The September 2018 decision by the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump to close the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington and expel the PLO ambassador and his family was the latest chapter in the long and difficult history of Palestinian efforts to maintain information and diplomatic offices in the United States. From the opening of the first Arab information office in the United States in 1945, to the establishment of the first specifically Palestinian information center in 1955, to the creation of the first PLO office in 1965, the Palestinians’ twin goals of representing their people and providing information about their cause on the soil of Israel's greatest ally has been hindered by challenges and threats from a variety of sources. Indeed, the long saga of trying to maintain an official presence in the United States is a microcosm of the wider Palestinian national drama of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, replete with Zionist attacks, debilitating inter-Arab and intra-Palestinian rivalries, political ineptitude, the struggle to achieve diplomatic legitimacy, and hostility from the U.S. government and its pro-Zionist politicians.
Skip Nav Destination
Close
Article navigation
Autumn 2018
Research Article|
November 01 2018
Palestinian Offices in the United States: Microcosms of the Palestinian Experience
Michael R. Fischbach
Michael R. Fischbach
Michael R. Fischbach is professor of history at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. He is the author of Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) and Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018). He is coeditor of Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, 3rd edition (New York: Facts on File/InfoBase Publishing, 2017).
Search for other works by this author on:
Journal of Palestine Studies (2018) 48 (1): 104–118.
Citation
Michael R. Fischbach; Palestinian Offices in the United States: Microcosms of the Palestinian Experience. Journal of Palestine Studies 1 November 2018; 48 (1): 104–118. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2018.48.1.104
Download citation file:
Close
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.