Story Behind the Story

Prior to 1967, the liberation of the Palestinian people meant a coordinated attack by the Arab armies on Israel. After 1967, the liberation of the Palestinians fell to the people who inhabited the Territories-West Bank and Gaza and the refugee camps. The liberation became less of an elite, intellectual concept and more of a grass roots desire. These changes manifest themselves in a number of ways, but none so important as the changes in people and how their experiences relate to diplomatic and military data. Using oral history, memory and experience this work seeks to connect these three categories of data. The 1967 War was a turning point in the development of Palestinian identity both collectively and individually, however, this aspect of the war has been largely overlooked by scholars. By looking at the legacies of the British Mandatory period, the 1948 War, the affects of Pan-Arabism, the United Nations and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a greater understanding of the 1967 War and its importance on the individual level can be seen. This work examines not the diplomatic and course of the war, but how this war affected individual Palestinians using oral histories and personal experience. Due to the availability of sources, it focuses mainly on experiences of Palestinians within the West Bank and on men. Sources for women are more difficult to find and although female recollections included, gender is not discussed. This work relies heavily on experiences of Arabs in America and works in translation. As such, a discussion of the 1967's War impact on America is also discussed in detail.