ABSTRACT
Palestinian nationalism has passed through a number of phases. The first phase began before World War I and ended with the outbreak of the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. The second phase, 1948–1967, was marked by the Palestinians’ relegation of the task of reconstructing Arab Palestine to the Arab armies. The third phase began in 1967 when the collective Arab armies were defeated. The physical dispersal of the Palestinians complicated the task of nation-building and the emergence of a separate Palestinian nationalism in the post-1948 era. The emergence of a Palestinian ethnic identity presents challenge for the primordial perspective. The literature on ethnicity reveals the presence of two perspectives for the explanation of the phenomenon of group ethnic identity. The first perspective posited several features required for the formation of ethnicity. The second perspective attributes the emergence of ethnic feelings to instrumental considerations. Palestinians live in different regions including the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
