Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on one of the most important prerequisites of survival, that is, the reconstruction of the social bonds of solidarity. It discusses statelessness, family in the Middle East, the Palestinian pre-1948 society, and the type of Palestinian family and social networks that emerged as a vehicle of survival since 1948. The book investigates the incipient patterns of survival that the displaced Palestinian intelligentsia employed. It aims to piece together the role this group played in Kuwait and how family networks came to be central to the Palestinian attempt to face the challenges of their post-1948 situation. The book describes the most important components of the family network in its effective and extended forms. It explains the major informal mechanisms of the survival in Kuwait of former villages and neighborhoods.