ABSTRACT
Since 1948, Kuwait has become a haven for many Palestinians. It presented to them, as did the Gulf and many other Arab countries, a set of opportunities that proved vital to their survival. The fact that post-1948 Palestinian nationalism, expressed in the activities of Fatah in the 1960s, developed some of its embryonic organizational structures in Kuwait testifies to the importance of Kuwait and the Gulf to the rising Palestinian social, economic, and political structures in the diaspora. The Palestinian family continues to be involved in a process of survival and crisis management on every level. The intensification of problems the diaspora has created renew the pain and confusion of displacement. The young, like their displaced parents before them, are seeking new opportunities in other diasporas. The effective and extended family and social networks in Kuwait were already in need of an institutionalized form to expand their functions and to increase stability and effectiveness in family, village, and town relationships.
