ABSTRACT
This chapter starts by identifying and deconstructing some mystifications of Palestine. In other words, the chapter argues that extant approaches tend to stress the uniqueness of Palestine both as an object of study and in political practice. This leads to an isolation of Palestine from the rest of the world. As a result, underlying dichotomies such as inside/outside, domestic/foreign, global/local tend to be reified; thereby neglecting that in order to comprehend the actually existing complexities of power dynamics in Palestine it is necessary to stress the interrelatedness of both sides of these distinctions. By contrast, this chapter suggests relocating Palestine in a global context because there is clear evidence that Palestine – as well as any other political setting – cannot be treated as being isolated from the rest of the world. Rather, there are plenty of empirical examples of Palestine’s integration into global politics which clearly give evidence for Palestine’s incorporation into global political dynamics, making simplifying distinctions between an inside and outside of Palestine or a separation between a global and a local context very problematic.
