Demonstrating the desired future: performative dimensions of internally displaced Palestinians’ return activities

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the activities of internally displaced Palestinians as performative resistance against the settler-colonial dispossession. Since 1948, when close to 800,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the process of establishing the state of Israel, return has been a key political objective of the displaced. By concentrating on the recent activities organized by internally displaced Palestinians, I scrutinize the power of performative practices in challenging present conditions of continuing displacement. Based on interviews, participatory observation, and published source material, I show how the return activities concentrating on the lost villages do not only commemorate the past but also utilize it in performative claim-making in achieving the desired future. I make the argument that the performative dimensions of claiming work to undermine the settler-colonial reality by issuing a call for a right to belong and for a more just future.