MER Article The Mediterranean Free Trade Zone The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is one of the most ambitious socio-economic programs the Mediterranean region has ever witnessed. It promises to rekindle the close economic and cultural ties that historically flourished between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Yet the term “Euro-Mediterranean Partnership” is scarcely known outside of David Katz • 7 min read
MER Article The WWW in Palestine Traditional forms of media divide those who make the news from those who present it. Large corporations and states monopolize and shape the media, delivering information in ways that serve their own interests, rather than as objective reporting on events. The pretence of the mainstream media's objectivity belies Adam Hanieh • 10 min read
MER Article Twenty-First Century Palestine Salim al-Shawamreh, his wife, Arabia and their six children live in the village of Anata, half of which is classified as Area B (under Palestinian municipal control) and half -- where Salim’s house sits -- as Area C (under full Israeli control). About a third of Anata’s 12,000 residents hold Jerusal Roni Krouzman • 8 min read
MER Article Faith, Money and the Millennium The solar eclipse on August 11, 1999 led some people to expect the end of the world. According to one report, three people committed suicide, sure the end was near. Others shut themselves in their homes expecting extraordinary events to usher in the eschaton (“end times”). Since a simple eclipse cou Naim Ateek • 7 min read
MER Article "The Land without the People" On September 14, 1999, the day after Oslo’s Final Status negotiations opened, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited Ma’ale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement on the West Bank. There he declared that this Jewish “neighborhood” would remain part of Israel’s Jerusalem. “Every house you build,” h Tom Abowd • 11 min read
MER Article Abdullah's Jordan: New King, Old Problems The death of Jordan’s King Hussein in February 1999 not only marked the end of an era, it also highlighted regional preoccupations with looming succession crises in neighboring states, most notably Syria and Saudi Arabia. Hussein’s successor, Abdulla II, confronts a formidable task. He must maintain the institution Beverley Milton-Edwards, Peter Hinchcliffe • 9 min read
MER Article Change and Stasis in Syria Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, observers and citizens of Syria have anticipated a political shake-up that would transform domestic realities and set the country on a new political and economic course. Such anticipation was not groundless: Syria’s geostrategic context in the early 1990s seemed ripe for regional Bassam Haddad • 19 min read
MER Article The Fate of Small Nations Glinting off the black Caucasus Mountains, the morning sun gives Stephanakert the gleam of a town freshly scrubbed. Everywhere roads are being laid and houses restored. Women wrapped in blue nylon overcoats and woolen leggings sweep away litter from the town square. And on Stephanakert's main Azatam Graham Usher • 11 min read
MER Article NATO's Future in the Middle East Although US interventionism is part of the collective Arab experience, NATO interventionism isn’t – at least not yet. According to NATO’s “New Strategic Concept,” however, this could change soon, with European forces being propelled into global military engagements – even in the Middle East. Karim El-Gawhary • 5 min read
MER Article No Jubilee for the Middle East? The website of Jubilee 2000-United Kingdom lists 57 countries that have Jubilee 2000 campaigns for the cancellation of the unpayable debt of the poorest countries by the year 2000. [1] No country from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) appears on this list. [2] Robert Naiman • 8 min read
MER Article Water and Women As the year 2000 approaches, humanity has passed an important milestone, one that has nothing to do with the new Millennium, but which may have many more consequences than the Y2K bug. On October 12, the world’s population officially passed six billion. While pundits debated whether this was cause f Sally Ethelston • 14 min read
MER Article The Middle East at the Millennial Turn Any attempt to summarize the direction of the Middle East at the cusp of the Millennium is hazardous indeed: We should long ago have resisted the temptation to see the region as a single, integrated political or socio-economic whole, or to reduce what are, perhaps now more than ever, contradictory r Fred Halliday • 11 min read
