现代中东研究者往往热衷于城市精英的历史与政治,以及19世纪从欧洲输入的民族主义和现代性。这种研究取向倾向于聚焦城市中心,复述精英叙事,却忽视农民社会和"边疆社会",也忽视从属群体和被边缘化的人群。这种取向还助长了对巴勒斯坦大部分历史的沉默,使巴勒斯坦人失去了他们自身的认同感与集体能动性。爱德华·萨义德(Edward Said)指出,巴勒斯坦及巴勒斯坦人民很少被允许为自己发声;他们不得不由权威的西方或以色列学者代为表述——东方学家、圣经考古学家、经文地理学家(Said 1980)——或者只能透过帝国格局和城市(世界主义)庇护—依附体系(马穆鲁克、奥斯曼、英国)的棱镜来被审视。

Scholars of the modern Middle East are often preoccupied with the history and politics of urban elites and with nationalism and modernities imported from Europe in the 19th century. This approach tends to focus on urban centres and reproduce elite narratives, while ignoring peasant and ‘frontier societies’ and the subaltern and marginalised. This approach also contributes to the silencing of much of Palestinian history and divesting the Palestinians of their own sense of identity and collective agency. Palestine and the Palestinian people are rarely allowed to speak for themselves, argued Edward Said; they have to be represented by authoritative Western or Israeli scholars – Orientalists, biblical archaeologists, scriptural geographers (Said 1980) – or they have to be viewed through the prism of imperial configurations and urban (cosmopolitan) patron‒client systems (Mamluk, Ottoman, British).