Local feminism: Between Islamism and liberal universalism

Abstract

The experiences of the Palestinian national movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories after the war of 1967 showed the importance of public efforts to organise the masses. Mass organisations were associated with different Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) factions; each sought to strengthen its following. While it may be argued that a single organisation would have sufficed, these divisions had the advantage of increasing the numbers of people recruited, by appealing to the partisans of all the political groups. It was also much harder to destroy these new organisations which had a more diffuse regionalised structure than the monolithic organisations of the past.