MERIP
Media Resource List, March 25, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Views from Damascus
- Israeli settlement expansion around Jerusalem
JOSHUA LANDIS
Joshua Landis writes the blog http://syriacomment.com
and is assistant professor of Middle Eastern history
at the University of Oklahoma. This year he is a senior Fulbright
scholar in Damascus. Landis is author of Democracy in
Syria (in press). He recently interviewed the Syrian
opposition figure Riad
al-Turk about Lebanon, domestic opposition to the regime
and the potential for reform in Syria. Landis is perfectly
situated to comment on Syrian reactions to the pullout from
Lebanon and the mood among a range of people from his mother-in-law
to shopkeepers to intellectuals about the future of their
increasingly isolated country.
THOMAS ABOWD
Thomas Abowd teaches Middle East anthropology at Wayne State
University. His research interests include the spatial construction
of identity in contemporary Jerusalem and questions of colonialism
and urban space. He wrote "Carving Up the Capital: The Politics
of Space in Contemporary Jerusalem" for Middle East Report
(issue 230, Spring 2004). He commented today: "Israel's
plan to connect the sprawling city-settlement of Ma'ale Adumim
to Jerusalem would create one continuous urban space across
the occupied territories covering an area so large that it
would effectively cut off the northern West Bank from the
southern part, dividing Palestinian populations and essentially
making a viable Palestinian state impossible. An illegal settlement
under international law, Ma'ale Adumim is built on stolen
Palestinian land, as its extension would be. This new expansion
scheme would link Ma'ale Adumim with other settlements in
East Jerusalem, isolating Palestinian neighborhoods and villages
there. No Palestinian government could accept a peace deal
that does not lead to a contiguous Palestinian state. Sharon's
latest planned expansion would kill the chance for any such
future arrangement."
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