To Stand with Palestine: Transnational Resistance and Political Evolution in the United States
Longlisted, 2025 Palestine Book Awards
In recent years, attitudes in the United States toward the Palestinian cause have shifted dramatically. Although Palestinians have long been demonized in U.S. media and politics, their struggle portrayed as illegitimate, emergent progressive voices increasingly challenge the status quo on Israel and Palestine and express solidarity with Palestinian resistance. What accounts for this change and its evolution?
This book provides a new lens on activism around Palestinian issues, demonstrating how the global Palestinian diaspora has driven transnational political movements. Karam Dana explores the ways that exile has shaped Palestinian identity and allowed for new forms of global activism. He examines the social, political, economic, and technological forces that have created space for Palestinian voices to be heard by wider audiences worldwide. Drawing on interviews with scholars and advocates―including members of the Palestinian diaspora and Jewish American activists―as well as public opinion data and media analysis, Dana traces how global Palestinian communities have influenced American views. He addresses the backlash against pro-Palestinian advocacy but argues that solidarity with Palestinians―both in the United States and globally―will continue to strengthen. Timely and insightful, To Stand with Palestine offers an inside look at how Palestinians have shared their story with the world and why sympathy for their plight is growing, with significant implications for the global political landscape.
Bleak in terms of being a reminder that the coloniser's power is a reality. Yet, as the book shows, support and solidarity for Palestine, and with Palestinians, is a transnational endeavour, and the Palestinian narrative is not as isolated as before.--Ramona Wadi "Middle East Monitor"
A profound shift in public opinion is underway toward broader sympathy for Palestine and the Palestinian people. What makes Dana's book so vital and timely is its methodologically inventive exploration of this shift: why it has occurred, the factors underlying it, and, especially, where it is likely to lead. In doing so, Dana also deepens our understanding of how Palestinians have forged and maintained a resilient transnational identity, the political role that diaspora communities play in their host countries and their countries of origin, and how young activists worldwide have come to carry the torch for justice in Palestine. This book is essential reading.--George Bisharat, author of Palestinian Lawyers and Israeli Rule: Law and Disorder in the West Bank
Meticulously researched and written before Israel's latest attack on Gaza, Dana's To Stand with Palestine helps readers understand the underpinnings for the groundswell of global support and solidarity--including on university campuses--with Palestine that we see today.--Diana Buttu, Palestinian lawyer and political analyst
