In the present paper I intend to shed light on how Palestinian political factions, such as Fatah or Hamas, are (re)produced in everyday practices despite their unpopularity in Lebanon. Literature on Palestinian political factions in Lebanon revolves around two main themes: the popular dissatisfaction of the refugees in Lebanon towards the current state of Palestinian political structures and the history and evolution of these structures studied through an examination of their ideology as well as, a history of their founders and of their regional and international alliances. Everyday practices of Palestinian refugees, such as joining or leaving a faction, critiquing one, or receiving aid from one, are seldom included in those studies. How do Palestinian refugees in Lebanon differentiate between Palestinian political factions? How do they choose whether to join a faction and then which one to join? Are their decisions based on ideology? Are there financial incentives to join? Do they do so for security considerations, or are other factors at play? My research, based on a year of participant observation and action research in Nahr el-Bared camp in the north of Lebanon where I lived with a family, led me to realize that what binds Palestinian refugees to factions is not the ideology or regional or international alliances of the factions. For example, young Palestinians do not join a faction based on whether it is Islamic, Marxist, or nationalist; rather they do so based on where they have friends or family, and sometimes depending on which faction has the closest youth center to their home. In fact, it is those personal relationships, including those developed with other faction members, that keep Palestinians affiliated to factions. My ethnographic work reveals the importance of social factors, something which is not recognized in the literature. This revelation led me to re-conceptualize the way we look at political factions in Palestinian society and the way we look at so-called “grassroots” and “independent” initiatives within the camp. As such, my research helps us better understand the dynamics that animate Palestinian politics in exile and it has broader implications for understanding why political organizations (political parties or regimes) survive when they lack legitimacy even among their supporters.