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Are Palestinians an Invented People?

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Clarissa

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I’m no fan of Newt Gingrich (to put it very, very mildly), but when he says that Palestinians are an invented people he is absolutely right.

Of course, they are. Every nation is an imagined community, a fictional construct with very little basis in reality. Every nation establishes a baseless claim to the land it inhabits, invents a shared glorious history, appropriates some figures who command unanimous respect (and who, in their wildest dreams, could not have imagined how their names would be used to support this invented construct), lashes out with hatred and violence against an equally invented Other, and employs a series of mechanisms to provoke an unthinking emotional attachment on the part of the people in order to get them to die enthusiastically and for free for a piece of painted fabric.

Palestinians are as invented a people as are Ukrainians, Spaniards, Germans, Americans, Australians, Pakistanis, etc. The rise of nationalism and the strategies it uses to convince us that nations have always existed and hence should continue to exist have been studied and analyzed probably more than any other political phenomenon. So let’s stop dumping on Newt and start educating ourselves.

Read books, people. Read many good books. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking stupid by Newt Gingrich’s side.

If anybody is interested in understanding how nationalism works, I can provide a list of readings from here to the Moon.

33 responses to “Are Palestinians an Invented People?”

  1. Stringer Bell Avatar
    Stringer Bell

    I’m not sure Newt is on the same side as you. He’s not making some insightful point about nationalism, like you are. He is simple expressing his hatred of Palestinians.

    I’d bet my life he’d never say Israelis are an invented people. You, I think, would totally say that.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “I’d bet my life he’d never say Israelis are an invented people. You, I think, would totally say that.”

      -Of course, they are.

      He is factually correct, though. There are many reasons to dump on Newt, but this is not one.

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  2. feMOMhist Avatar
    feMOMhist

    And yet would Newt (sigh a Ph.D. in history, SO EMBARRASSING) ever preface that remark with “LIKE ALL ETHNICITIES/NATIONALITIES, …..” since yes identity is a construct…

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      It’s a step in the right direction, though. Once you get the idea that one nation is a construct, then the realization that all nations are is a bit closer.

      For me, it’s a welcome surprise to hear the phrase “invented people” on mainstream television.

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      1. feMOMhist Avatar
        feMOMhist

        I think you overestimate the ability of Newt to think logically, but we can all hope. The ability to hold two conflicting ideas at once seems to be a particular skill of his

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  3. Kola Tubosun Avatar
    Kola Tubosun

    I think the reason why people dumped on him (perhaps deservedly so) is the way he used “invented” only for the Palestinian statehood aspirations and not for the Jewish statehood reality, even though both nations were invented for the purpose of self-determination. A hundred years ago, there was no “invented” nation in that spot.

    He said “they were just part of the Arab people”. The same that could be re-said as “they’re just Jewish people…” in order to convey the same information. I think his comments were unnecessarily partisan, and the outrage too it was because of the harm that that position does, more than the good.

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  4. Z Avatar
    Z

    I think he means to imply, and will be understood as saying, that other peoples are *not* invented but occur naturally. Remember, this is US, where we are taught Manifest Destiny and so on.

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  5. bloggerclarissa Avatar
    bloggerclarissa

    No, people, I disagree. Bringing the expression “an invented nation” into the public discourse is huge. Especially since there is so much unthinking jingoism in this country.

    You should see the faces of my students every time I deliver my bit on the dying for a piece of painted fabric.

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    1. Z Avatar
      Z

      It’s not at all the first time this has been said by the right wing about Palestinians and other countries that are inconvenient to us. I wish I had time right now to look up quotations.

      Yes, students get amazed when you explain nationalism and so on, but that’s in class with readings, true explanation (not just a sound bite), follow-up, etc.

      Palestinians especially, in US and Israeli discourse, have long been said not to be a people, to be invented, etc. – I seem to remember Golda Meir going on about it, etc., and having this taught in junior high as part of regular curriculum: they’re invented, others aren’t.

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  6. Shedding Khawatir Avatar
    Shedding Khawatir

    I’m with everyone above. You are correct, because you are not limiting “invented” to Palestinians. He is not using the term “invented” with that sort of understanding, but as a nasty bigot. Like the rest of the commenters, I’ll change my mind about that remark of his when he expands it to all nationalities.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Of course, he’s a nasty bigot. And worse. But where is a progressive political leader who will dare to put even the tiniest little chink into the armor of nationalism?

      I’m very bombastic today. This is what translating Spanish philosophers does to one.

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        So what is the deal on the bombasticness of some Spaniards? So exhausting, I find -.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          “So what is the deal on the bombasticness of some Spaniards? So exhausting, I find -.”

          I used to write this way in English. It was super hilarious because I had no idea that the Spanish writing style does not translate into English word for word. But now, it seems, I lost my skill of constructing mile-long sentences with a gazillion of clauses and endless passive voice.

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  7. Avatar
    Anonymous

    By those standards, Israel is the longest perpetuated national myth.
    Sorry, did someone say this already? didn’t have time to go through all the posts. 😀

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “By those standards, Israel is the longest perpetuated national myth”

      – Nationalism came into existence in the XVIIIth century. The oldest nationalisms are the ones that were created at that time.

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  8. Miriam Avatar
    Miriam

    I agree that all people are basically “invented” people, as people create their own groupings. However, where I think this sentiment goes wrong is when it’s taken to mean that nations and cultures somehow “don’t matter,” and that groups of people shouldn’t have countries of their own at all.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      We don’t own countries. Rather, they own us.

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  9. Avatar
    Anonymous

    What would you call the allegiance to the Roman Empire or the Greek City States? Babylonia, Persia? Humanity has been subdividing itself into ‘us’ and ‘others’ since we could speak. To say it’s an 18th century construct does a disservice to the havoc wrecked upon the world by previous generations.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      I don’t mind doing a disservice to the havoc. 🙂 The birth of nationalism in the era of the Enlightenment has been studied at length. I’m not sharing any personal conclusions here.

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    2. Isabel Avatar
      Isabel

      I see anon’s point. Nationalism may be an 18th century construct, but having an identity as a ‘people’ and the “us vs them” mentality almost certainly go back to our beginnings.

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      1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        Speak for yourself. 🙂

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      2. Helena Suess Avatar
        Helena Suess

        There are Romans.

        And there are the rest, waiting to become Roman.

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      3. Helena Suess Avatar
        Helena Suess

        Ave Roma.

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      4. Isabel Avatar
        Isabel

        “Speak for yourself.”

        That doesn’t even make sense, but whatever. I mean, Native American tribes have always have an in-group identity. And we are social and territorial animals to begin with.
        Anyway anon was just suggesting (I think) that nationalism did not emerge in a vacuum. Certainly the concept of ‘peoples’ was around longer as was the idea of being loyal to one’s group even above individual liberty.

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          “And we are social and territorial animals to begin with.”

          -To use a phrase I have just repeated over 100 times in grading students’ essays: “Let’s avoid meaningless generalizations.” 🙂

          “Anyway anon was just suggesting (I think) that nationalism did not emerge in a vacuum.”

          -It did not emerge. It was manufactured.

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      5. Isabel Avatar
        Isabel

        “-It did not emerge. It was manufactured.”

        Yes, it emerged as it was manufactured. By social, territorial mammals. 🙂

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          Well, then, today a plate of really kick-ass borscht emerged in my kitchen. It was a result of efforts of one unsociable, deterritorialized mammal. 🙂 🙂

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      6. Isabel Avatar
        Isabel

        I hardly think so.

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  10. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar
    Jennifer Frances Armstrong

    I’m definitely an invented person.

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  11. Alexandra Avatar
    Alexandra

    Palestinians aren’t invented people. They’re Jourdanians, and Jourdan should finally take care of them. By 1948 U.N. resolution there should be a state for them and currently Jourdan has 80% of those territories. Arab countries love to say how they all support Palestinians but at the same time do nothing to really help these people.

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      “They’re Jourdanians, and Jourdan should finally take care of them. By 1948 U.N. resolution there should be a state for them and currently Jourdan has 80% of those territories. Arab countries love to say how they all support Palestinians but at the same time do nothing to really help these people.”

      -Good point.

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  12. Jennifer Frances Armstrong Avatar
    Jennifer Frances Armstrong

    It’s not quite so simple as there is always that old sore of fascist blood and soil. It works in the same way that psychological trauma does, in general. Once you have suffered or sacrificed for your country, you feel tied to it absolutely.

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  13. Professor Zero (@profacero) Avatar
    Professor Zero (@profacero)

    As far as I understand, partition wasn’t supposed to mean expulsion of non Jews living in Palestine, and the refugees seek repatriation – ?

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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