Refugee Status, Permanent Residency, and Citizenship: The re-making of categories among Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem

Abstract

This article ethnographically explores ways that young Palestinian refugees seek to strengthen their claims to residency in Jerusalem. It describes the complex layers of colonial subjugation faced by these young people and the ways they attune their everyday life choices in this context of long-term insecurity. I argue that through situations forced upon them in efforts by the Israeli government to reduce the Palestinian demographic of the city, young people are re-making the categories they live under, away from their bureaucratic and assumed political meaning. This article explores different examples of engagement with Israeli state institutions as tactics undertaken to mitigate the increasing uncertainty surrounding residency revocation and subsequent forcible transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem. I argue that the reason young people are re-attributing meaning of these categories is to safeguard their futures, in light of the failure of international frameworks to do the same.