ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the politics of the Intifada in relation to wider discursive adjustments since 1948. It considers the politics of the Intifada in relation to wider discursive adjustments since 1948. Referential function was infused through the steady performance of referentiality that became interwoven with the political imagination of the Palestinians. The substance of referentiality has three patterns. The first involves reference to the PLO Basic Law and Charter as foundational guiding sources. The second pattern represents an incipient opening up to outside regional and international anchoring sources. The third pattern, however, started with the Madrid Conference of 1991 and has continued to the present day. Understanding United Nations (UN) resolutions or Arab League summits as having legitimacy served internal purposes, and represented the UN or Arab interpretation of the Palestinian question as legally and morally superior to other interpretations. The ambiguous language on refugees calls into question the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
