Les Palestiniens: peuple de réfugiés? by Aude SignolesReview by: Shahira SamyInternational Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 84, No. 2 (Mar.,2008), pp. 393-394Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Royal Institute of International AffairsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25144791 .

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Middle East and North Africa

believes that the role of Albert Reynolds, Fianna Fail leader only from 1992 to 1994, in bringing Sinn

Fein to the peace table, while maintaining the trust of London, was a particularly crucial one.

Perhaps more attention could have been paid to the relationship between Fianna Fail and the

Unionist community in Ulster. Practical concessions were made without the party redefining its

overall approach to this large anti-nationalist grouping. Did Fianna Fail's numbness towards them

contribute to the difficulties which the peace process quickly faced after 1998? What about the impact of international events like 9/11 on Fianna Fail's attitudes towards a movement which still flirted

with illegal actions? Discussion of the embarrassing arrest of Sinn Fein activists in Colombia in

2001, supposedly there to train the FARC insurgents in urban terrorism, is surprisingly absent. The

writer assumes that Fianna Fail's resistance to including Sinn Fein in government stems primarily from domestic causes. She predicts that Sinn Fein is poised to strengthen its electoral position in the

Republic but the reverse actually happened in the 2007 elections. It is Fianna Fail that is contem

plating forming itself in the North to try to become a force on both parts of the island. Nevertheless,

this is a subtle and in large part thoroughly convincing interpretation of how relationships between

the rival keepers of the nationalist flame in Ireland finally enabled peace to prevail in the late 1990s

and beyond.

Tom Gallagher, University of Bradford, UK

Middle East and North Africa

Les Palestiniens: peuple de refugies? By Aude Signoles. Grolley: Les Editions de l'Hebe. 2006.

90pp. Index. Pb.: 5.75. isbn 2 88485 033 3.

That exile, displacement and dispossession have imbued Palestinian identity over the past six decades

more pronouncedly than any other experiences is the theme of the present book, as suggested by its

title and back cover. With one of every three refugees in the world Palestinian, this is not only the

largest refugee population in the world but also the most protracted as the first waves of Palestinian

displacement occurred in the late 1940s when approximately three-quarters of the Palestinian people became refugees.

Part of a series entitled la question (the question), Les Palestiniens is faithful to the format of the

series, each booklet tackling a particular theme in a string of short questions and answers. Accord

ingly, making use of her academic and field knowledge of the Palestinian socio-political landscape, French scholar Aude Signoles explores her topic with a series of questions supposedly covering the

various aspects of the refugee experience. Hence, the purpose of this book is not to offer new schol

arship, nor to vertically tackle in depth one particular dimension of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Rather, while being academically informed, it offers a horizontal analysis of Palestinian issues to a

general readership seeking to understand what is going on in the Palestinian landscape. The 21 questions cover an array of issues: is the Arab?Israeli conflict of a religious nature? Are

Palestinians poor and badly educated? Do all Arab states support Palestinians? Why did the refugees leave and do they want to return? Did the Oslo Accords give a state to the Palestinians? Did it end

the occupation of Palestinian territories? The author also explores other matters. She mentions the

recognition of Israel, discusses Hamas, and talks about reform, the Palestinian Authority and the

various forms of resistance, among other things.

Paradoxically, the strength of the book is at the same time its weakness. Quite rich for its little

size, it in fact offers a comprehensive and succinct analysis of Palestinian affairs ... not Palestinian

refugee affairs. For that reason, the problem lies in the fact that the reader is liable to be misled by the

title. If the argument is that Palestinian displacement and dispossession have informed contemporary Palestinian identity and political manoeuvres, the book does not deliver to that purpose, but rather

tackles many other matters without necessarily linking them with the exile experience, nor tackling the dimensions of displacement as a focus point. For example, if the events of the first half of the

twentieth century, such as Jewish immigration to Palestine, have so much affected the conflict as it has

unfolded, it certainly deserves elaboration over more than a meagre two pages.

393 International Affairs 84: 2, 2008 ? 2008 The Author(s). Journal Compilation ? 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/The Royal Institute of International Affairs

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Book reviews

If you are after a study on the Palestinian refugee problem, this is not the place to go. However, if the objective is to seek a knowledgeable, balanced and succinct basic analysis of modern Palestinian

history, politics and society, you are on for a worthwhile read.

Shahira Samy, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, UK

Algeria: anger ofthe dispossessed. By Martin Evans and John Phillips. New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press. 2007. 352pp. Index. ?19.99.ISBN ? 3?? 10881 8.

For a westerner who has lived in Algeria for two years?a country considered by many to be one

of the truly 'no go' areas of the most troubled continent on the planet?and has been an analyst of

the country, it was a pleasant surprise to encounter a new book that answers many of the seemingly unanswerable questions concerning modern life in Algeria. Evans and Phillips's work is a refreshing read because it engages the most taboo issues in Algerian politics, for example the extent of the

government's human rights abuses, and whether or not some of the horrific blood-letting in the

1990s was the work of an Armed Islamic Group gone wild or the country's shadowy security services

trying to discredit the Islamist movement. Perhaps the most controversial ofthe issues that Evans and

Phillips delve into (at least in Algeria) is Algeria's national narrative: are they Berber? Arab? Franco

phone? Arabic-speaking? What was the real message of 1954? Evans and Phillips go beyond the usual

sanitized reports one gets from Algeria by digging past the layers of confusion and conspiracies to

uncover what the real causes of the violence and unrest there have been.

Far from being another in a seemingly endless slew of academic works dealing with the issues

surrounding post-colonialism, this book offers a different view of a former colony that does more

than bemoan the seemingly inevitable failure of a post-colonial regime and the breakdown of its

society. Evans and Phillips go beyond what they call the 'pathological Orientalist mindset' that views

the Algerian Civil War as a simple clash between secularists and Islamists by illustrating how much

more there was, or is, to the conflict. Likewise, the authors do an amazing job of depicting how much

more there was to the relationship between French society and Algerian society than the standard

colonizer?colony dimension. They illustrate extremely well how Algerian and French societies were

artificially fused in a way that has left Algerian society fragmented. Evans and Phillips also show, in

a human and down-to-earth manner, how Algeria is torn between its Berber heritage and both its

French legacy and Arab/Islamic roots (not just between its French/secular and Arab/Islamic roots).

Focusing primarily on the more recent past, the authors offer the reader a very real look at Algerian

history that is as accurate as a textbook but reads like a novel you cannot put down. Anyone interested

in Algeria should certainly add this book to their reading list.

Eric Motschiedler

Sub-Saharan Africa

Liberals, Marxists and Nationalists: competing interpretations of South African history. By Merle Lipton. London: Palgrave. 2007. 228pp. Index. ^42.50. isbn o 230 60059 x.

'History', argues Lipton, 'matters because it forms an important part of our consciousness, contrib

uting to our beliefs about who we are, who are our friends and enemies, and how our societies might and should evolve' (p. 4). This is certainly the case in South Africa. This book deals with the way in

which the history of South Africa has been written. There has been longstanding academic warfare

between 'Liberal' and 'Marxist' historians, with Nationalists rather on the side lines of these battles.

Lipton is plainly on the Liberal side. She claims that Marxists have wrongly accused Liberals of

four major misunderstandings of racism in South Africa: ignoring the role of class in forming the

racial divide; asserting that the early Boers introduced racism, thereby obscuring its real origins in

twentieth-century industrialization; denying that English Liberals were among its originators; and

apologizing for British imperialism. Lipton rejects all four of these claims and backs up her case with

wide-ranging references from both sides of the dispute.

394 International Affairs 84: 2, 2008 ? 2008 The Author(s). Journal Compilation ? 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/The Royal Institute of International Affairs

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