Punctuated Humanitarianism: Palestinian Life between the Catastrophic and the Cruddy

With a more than sixty-seven-year displacement, the Palestinian refugee case is an extreme instance of a widespread phenomenon: the need for humanitarian organizations that are oriented toward emergency to respond to circumstances that are “protracted.” Humanitarian practice does change as needs on...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of Middle East studies 2016-05, Vol.48 (2), p.372-376
Main Author: Feldman, Ilana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Displaced persons
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarianism
Palestinian people
Palestinians
Poverty
Problematics of Human Rights and Humanitarianism
Refugees
Roundtable
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Summary:With a more than sixty-seven-year displacement, the Palestinian refugee case is an extreme instance of a widespread phenomenon: the need for humanitarian organizations that are oriented toward emergency to respond to circumstances that are “protracted.” Humanitarian practice does change as needs on the ground change, but long-term need and displacement poses both definitional and practical challenges for this work. The broad trajectory of Palestinian refugee experience has moved from “crisis” to chronic needs—what Elizabeth Povinelli calls “cruddy” conditions. Povinelli specifically contrasts suffering that is “catastrophic, crisis-laden, and sublime” with that which is “ordinary, chronic, and cruddy.” Palestinians share experiences of poverty and immobility with others around the world who are part of what is sometimes referred to as the “precariat.” It is this sort of suffering, which often persists below the threshold of an “event,” that Povinelli terms cruddy.
ISSN:0020-7438
1471-6380
DOI:10.1017/S0020743816000118