MER Article Letters (November/December 1988) Reopen Palestinian Universities In my capacity as President of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), I am forwarding to you the following resolution adopted during our recent annual meeting. For your information, MESA is a professional association of Middle East scholars, now numbering nearly (Author not identified) • 6 min read
MER Article Editor's Bookshelf (November/December 1989) Between 1975 and 1978 a group of scholars in England published three annual issues of the Review of Middle East Studies. This political and intellectual project sought to articulate a radical critique of the dominant paradigms in Middle East studies. ROMES unmasked the relations among modernization Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East Wm. Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, The United States and Post-War Imperialism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984). This rich and highly informative book charts the history of the post-war British Labor government’s policies in the Middle East. It is imm Peter Sluglett • 5 min read
MER Article Pfeifer, Agrarian Reform Under State Capitalism in Algeria Karen Pfeifer, Agrarian Reform Under State Capitalism in Algeria (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985). The analysis of contemporary Algerian politics is a matter of considerable controversy. [1] Karen Pfeifer’s excellent study will certainly not put an end to argument; indeed it contributes to the d David Seddon • 6 min read
MER Article Goldberg, Tinker, Tailor and Textile Worker Ellis Goldberg, Tinker, Tailor and Textile Worker: Class and Politics in Egypt, 1930-1952 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986). The critique of modernization theory that began in the late 1960s had an especially significant impact on a new generation of Western scholars who rejected Eric Davis • 4 min read
MER Article Report from Amman When King Hussein announced last July that Jordan was severing its political ties with the West Bank, he implicitly acknowledged that his strategy of 20 years, to broaden and deepen his political base there, had been overtaken by the Palestinian uprising. The Palestinian revolt has asserted an indep Lamis Andoni • 5 min read
MER Article Column Passing the Test On October 13, 1988, the Nobel Prize committee in Stockholm announced that the 1988 prize in literature had been awarded to Egyptian novelist and playwright Naguib Mahfouz -- the first time an Arab writer had received this honor. In its front-page story on the award, the New York Ti Al Miskin • 5 min read
MER Article Gulf War Refugees in Turkey A largely ignored byproduct of the Iranian revolution and the Gulf war has been the large influx of refugees into Turkey. The economic benefits of Turkish neutrality during the Gulf war led Ankara to downplay the problem, but the recent arrival of Kurdish refugees has strained regional ties and clou Ömer Karasapan • 8 min read
MER Article The Islamic Resistance Movement in the Palestinian Uprising By the beginning of the first week of October 1988, as the Palestinian uprising moved into its eleventh month, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, known by its Arabic acronym Hamas) had issued its thirtieth communiqué. Hamas appears to be engaged in a competitive race Lisa Taraki • 10 min read
MER Article An Open Letter to Comrade Mikhail Gorbachev Dear Comrade, Surprising as it may be, an Iraqi citizen addresses you through the Western press. I have no guarantees that, if my letter reaches your media, its contents would be passed to the Soviet people. My message is quite plain: A people in the Middle East is being exterminated. The Soviet p (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article "The Fear Can Drive You Crazy" “Roya” is how she wants to be known. She was arrested in Iran in the fall of 1982. She was released four years later and lived in Tehran for 15 months before coming to the US in early 1988. Eric Hooglund spoke with her in Washington in October 1988. Can you describe the circumstances of your arrest Eric Hooglund • 11 min read
MER Article Iran and the Gulf Arabs Within weeks of Iran’s surprise acceptance of a ceasefire in its war with Iraq last July, perceptions of the regime in Tehran on the Arab side of the Gulf underwent a radical transformation. Governments in Kuwait, Riyadh and Bahrain pledged to forget past clashes, restore full diplomatic ties and la MERIP's Special Correspondent in Iran • 3 min read
