MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2002) An-Na’im, Abdullahi, ed. Islamic Family Law in a Changing World: A Global Resource Book (London: Zed Books, 2002). Bennis, Phyllis. Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2002). B’tselem. Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers’ Testimoni (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Iranian Documentary Cinemas between Reality and Fiction Iranian cinema has made its name in the world with the poetic simplicity that marks the work of filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami. Shot entirely on location, his films have used non-actors to tell stories drawn from real events. Kiarostami’s great work Close Up (1990) follows the true story of Persheng Vaziri • 5 min read
MER Article Reading Palestine-Israel WORKS REVIEWED Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled, Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh, Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). Nadia Abu El-Haj, F Kaylin Goldstein • 8 min read
MER Article Learning Lessons from the Algerian War of Independece On May 9, 2002, Tony Judt, professor of history at New York University, began an essay on Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation with a quote from Raymond Aron’s book on the 1954-1962 Algerian War of Independence from French colonial rule. [1] France, Aron argued, could not impose its administ Nancy Gallagher • 12 min read
MER Article Palestinians Debate "Polite" Resistance to Occupation When an August 2002 opinion poll released by the US-based NGO Search for Common Ground showed that majorities of Palestinians would support a non-violent intifada, many residents of the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem greeted the results with suspicion. "They're trying to make us be 'polite,'" one le Lori Allen • 13 min read
MER Article The Makings of a Political Trial The Marwan Barghouti case has been labeled a “political trial” by Israelis and Palestinians alike. In the courtroom, Israel is trying Barghouti for terrorism. In the court of public opinion, the Israeli government is using the prosecution of Barghouti to discredit the Palestinian leadership and Pale Lisa Hajjar • 19 min read
MER Article Living on the Edge The transfer of the Palestinians has begun. Piling their furniture and personal belongings into a truck, the last residents of Yanoun abandoned their West Bank village on October 18, 2002. "Our life here is more bitter than hell," said one villager, lamenting years of attacks, recently intensified, from Robert Blecher • 17 min read
MER Article Difficulties and Dangers of Regime Removal The swift success scored by the US in removing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was a catalyst for hawks in George W. Bush’s administration to advocate further experiments in regime removal surgery. But hawkish euphoria at this accomplishment may have been conducive to self-deception in Washington. Afghanistan is not Faleh A. Jabar • 6 min read
MER Article The Kurds' Secret Scenarios Never have the gardens of Sarchinar and the slopes of Mount Azmar welcomed so many Kurdish families fleeing the heat of Suleimaniya than during the exceptionally long Indian summer of 2002. Squatting on the ground or sitting around tables, grilling shish-kebabs on improvised barbecues or unpacking h Chris Kutschera • 14 min read
MER Article Using and Abusing the UN, Redux On September 12, 2002, George W. Bush delivered a forceful address to the United Nations General Assembly to rally support for an American campaign against Iraq. Challenging the UN to enforce its own resolutions, Bush warned the assembled delegates that failure to back the US war against Iraq would Marc Lynch • 19 min read
MER Article Two Miles into Limbo As many as five million Sudanese displaced by the country’s 19-year civil war live in Egypt, many on the urban margins of Cairo. Mostly poor and unemployed, the Sudanese displaced get by in an environment where no one -- the Egyptian government, civil society or the UN -- seems willing or able to he Pascale Ghazaleh • 15 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Winter 2002) If there is to be a US-led conquest of Iraq, the American public and the world are entitled to know why. Unable to demonstrate that Iraq's putative weapons of mass destruction pose a "mortal threat" to the United States or to provide evidence implicating Iraq in The Editors • 9 min read
