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Journal of Refugee Studies 2008 21(4):498-516; doi:10.1093/jrs/fen044
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© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Journal of Refugee Studies issue: Special Issue: Invisible Displacements [View the issue table of contents]

Refusing Invisibility: Documentation and Memorialization in Palestinian Refugee Claims

Ilana Feldman

Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G St. NW, Washington DC 20052

ifeldman{at}gwu.edu

This essay explores the means through which Palestinian refugees have sought to make themselves and their claims visible, both within their community and to the ‘international community’. The principal site for this exploration is the Gaza Strip under Egyptian Administration (1948–1967). Because Gaza is home to both a large refugee population and a significant native population that was also dispossessed in the aftermath of 1948, it is an illuminating site for this investigation. In mapping the visibility field, the essay looks at both the monumental and the mundane, at both the bureaucratic and the symbolic, and at both the instrumental and the affective. Particular attention is given to identification documents, whether issued by governments or humanitarian organizations, as visible markers of existence and continued claims. The essay illuminates ways that a humanitarian apparatus can incidentally offer tools for ordinary people to demand that they and their community be recognized.

Key Words: humanitarianism • Palestine • refugees • political claims • visibility

MS received December 1, 2007 ; revised MS received August 1, 2008
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