ABSTRACT
In this chapter I describe three rules of formation governing statements made by the discourse of Palestinian-Israeli relations in the pre-1993 period: 1) representing Arabs/Palestinians as intransigent rejectionists and Israel as conciliatory and peace-seeking, 2) representing Israel as the victim in the Palestinian-Israeli confl ict or positing as symmetrical the Palestinian-Israeli relationship and 3) assuming that Zionism would permit the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in mandate Palestine. These rules systematize thought on Palestinian-Israeli relations such that their mobilization is a prerequisite in order to speak a truth of Palestinian-Israeli relations.
