74. Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile by by Diana Allan (2013)
Amazon: Some sixty-five years after 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homeland, the popular conception of Palestinian refugees still emphasizes their fierce commitment to exercising their 'right of return'.
Exile has come to seem a kind of historical amber, preserving refugees in a way of life that ended abruptly with 'the catastrophe' of 1948 and their camps - inhabited now for four generations - as mere zones of waiting. While reducing refugees to symbols of steadfast single-mindedness has been politically expedient to both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict it comes at a tremendous cost for refugees themselves, overlooking their individual memories and aspirations and obscuring their collective culture in exile.
Refugees of the Revolution is an evocative and provocative examination of everyday life in Shatila, a refugee camp in Beirut.
