MER Article Skirting Democracy The practice of selecting political representatives by voting is not new to Lebanon. The parliamentary framework of modern electoral life in Lebanon was established in the 1926 constitution. Elections were held regularly during the French Mandate period, except for interruptions during World War II. Paul Salem • 8 min read
MER Article Reconstructing History in Central Beirut With the project to develop central Beirut now well underway, the Company for the Development and Reconstruction of Beirut’s Central District -- better known by its French acronym Solidere -- has expropriated legally most of the land in the ancient city center. Previous holders of the property rights have been compensated Saree Makdisi • 8 min read
MER Article There Or here, in early morning, how early you ask and I say let’s get on with the day, a conversation is always a political thing because it involves two entities and the possibility of death interrupting it is always real, always there, and it could happen here, any time, by the stairs, the fountains, t Etel Adnan • 2 min read
MER Article Syrian Involvement in Lebanon The Syrian army has been involved in Lebanon since 1976. Mainly playing the role of balancer between contending Lebanese factions, Syria has its own strategic, political and security interests in Lebanon. In 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon to expel the PLO and establish a pro-Israeli regime, the Syrian forces Volker Perthes • 2 min read
MER Article Myths and Money “The price of prosperity has already been paid,” read an ad that Lebanon’s Investment Development Authority ran in the summer of 1996. “Now is the time to harvest.” The ad also mentioned, euphemistically, that the price had been “a period of unrest.” The message was meant to convince international i Volker Perthes • 15 min read
MER Article Private Capital and the State in Contemporary Syria Throughout the late 1980s, Syria’s economy suffered persistent difficulties. Shortages of imported machinery and spare parts led to underproduction and quality control breakdowns in the country’s larger factories. External indebtedness rose to some $4.9 billion by 1988; payments on foreign loans fel Fred H. Lawson • 16 min read
MER Article Syria Between Two Transitions In the recent years, Syria has inhabited the two processes of fundamental transition. The first is a transition from a statist economy to a greater liberalization or, to use a more accurate term, intifah (open-door policy). The second of these transitions is from a state of belligerency with Israel Hisham Melhem • 14 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 1997) The construction of a new Jewish settlement at Jabal Abu Ghunaym is but the latest effort by the Israeli government to assert its sovereignty over East Jerusalem and preempt the “final status” talks on the city’s future. In addition to completing the inner ring of Jewish settlements around East Jeru The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 1997) Accad, Evelyne. Wounding Words: A Woman’s Journal in Tunisia (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1996). Arab Coordinating Committee on Housing Rights/Israel. Housing for All: Implementation of the Right to Adequate Housing for the Arab Palestinian Minority in Israel (Nazareth, 1996). Alexander, Meena. The Sho (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Making It on the Middle Eastern Margins of the Global Capitalist Economy Victoria Bernal, Cultivating Workers: Peasants and Capitalism in a Sudanese Village (Columbia, 1991). Jenny White, Money Makes Us Relatives: Women’s Labor in Urban Turkey (Texas, 1994). Janet Bauer • 6 min read
MER Article Youssef Chahine's "Cairo" An unemployed young man wanders into a mosque where an Islamist is calling for jihad against those who falsely claim to be Muslim. The “fundamentalist” quotes the Qur’an: “For he who lives not by my law is but an infidel.” Prayer. Voiceover: “Cut.” The fundamentalist and the unemployed man jump up a Nur Elmessiri • 6 min read
MER Article Documenting Land Ownership in the Palestinian Authority The Protocol Concerning Civil Affairs, an annex to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of September 1995, formalized the process by which Israeli authorities would transfer responsibility over land matters to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The first Oslo ag Michael R. Fischbach • 5 min read
