386 Die Welt des Islams 57 (2017) 386-403 Tuastad International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam brill.com/wdi Nationalist Patriarchy, Clan Democracy: How the Political Trajectories of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories Have Been Reversed Dag H. Tuastad Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo
[email protected] Abstract This article discusses how the historical trajectory of patriarchal norms in the political domain among the Palestinians inside Israel differs from that of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, emphasizing the role of regular political elections in reducing the prevalence of patriarchal-based politics. After 1948, the power of old clan leaders increased among the Palestinians inside, whereas within the Palestinian national move- ment founded in the exiled refugee communities, traditional and patriarchal clan- based political organization was shunned. Today, clans are still important in local politics among the Palestinians inside. But rather than being controlled by old, patriar- chal leaders, a young, democratically minded generation have found their way into local and national politics through the clans. Within the secular Palestinian national move- ment, on the other hand, an opposite development has been observed, of an increas- ingly gerontocratic and autocratic leadership. Keywords Clan – hamūla – patriarchy – Palestine Liberation Organization – Israeli Palestinians – Palestinian Authority – gerontocracy – neopatrimonialism – democratization The influential