This paper critically examines the term “diaspora” to describe contemporary Palestinian society.Exploring academic scholarship on diaspora more generally, and theway Palestinians can or cannotbe subsumed by this conceptualization, opens the way for a critique of the concept itself. The goalis to complicate the notion of a Palestinian diaspora rather than to accept it as an unquestionedcategorization. Focusing on demographic, spatial, and legal phenomena, in particular refugees'legal identity, provides a broad lens through which to probe the term's appropriateness in thePalestinian context. What are the political ramifications of assuming a Palestinian diaspora? Doesan insistence on the right of return represent a refusal of diaspora?