The new nakba: Israel, the United States and the Arab facade

In 1993, with the launch of the latest iteration of the 'peace process' in Oslo, Norway, hopes rose around the world as a new and unprecedented agreement between Israel and the Palestinians was presented. Instead what occurred was a new "nakba" -- a catastrophe like that of 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. In 1993 the Palestinians were to begin building institutions that many believed would lead to the long-awaited emergence of an independent Palestinian state. Something very different happened. Far from serving as a vehicle for Palestinian liberation, the Palestinian Authority has worked as an 'Arab facade,' veiling, entrenching, and even subsidizing Israeli colonial power behind the superficial covering of Palestinian national symbols. Though Israel recognized for the first time the existence of a legitimate Palestinian Arab collective, this recognition came at the cost of continued, even expanded, Israeli dominance, a new nakba.