ABSTRACT
Postcolonial theory has unfortunately done the opposite: it has disapprobated and rejected the very disciplinary processes intended to lead to discovery and the formulation of new knowledge. The postcolonial position, that saying anything general about non-Western cultures and societies is illegitimate, is both bankrupt intellectually and hypocritical, given postcolonial theory's notorious propensity for 'occidentalise, essentialist generalizations about the West. Arab countries who received Palestinian refugees have refused the refugees citizenship and integration, unlike the many countries around the world, such as Greece and Turkey after World War I and India and Pakistan after independence, that received and integrated large refugee populations. But in postcolonial thought the guilt lies not with the Arab maintenance of Palestinian refugees as pawns in the Arab—Israel conflict, but with Israel. Postcolonialism regards accounts of non-Western cultures as orientalist formulations to demean the 'other' and thus to justify conquest, oppression, and exploitation.
