MER Article An Interview with Salim Tamari Salim Tamari, a contributing editor of this magazine, teaches sociology at Birzeit University. He also heads the Palestinian delegation to the multilateral talks on refugees. He spoke with Joe Stork in Ramallah in late October 1993. Some people here argue that there’s quite a lot of opposition to t Joe Stork • 5 min read
MER Article An Interview with Charles Shammas Charles Shammas is the founder and project director of Mattin, an industry promotion organization in the West Bank. He is also a founding member of al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization, and of the Jerusalem-based Center for International Human Rights Enforcement. Joe Stork spoke w Joe Stork • 7 min read
MER Article Palestinian Land Documents Far from the glare of the media attention, on dusty shelves lining the basement of the Jordanian Department of Lands and Survey in Amman, lies a key to the political and economic viability of the Palestinian entity which may emerge out of the Oslo accords. Scores of folders documenting the details o Michael R. Fischbach • 3 min read
MER Article An Interview with Salah 'Abd al-Shafi Salah ‘Abd al-Shafi directs the Economic Development Group in Gaza. Graham Usher, a journalist currently working in the Gaza Strip, interviewed him in September and October 1993. What do you think the agreement means economically? Graham Usher • 7 min read
MER Article An Interview with Khalil Mahshi Khalil Mahshi is headmaster of the Friends’ Boys School in Ramallah. Joe Stork spoke with him there in late October 1993. How do you assess the accord and its importance? I didn’t know how to react. When Israeli friends asked me, “Why aren’t you happy? It’s mutual recognition, it’s the beginning o Joe Stork • 6 min read
MER Article An Interview with Samir Hleileh Samir Hleileh, an economist who teaches at Birzeit University, is deputy director of the Palestinian Technical Committees and a liaison with the World Bank and other international agencies. Joe Stork spoke with him in late October 1993. The Oslo agreement builds in an Israeli economic component to Joe Stork • 7 min read
MER Article An Interview with Azmi Bishara Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, teaches at Birzeit University. Joe Stork spoke with him in Jerusalem in late October 1993. How do you assess the present situation? For or against the agreement is no longer relevant. But I don’t think there’s anything to celebrate. So you don’t thin Joe Stork • 7 min read
MER Article After Oslo By shaking hands on September 13, 1993, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin jointly revised the parameters of political possibilities in the Middle East. Whether these possibilities include a just peace and comprehensive reconciliation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is, four months later, far from certain. In the first week of December, Beshara Doumani, Joe Stork • 9 min read
MER Article From the Editors (January/February 1994) Publication of this issue offers the opportunity, and the obligation, to thank the hundreds of readers who responded to the appeal we sent out in October. We said that we needed to raise $20,000 in order to bring together here a range of Palestinian opinion and analysis about the Oslo accord and its The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Development Revisited Berch Berberoğlu, The Political Economy of Development: Theory and the Prospects for Change in the Third World (SUNY, 1992). Timothy Morris, The Despairing Developer: Diary of an Aid Worker in the Middle East (I. B. Tauris, 1991). “Development” is a quintessentially American concept, smacking of t Karen Pfeifer • 5 min read
MER Article "Silencing Is at the Heart of My Case" When a group of Islamist lawyers filed a suit this summer to divorce a Cairo professor from his wife, against the couple’s wishes and without their knowledge, on the grounds that he was an apostate, the story got attention even in the Western media. But little attention was given to the intellectual Elliott Colla • 11 min read
MER Article The Egyptian Regime and the Left: Between Islamism and Secularism In the spring of 1992, Cairo University’s administration declined to elevate Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd from assistant to full professor in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature after a member of the promotions committee of the Faculty of Arts reported that he is an unbeliever. Abu Zayd’s Joel Beinin • 4 min read
