ABSTRACT

Palestinian resistance to European Jewish colonization, settlement, immigration, and the British mandate was best symbolized by the great Palestinian revolt of 1936–1939 against British authorities and then again by the internal war of 1947–1948. Arab state disengagement from the Arab-Israeli conflict reflected the erosion of popular public Arab support for the cause of Palestine. The accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel triggered not only a political crisis but also an institutional one. The Palestinian political spectrum in the aftermath of Arafat's demise lacks a stable, dominant center and has a perplexed periphery and a confounded opposition. The current PA-Israel inactive diplomacy under Mahmoud Abbas and Ariel Sharon's successors seems to rest on the assumption that Hamas must be neutralized. About 170 Palestinian civil society organizations representing the three integral parts of ten million Palestinians—Palestinian refugees, Palestinians under occupation, and Palestinian citizens of Israel—have issued a call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions until certain objectives are realized.