Jun 20, 2022

A History of False Hope

Investigative Commissions in Palestine

Lori A. Allen

Hosted by Rine Vieth

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Summary

Lori Allen’s A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine (Stanford UP, 2020) is a deep engagement with Palestinian political history through an examination of international commissions. Over twenty commissions established over the last century have investigated political violence and human rights violations in the context of Palestine and Palestinians’ rights, yet there has also been very little material change resulting from these commissions.

These commissions, Allen argues, operate as technologies of liberal global governance and do not bring justice to Palestinians. However—as her archival and ethnographic research shows, in a deep exploration of three such commissions—Palestinians continue to demand rights and recognition, even in the face of limited outcomes. A History of False Hope therefore serves as an exploration of the characters, motivations, and politics involved in Palestinians’ efforts to assert their rights—and colonial authorities’ and international organizations’ responses to Palestinians’ fights to for their rights—within the framework of international human rights.

A History of False Hope is available through Stanford University Press. Lori Allen is a Reader in Anthropology (Near and Middle East) at SOAS, University of London.

Rine Vieth is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at McGill University, where they research the how UK asylum tribunals consider claims on the basis of belief. Their public writing focuses on issues of migration governance, as well as how inaccessibility and transphobia can shape the practice of anthropological research.

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Rine Vieth

Dr. Rine Vieth is an incoming FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow, where they will be studying how anti-gender mobilization shapes migration policy, particularly in regards to asylum determinations. They hold a PhD in Anthropology at McGill University, a MSc in Social Anthropology from the LSE, and a MA in Islamic Law from SOAS.

Their research interests include state governance, human rights, bureaucracy, and religion, with a particular emphasis on how people understand and experience law. When not making their way through a pile of policy documents or coding data, they enjoy gardening on their Montréal balcony.

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