Palestine as ‘a state of mind’: second-generation Polish and British Palestinians’ search for home and belonging

This article reflects on the ways in which children of Palestinian exiles born in Poland and the UK relate to their ancestral homeland and how they make sense of their Palestinian inheritance in the present. It argues that while the second generation of Palestinian diasporic subjects maintain links with their parents’ homeland these connections are not limited to the intergenerational transmission of cultural identity. The article explores how Palestine ‘becomes’ important for second-generation Palestinians. It argues that it is the re-occurring waves of violence inflicted on Palestinians that activate and shape their engagement with Palestine. Rather than a sense of attachment based exclusively on a personal connection with ancestral ‘roots’, the article argues that the second generation also develop a sense of long-distance post-nationalism that transforms their connection with Palestine into a more universal endeavour for justice and against the dispossession. These arguments are based on the findings of a two-year multi-sited ethnography which involved oral history interviews with 35 Palestinians of different generations, carried out in Poland and in the UK, including 15 interviews with second-generation Palestinians, as well as site-specific field visits in Israel and Palestine and follow-up ‘return’ interviews.