The Demise of the PLO: Neither Diaspora nor Statehood

Frisch demonstrate that the political death of the Palestinian Liberation Organization(PLO) reflects the withering of the Palestinian political Diaspora. Diasporas have often spawned territorial nationalism long before it took hold in the territory defined as the future homeland. Diaspora movements must then territorialize either directly through the transfer of leadership and resources from "outside" to "inside," or indirectly, by mobilizing the indigenous population to press a claim for independence on behalf of the national movement. A voice that remains only in the Diaspora, such as that of the Armenians who claim parts of present-day Turkey, is a voice in the wilderness.