Chapter 9 - Incommensurability, Inextricability, Entanglement

Summary

This chapter approaches the historical entanglement of Jewish and Palestinian diasporas as one structured by incommensurability and inextricability. It takes up the writings of Stuart Hall on the diaspora concept to consider the limits and possibilities of framing this entanglement relationally. In his own method of argumentation, Hall repeatedly held his notion of diaspora at arm’s length from a set of historical, political, and cultural concerns regarding Palestine and Israel. The chapter argues that Hall’s pattern of relational refusal precludes a more fulsome engagement with diasporic relationality, and seeks to stretch Hall’s own insights beyond their own self-imposed limitations.