Palestine in the Air

<p><b>As the first cultural history of Palestinian aviation, <i>Palestine in the Air</i> reveals civil aviation’s role in the ‘question of Palestine’ over the past century.</b><br><br> How do Palestinians—as individuals, communities, and as a nascent state—engage with the air? How does their systemic exclusion from aerial agency inform dominant and counter-narratives of culture and modernity?<br><br>International civil aviation is a powerful tool for the disenfranchisement of Palestinian statehood, connectivity, and mobility. Yet, Palestinians have constantly sought to harness aviation as a legitimate component of modern state-building. They have also creatively appropriated aviation technologies including balloons, kites, and drones as instruments of resistance, exploiting flight’s symbolic qualities of escape and liberation to highlight the injustices of occupation.<br><br>Using an interdisciplinary approach that draws on media studies, cultural studies, critical theory, diplomacy, and history, <i>Palestine in the A</i>ir examines civil aviation’s political, social, and cultural impact upon the Palestinian quest for sovereignty. The book makes use of an unprecedented range of aviation-related sources spanning unpublished memoirs, print and image archives, interviews, art, film, literature, poetry, and stand-up comedy.</p>