Palestinian political identities during the post-oslo period: A case study of generation effects in a West Bank refugee camp

The first Intifada (1987-1993) split Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza Strip into two camps, one secular-nationalist, the other Islamist. The author examines the new identities that formed as a result of this split in a Bethlehem-area refugee camp. Drawing on the concepts of event as structurally transforming process, socio-political milieu, and Mannheimian generation units, he shows how the first Intifada gave rise to a generational dialectic that in turn produced new religio-political orientations. He concludes by suggesting an extension of the Mannheimian framework to take into account the dynamic effects of generation-unit tensions for collective solidarities.