TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2007//
TI  - DIFFICULT DISTINCTIONS: Refugee Law, Humanitarian Practice, and Political Identification in Gaza
JO  - Cultural anthropology
A1  - Feldman, Ilana
SP  - 129
EP  - 169
VL  - 22
IS  - 1
N2  - In this article, I explore the intersection of humanitarian practice and refugee law in shaping categories of “refugee” and “citizen” in Gaza in the first years after 1948. I examine how humanitarian practice produced enduring distinctions within the Gazan population and provided a space in which ideas about Palestinian citizenship began to take shape. A key argument is that humanitarianism, despite commitments to political neutrality, often has profound and enduring political effects. In this case, humanitarian distinctions contributed to making the “refugee” a central figure in the Palestinian political landscape. I also consider how humanitarianism in Palestine was guided by the larger, emerging postwar refugee regime, even as Palestinians were formally excluded from some of its mechanisms.<p /> 
LA  - 
SN  - 0886-7356
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/can.2007.22.1.129
ID  - ref1
ER  -