MERIP
Media Resource List, November 11, 2004
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS on the following topics:
- Reverberations of Arafat's death in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip
DEBORAH J. GERNER
Deborah J. Gerner is professor of political science at the
University of Kansas, co-director of the Center for International
Political Analysis and a member of the editorial committee
of Middle East Report . Gerner is editor of Understanding
the Contemporary Middle East (2004) and author of One
Land, Two Peoples: The Conflict over Palestine (1994).
Commenting on the passing of Arafat, Gerner said today: "Israeli
and American policies now that Arafat is gone will have wide
repercussions. While there is a process of succession in place,
including the holding of elections, the continuation of the
Israeli occupation may make these steps impossible to implement.
The US administration has no excuses now not to be fully engaged,
and we must ask -- is the US serious about democracy, whatever
the outcome? Does the administration truly care about
human rights, peace and justice in the Middle East? The administration's
actions in this moment of transition will be crucial."
GRAHAM USHER
Graham Usher, a contributing editor of Middle East Report
, is a reporter for the Economist and author
of Dispatches from Palestine: The Rise and Fall of the
Oslo Peace Process (Pluto Press, 1999). Speaking from
Jerusalem, Usher commented today: "Arafat's passing opens
a period of deep uncertainty for the Palestinian people but
also perhaps of opportunity, particularly for those seeking
to ground the Palestinian cause less in a single leadership
figure than in the law, civil society institutions and democracy."
GEORGE AZAR
George Azar has covered the Middle East as a photojournalist
for 23 years, including the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Iran-Iraq
war, the intifada and the Gulf war. He is author of Palestine,
A Photographic Journey (University of California Press,
1991) and Palestine, a Traveler's Guide (forthcoming),
which he is translating into an educational CD-Rom to be donated
to all Palestinian schools. Commenting on the Palestinian
reaction to Arafat's death, Azar said today: "What I am seeing
here is a rather complex mixture of feelings: sadness for
the passing of a national icon who despite his many failings
people still regard with affection, indifference to a political
leader whom most have lost faith in, apprehension about Israeli
aggression and fear of the inability of future Palestinian
leadership to maintain the independence of the Palestinian
national movement from foreign domination, a feat Arafat was
in fact able to achieve."
TERRY BOULLATA
Terry Boullata is the headmistress of a private Palestinian
school in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem. She is also an activist
working against Israel's "security wall" that cuts through
Abu Dis. She participated in the 2003 Geneva Initiative for
peace and promoted Arun Gandhi's visit to the West Bank to
discuss non-violent struggle. On the event of Arafat's death,
Boullata said: "No matter how much you agree or disagree with
Arafat, we owe him our respect. Now we are at a crossroads
-- will we enter an era of transparent and accountable government
or will we return to what we wish to leave behind, the chaos
and one-man-show we had under Arafat?"
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