The invention of Palestinian citizenship, 1918-1947 / Lauren Banko.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 256-272) and index.

Inventing the national and citizen in Palestine : Great Britain, sovereignty and the legislative context, 1918-1925 -- The notion of 'rights' and the practices of nationality and citizenship from the Palestinian Arab perspective, 1918-1925 -- The diaspora and the meanings of Palestinian citizenship, 1925-1931 -- Institutionalising citizenship : creating distinctions between Arab and Jewish Palestinian citizens, 1926-1934 -- Whose rights to citizenship? Expressions and variations of Palestinian mandate citizenship, 1926-1935 -- The Palestine revolt and stalled citizenship -- Conclusion. The end of the experiment : discourses on citizenship at the close of the mandate.

In the two decades after the First World War, nationality and citizenship in Palestine became less like abstract concepts for the Arab population and more like meaningful statuses integrated into political, social and civil life and as markers of civic identity in a changing society. This book situates the evolution of citizenship at the centre of state formation under the quasi-colonial mandate administration in Palestine. It emphasises the ways in which British officials crafted citizenship to be separate from nationality based on prior colonial legislation elsewhere, a view of the territory as divided communally, and the need to offer Jewish immigrants the easiest path to acquisition of Palestinian citizenship in order to uphold the mandate's policy. In parallel, the book examines the reactions of the Arab population to their new status. It argues that the Arabs relied heavily on their pre-war experience as nationals of the Ottoman Empire to negotiate the definitions and meanings of mandate citizenship.