ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses exceedingly long workdays experienced by many residents of the Occupied Territories employed in Israel—protracted commutes mean many leave home by 4 a.m. and return as late as 7 p.m. It argues that autonomous women's organizations are not automatic guarantors for a gender agenda informed by women's "true" interests and needs. From the mid-1970s, a new factor in the Palestinian economy was the increase in oil prices and the accompanying economic boom in the Gulf States. The dispersal of the Palestinians was pivotal in consolidating Palestinian national identity and its reconstruction. The pro-Jordanians came mostly from the upper echelon of society with vested economic interests in Jordan. They backed the "Jordanian option," which gives Jordan a central role in solving the Palestinian problem. Jordanian policy in the West Bank was focused on preventing the rise of a Palestinian national movement or a Palestinian national identity.
