Islamism in the diaspora: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

In recent years there has been increasing academic interest in Islamism in the Middle East, not least in Palestinian Islamism championed by groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are waging a bloody war of attrition against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. There has been less concern with Islamism among the Palestinian refugees dispersed in Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The paper outlines the sources of Islamism (“political Islam”) among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The rise of Islamism is a complex mix of contingent factors that is fuelled by social and political deprivation and shaped by divergent views on Palestinian nationalism (secular vs. Islamist), the Islamist revival in Lebanon and “strategic localisation” that turns refugee camps into battlefields between Palestinian factions. The Islamist groups cater for narrowly defined segments of the refugee population and have been unable to attract wider support. Instead, they cater for minor, camp-based constituencies which compete with secular groups for internal control of the camps and, by implication, of the Palestinian nationalist cause itsel

The Law, the Loss and the Lives of Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon

Lebanon has been a reluctant host to Palestinian refugees since 1948. A mainstay of Lebanese policies vis-à-vis the Palestinian refugees has been preventing their permanent integration and settlement in the country. The question of naturalising refugees is one of the most contentious political issues in Lebanon today. Palestinian refugees tend to live in conflict-ridden environments, often at the margins of the host society. This first of all applies to the camp-based refugees, who languish in dilapidated and overcrowded camps. Unable to return to Palestine and marginalised by the host society, they are caught in a legal limbo. In order to understand the legal plurality that governs their refugee status, it is necessary to examine their rights as refugees in international law, regionally as hosted by Arab League states and nationally as residents of Lebanon. The rights regime is complex and contributes to a critical “protection gap” for the refugees. In particular, there is a need to explore the “politics of citizenship” in post-war Lebanon that widened the protection gap and institutionalised legal discrimination of refugees. This paper argues that legal discrimination of Palestinian refugees was instituted amidst growing fears of their permanent settlement in the country and institutionalised through the executive’s patronage of the legislature and the judiciary. The paper was prepared under the multidisciplinary research project “The Poor and the Judiciary” funded by the Research Council of Norway (2005–07). Field research for the paper was carried out in 2005, 2006 and 2007

Political Islam in South Asia

This report analyses the growth of political Islam in South Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan and India’s Jammu and Kashmir Province). In Pakistan the failure of parliamentary democracy and the weakening of civil society have spurred the growth of social protest in the form of a political Islam. Pakistan is still a moderate Islamic country, but with a growing and increasingly violent Islamic militant lobby. The army is still firmly in charge but because of its patronage of the key militant groups, cannot take decisive action against them. The Kashmir conflict has for half a century marred relations between India and Pakistan and is currently the biggest security threat in the region. The intensification of the conflict since 1989 in the form of an insurgency against Indian rule was in large measure due to growth of political Islam. The Taliban movement was created and nurtured by Pakistan and support for its regime in Afghanistan was a cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Although the Taliban regime has been defeated militarily, it can still present a long-term challenge to a future government in Afghanistan. The presence of the Al Qaeda “cells” in Pakistan’s tribal areas and in some of the major cities pose a security threat, especially if they ally themselves with the country’s most militant groups

Living in the Commons: Local Institutions for Natural Resource Management

Garett Hardin' s essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" has for almost three decades stimulated research on common property regimes. This report provides an overview of this research and reviews a selection of empirical and theoretical contributions to the "commons" debate. Despite the hectic research activity, the report is critical of the tendency to reproduce well-worn arguments instead of questioning them. In order to progress beyond a rebuttal of Hardin, the report calls for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of common property regimes and advocates an analytical focus on local institutions. In paricular, the report discusses those circumstances under which local institutions represent an alternative to state management of renewable natural resources. Are J. Knudsen is a social anthropologist and research fellow at the Chr. Michelsen Institute. His research interests include natural resource management, economic change and modernization. He is currently working on forest management and entrepreneurship in Northern Pakistan

Figurations of displacement in and beyond Jordan: empirical findings and reflections on protracted displacement and translocal connections of Syrian refugees

This working paper is based on the empirical research on translocal figurations of displacement of Syrians in Jordan. It contains methodological discussions, central findings and reflections on these findings. Drawing on the conceptual framework of the TRAFIG project, this paper explores the central research question of TRAFIG, namely "how are protractedness, dependency, and vulnerability related to the factors of local and translocal connectivity and mobility, and in turn, how can connectivity and mobility be utilized to enhance the self-reliance and strengthen the resilience of displaced people?" The paper presents findings from Jordan, where Syrian refugees have sought refuge in host communities. Syrian refugees' stay in Jordan has become increasingly protracted, with the durable solutions of return in safety and dignity, local integration and resettlement remaining out of reach for most. In this paper, we argue that Syrians are de facto integrated in Jordanian host communities due to shared language, religion and socio-cultural ties as a pragmatic strategy for dealing with uncertainty and protracted displacement. We found that family- and kin networks have proven vital in facilitating and protecting mobility out of Syria and within Jordan, even as these networks are strained due to physical and geographic distance, reliant upon aid and financial support and socio-economic stress in the local labour market. We see that Syrians experience uncertain futures in which their mobility aspirations are unrealised, economic prospects are reliant upon and highly competitive with others, and connectivity with the host community is strained and can be improved

Learning from the past: protracted displacement in the post-World War II period

This working paper examines the history of the search for solutions to protracted displacement. Focusing specifically on the Horn of Africa, East Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, the paper analyses past policy responses that explicitly or implicitly address situations of extended exile. In addition, the paper examines the potential of translocal mobility and connectivity as an individual- or household-level solution to displacement. The concern to find solutions for long-term displacement situations has been a key driver for the evolution of the international refugee protection regime ever since its initiation in the interwar period. Yet, only more recently have these efforts crystallised around the notions of 'durable solutions' and 'protracted displacement'. The emergence of the latter concept in the 1990s reflects challenges arising from the globalisation of the international refugee protection regime, the massive growth of displacement in the Global South and the increasingly limited availability of long-term solutions from the late 1970s onwards. From a historical perspective, efforts to resolve specific protracted displacement situations have been diverse, devised in response to both domestic and international constraints and opportunities. The current shift away from the conventional durable solutions - return, integration and resettlement - to less fixed solutions thus can be seen as a return to historically dominant practices of a more context-driven search for solutions. Research eviewed for this paper supports the TRAFIG project’s hypothesis that mobility and connectivity practices can help displaced persons cope with protracted displacement, and in some cases, find more durable solutions for themselves. Yet, both mobility and connectivity also have a stratifying effect, increasing the gap between those who have access to these and those who do not. Historically, different forms of assisted mobility for refugees to third countries have been instrumental in resolving particular displacement situations, such as in the interwar period, the postWorld War II period and in Indo-China in the 1970s and 1980s. In the current context, neither organised mobility nor individual options for mobility are available to the same extent

Crescent and Sword: The Hamas Enigma

This paper analyses the popular support to Hamas, the most important of the Palestinian Islamist movements today. The paper charts the movement’s historical ascendancy from a fringe Gaza-based group to a mainstream Islamist movement and mouthpiece for dispossessed Palestinians. Since 2001, Hamas’s leadership has come under increasing attack from Israel, killing a number of the movement’s leaders and senior members, most prominently Sheikh Yasin, the movement’s founder and spiritual leader, and his successor as Hamas leader, Abd al-Aziz Rantissi. Nonetheless, Hamas’s duality as “worshippers” and “warmongers” has made the organisation extraordinarily popular among dispossessed Palestinians and a mounting political challenge to the secular nationalism of the PLO. At present, two-thirds of the Palestinians live below the “poverty line” and it is likely that it is in this disenfranchised segment of the population that Hamas finds its core support. Presently, about one in every six Palestinians in the Occupied Territories benefits from support from Islamic charities. Hamas, on its part, allocates almost all of its revenues to its social services, but there is no evidence that Hamas or the other Islamic charities provide assistance conditional upon political support

Fra krig til fred: 1990-2005 - Libanon etter Taif-avtalen

I år er det 15 år siden den blodige libanesiske borgerkrigen tok slutt. Landets økonomiske, politiske og sosiale problemer, som var blant de utløsende årsakene til krigens utbrudd, er fremdeles uløste i dagens Libanon