ABSTRACT
The re-created and strengthened family, village, and town ties resulting from the informal mechanisms at work in Kuwait laid the groundwork for an additional survival mechanism, the village and town fund. This chapter examines the village and town funds in the context of background and occupations of Palestinian village and town populations. The Hebronites, a model of solidarity, are by far the most organized and formally integrated group among the diaspora Palestinians. The cohesiveness and organization of the Hebronites is, to a large extent, a function of the transitional nature of Palestinian society, which embodies a mixture of modernity and tradition. To clarify the broader context of many of the village and town funds in Kuwait, an example from the Hebron University Graduate Union will be helpful. The tendency of villages and towns to compete with each other points up the magnitude of intertown and village competition in the Palestinian diaspora.
