Palestinian National Movement in Lebanon

Erling Lorentzen Sogge is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, Norway where he was also awarded his PhD in Middle East Studies. He has also been a research fellow at the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He has published in the journal "Middle East Research and Information Project" (MERIP) and also "Babylon – Nordic Journal of Middle East Studies", of which he was Editor-in-Chief.

This is a well-conceived, ethnographically rich, and remarkably detailed account of a Palestinian refugee camp’s dynamic and ever-shifting political history with a focus on the emergence of Islamists politics. Sogge’s book is a welcome contribution to the growing corpus of studies of refugee camps and political movements. This finely grained study provides a solid example of the contexts in which Islamist movements take root. The author astutely captures the enmeshment of the camp, and Palestinian refugees, in local and regional political issues. Most significantly, this study adds to the literature illuminating that refugees may be without rights, but they are hardly without the agency to shape their worlds.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgements Note on Transliteration1. ’Ayn Al-Hilwe and the National Movement2. The Anatomy of a Palestinian State in Exile3. The PLO’s Return to Lebanon4. ‘Ayn Al-Hilewe’s Islamic Forces5. Armies of Outlaws, Sons of the Camp 6. Forming a Palestinian Police Force in Exile7. Protest Movements and Voices of Dissent 8. Conclusion Overview of the Palestinian Factions in Lebanon Bibliography