A Theory of Forced Labour Migration

The Rise and Fall of the Palestinian-Arab Middle Class Under the British Mandate, 1920–39

The Palestinian-Arab middle class under the Mandate may be characterized as bourgeois and educated, similarly to bourgeois classes that have developed in the West in the Modern era. The bourgeois characteristics of the Palestinian-Arab middle class, and their influence on its historical trajectory during the Mandate era, have not been studied in depth yet. This article aims to focus on a local aspect of the rise of the middle class in the region in that period: the rise of the Palestinian-Arab middle class under the Mandate, until the Palestinian-Arab Revolt (1936–9). The main hypothesis is that particular bourgeois social and cultural characteristics prevented the middle class full incorporation into the Palestinian-Arab National Movement, and even led to estrangement between the middle class and the national leadership, as well as members of lower strata, especially the villagers. Members of the middle class, mostly Christians but Muslims as well, espoused in their daily life modern habits, ideas, and customs, as a means to distinguish between themselves and other classes, similarly to their parallels in the West, and like their contemporaries elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, as has demonstrated by Watenpaugh. Those gaps reached their climax during the years of revolt.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine | Oneworld

Renowned Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking work on the formation of the State of Israel. ‘Along with the late Edward Said, Ilan Pappe is the most eloquent writer of Palestinian history.’ NEW STATESMAN Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and […]

Men of Capital in Mandate Palestine

This essay examines Palestinian “men of capital” in British-ruled Palestine. It lays out their historical erasure as the product of settler colonialism; the historiographic dominance of the aristoc...

Visualizing the discrimination faced by Palestinian refugees in

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain barred from 70 professions.

Modern Day Slavery: the Kafala System in Lebanon

"Two hundred and fifty thousand workers under the Kafala system in Lebanon are currently struggling to survive in an exploitative system."

The Arab Worker under the Palestine Mandate (1937)

Palestinian trade unionist George Mansour (b. 1905 – d. 1963) initially worked as a baker, then as school teacher in Nazareth before his family moved to Jaffa in 1927, where he worked first in tra...

Voting with Their Feet: Democratic Backsliding and Market-Minded Migration - Evidence from Israel and Europe

Using a comparative framework, the study examines how variations in political regimes across Israel and Europe shape patterns of international migration. In both contexts, episodes of democratic backsliding serve as quasi-exogenous shocks that reveal the causal link between institutional erosion and outward mobility. In Israel, the origin of democratic backsliding lies in a corruption shock—the criminal indictment of the prime minister—which escalated into an executive–judicial shock as the government launched an anti-democratic judicial overhaul. This confrontation between the executive and judiciary provides a natural experiment for identifying how institutional breakdowns shape migration decisions. In Europe, the origin of democratic backsliding stems from a “Syrian shock”—a massive refugee inflow that strained administrative capacity, polarized politics, and weakened liberal institutions. The resulting governance erosion triggered emigration responses structurally like those observed in Israel. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) estimation, the study identifies causal effects of democratic erosion on migration flows. Across both settings, out-migration emerges as a market-minded response to illiberal regime change—a behavioral signal of sensitivity to policies that features nationalizing industries, restrict free speech, and undermine the rule of law. Together, the Israeli and European experiences demonstrate that illiberal governance functions as a systemic push factor for emigration, beyond standard economic explanations.

The Palestinian Nakba and its Continuous Repercussions

Adel Manna', The Palestinian Nakba and its Continuous Repercussions, Israel Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, Summer 2013, Shared Narratives—A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue / Guest Editors: Paul Scham, Benjamin Pogrund, and As'ad Ghanem

The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive

Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in 10-month Unrwa operation

Britain’s Palestine failure and the collapse of the international rules-based order

Britain dithers on the sidelines instead of seizing the opportunity to address a century-old injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events ...

A/81/249: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese - Truth under the rubble: media in the time of genocide

SummaryThis report examines how the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of a people.

With Freedom in Our Ears

Contributors bring to light the presence and persistence of Jewish anarchism throughout histories of radical labor, women's studies, political theory, multilingual literature, and ethnic studies.

‘Waiting to Die’ by Paul Krafft from Capital and Labor (1907)

The reverend William Schuler Harris’ Capital and Labor (1907) frames its titular subjects as locked in a perennial struggle, “dating back to the time when the Egyptians laid the lash upon their slaves”. Writing in the early twentieth century, Harris is skeptical of the “orator [who] frequently soars into ecstasies over the privileges of the American workers”, for he sees how the labor force is suffering under the “galling yoke” of trusts and monopolies. Substitute those scourges of the Gilded Age with unfettered multinational conglomerates and something similar holds true today. The author’s list of obstacles facing workers are as relevant now as they were more than a century ago: the needs of “civilized life” increase more rapidly than wages; the skilled worker remains at…

Member Organizations — Jewish Diaspora Movement