When anthropologist Rayyar Marron tried to share her findings from a year of field study in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon in the late 2000s, she found—no surprise to AQ readers—that among contemporary scholars, “ideological commitments trump evidence.” She had seen with her own eyes that many Palestinians were engaging in racketeering and rent-seeking—demanding bribes and carving out areas of control—in order to profit from the enormous amount of UN-funded humanitarian aid that flows into the camps for projects designed to improve the lives of the people. No one bothered to engage with her data, but just accused her of—again no surprise—blaming the victim. If Marron is wrong about her findings, surely she should be vigorously challenged.
“The experience reminded me of the consistent warnings I got as an undergraduate student that when I was older and working
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