a lower priority for them than assuring
their own local interests. For this reason, many scholars believe that
a separate Palestinian national movement would have developed after
World War I even without the incentive provided by Zionism, because the
perceived need for an independent political identity existed as a
discrete issue."
