A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine

Lori Allen

Published by Stanford University Press 2020

A History of False Hope

Investigative Commissions in Palestine

Lori Allen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503614192

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book offers a provocative retelling of Palestinian political history through an examination of the international commissions that have investigated political violence and human rights violations. More than twenty commissions have been convened over the last century, yet no significant change has resulted from these inquiries. The findings of the very first, the 1919 King-Crane Commission, were suppressed. The Mitchell Committee, convened in the heat of the Second Intifada, urged Palestinians to listen more sympathetically to the feelings of their occupiers. And factfinders returning from a shell-shocked Gaza Strip in 2008 registered their horror at the scale of the destruction, but Gazans have continued to live under a crippling blockade.

Drawing on debates in the press, previously unexamined UN reports, historical archives, and ethnographic research, Lori Allen explores six key investigative commissions over the last century. She highlights how Palestinians' persistent demands for independence have been routinely translated into the numb language of reports and resolutions. These commissions, Allen argues, operating as technologies of liberal global governance, yield no justice—only the oppressive status quo. A History of False Hope issues a biting critique of the captivating allure and cold impotence of international law.

Author / Editor information

Lori Allen is Reader in Anthropology at SOAS University of London. She is the author of The Rise and Fall of Human Rights: Cynicism and Politics in Occupied Palestine (Stanford, 2013).

Reviews

Raja Shehadeh:
"This brilliant study not only succeeds in recovering the lives, aspirations and agency of Palestinians written out of history, but helps correct the balance of long-term bias against them. All those who have wondered why successive investigative commissions in Palestine have created only impotent solidarity should read this book."

Ilana Feldman:
"Lori Allen provides a remarkable account of how investigative commissions shaped the form, content, and tenor of conversations about Palestine and between Palestinians and western powers. A History of False Hope is indispensable for understanding the nature of the failure of international law in Palestine."

Richard Falk:
"Lori Allen has produced a fascinating, engaging, and innovative scholarly assessment of how international commissions have failed to deliver political results to the Palestinian people. This disillusioning narrative of good intentions gone awry sheds light on the interplay of law and politics in international relations, and is further enriched by illuminating archival research and the arresting insights of a first-class anthropologist."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
List of Major Commissions on Palestine Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Introduction. International Law as a Way of Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Petitioning Liberals The King-Crane Commission Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
2. Universalizing Liberal Internationalism The Arab Revolt and the Boycott of the Peel Commission Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
3. The Humanitarian Politics of Jewish Suffering The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
4. Third World Solidarity at the General Assembly A UN Special Committee on Human Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
5. The Silences of Democratic Listening The Mitchell Committee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
6. The Shift to Crime and Punishment UN Missions Renewing Hope in International Law Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
Conclusion. Toward an Anthropology of International Law, and Next Time and Again for Palestine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 432
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 39
Keywords: Palestine; liberalism; international law; investigative commissions; United Nations; hope; humanitarianism; human rights; colonialism; historical anthropology

eBook

Published: December 15, 2020
ISBN: 9781503614192