Palestinian Refugees and Mediated Connections to Palestine

Abstract

This article presents a description and analysis of young Palestinian refugees media use in the context of a newly globalized media age. Refugees, like diasporic populations everywhere, live in a world marked by de-territorialization and re-territorialization, where such populations often come to think of themselves as part of a national community via mediated representations. The new media – satellite television and the internet – has helped shape their understanding and connection to Palestine and other Palestinians. For the young refugees living in refugee camps in Beirut, maintaining a strong connection to Palestine and a Palestinian community motivates their media access and use, which is tied to their desire to return to Palestine, even one made up of a geographically different area in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). Indeed, it is via media that the refugees have come to learn of the OPTs, where they hope to ‘return’ to live in a recognized Palestinian state.