A history of false hope : investigative commissions in Palestine / Lori Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Lori, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human rights--Palestine.

Human rights.

Palestine--Politics and government--20th century.

Palestine.

Palestine--Politics and government--21st century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (432 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2021]

Summary:

This book offers a provocative retelling of Palestinian political history through an examination of the international commissions that have investigated political violence and human rights violations. More than twenty commissions have been convened over the last century, yet no significant change has resulted from these inquiries. The findings of the very first, the 1919 King-Crane Commission, were suppressed. The Mitchell Committee, convened in the heat of the Second Intifada, urged Palestinians to listen more sympathetically to the feelings of their occupiers. And factfinders returning from a shell-shocked Gaza Strip in 2008 registered their horror at the scale of the destruction, but Gazans have continued to live under a crippling blockade. Drawing on debates in the press, previously unexamined UN reports, historical archives, and ethnographic research, Lori Allen explores six key investigative commissions over the last century. She highlights how Palestinians' persistent demands for independence have been routinely translated into the numb language of reports and resolutions. These commissions, Allen argues, operating as technologies of liberal global governance, yield no justice—only the oppressive status quo. A History of False Hope issues a biting critique of the captivating allure and cold impotence of international law.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

List of Major Commissions on Palestine

Introduction. International Law as a Way of Being

1. Petitioning Liberals

2. Universalizing Liberal Internationalism

3. The Humanitarian Politics of Jewish Suffering

4. Third World Solidarity at the General Assembly

5. The Silences of Democratic Listening

6. The Shift to Crime and Punishment

Conclusion. Toward an Anthropology of International Law, and Next Time and Again for Palestine

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503614192

1503614190

OCLC:

1229161939