Abstract EN:

How are networks of influences created, organized and revived in a diasporaed social structure? What is the nature of an elite in a diasporaed society which is a-territorial, statutorily divided up and politically dependent on foreign protagonists? The Palestinian elite-is a heterogeneous social group, made up of four different "types" - the traditional notables, the "king's Palestinians", the "PLO's apparatchiks" and the diaspora businessmen. Each of these types is informed by the nature of its relationships with the foreign protagonists - Israeli, Arabs, occidentals, etc. - it is in contact with. The ressources each type holds at its disposal depend on these foreign protagonists and are limited by the dependence; besides, none of the types has ever managed to establish a lasting domination over the others, and they all need help from the others to counterbalance their various handicaps. Hence a complex network made up both of genuine cohesion and of intersecting and fluctuating alliances and feuds. This network in turn informs the inner structure of the organisation of power in the Palestinian diaspora, from the organisation of the family to that of the society at large.