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Transnational Alliances: The AAUG’s Advocacy for Palestine and the Third World
Abstract
This paper examines the AAUG’s articulation of the Palestine question as both an Arab-American and Third World issue. As the first major Arab-American organization to form after the 1967 War, the AAUG faced two challenges. First, the 1967 War exposed the incapacity of the Arab states and dispossessed a new generation of Palestinians, which had far-reaching ramifications for Arabs in the Middle East and the diaspora. Second, Arab-Americans faced growing anti-Arab sentiments in the United States as support for Israel became a cornerstone of American politics and culture. In response, the AAUG engaged in unprecedented educational and activist endeavors to promote the Palestinian case in the U.S. and foster ties among Arab-Americans. In analyses of the post-1967 era, several scholars have discussed the role that the AAUG played in the creation of Arab-American identity and the field of Arab-American ethnic studies. Yet, only more recently have scholars begun to analyze the transnational character of both the AAUG and Arab-American identity more broadly. From its inception, the AAUG refused to limit its concerns to issues only affecting Arab-Americans, although Palestine was its first and dearest cause. On the contrary, AAUG members constructed a transnational collective identity by standing in solidarity with Black Americans, Africans, South Asians, and Latin Americans. Thus, Palestine was an issue that brought Arab-Americans into conversation with other groups that grappled with racism, settler-colonialism, and decolonization. Using the archival papers of the AAUG and its members, official organization publications, and personal interviews, I investigate how the AAUG engaged with the PLO and Palestinians during its first decade. I also explore the alliances that the AAUG made with leftists around the world, particularly under the leadership of Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Abdeen Jabara, Elaine Hagopian, Edward Said, Naseer Aruri, and others. By examining the AAUG’s advocacy for Palestine alongside its commitments to anti-colonial (and anti-neocolonial) movements in the Third World, this paper demonstrates that 1967 and subsequent moments in the Arab-Israeli conflict fostered the creation of a transnational intellectual generation that aligned itself with both the Palestinian revolutionary movement and the global postcolonial community.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
All Middle East
India
North America
Pakistan
Palestine
Sub Area
None