MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2012) Aarts, Paul et al. From Resilience to Revolt: Making Sense of the Arab Spring (Amsterdam: Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice Research and Documentation Center, June 2012). Beinin, Joel. The Rise of Egypt’s Workers (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, June 2012). Bishara The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article The Cost of Living Crisis in the West Bank In September 2012, declining living standards ignited a firestorm of street protests and strikes in the West Bank. The immediate spark was a sharp increase in fuel prices, alongside an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) rate. It seems that the protesters had a message for Palestinian Authority (P Numan Kanafani • 9 min read
MER Article Bush and Ayeb, Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt Ray Bush and Habib Ayeb, eds. Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt (London: Zed Books, 2012). Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt is an insightful volume addressing the various forms of inequality that plague Egyptian society, with particular focus on the poor and working classes. With few exceptions, Mona Atia • 2 min read
MER Article Egypt's Music of Protest The culture of protest associated with the Egyptian uprising has attracted a huge amount of media coverage -- much of it, unfortunately, partial and superficial. Partial, in that it privileges hip-hop to the virtual exclusion of every other kind of nationalist and protest music sung by musicians and Ted Swedenburg • 13 min read
MER Article Reconstituting the Coptic Community Amidst Revolution Egypt’s Coptic community marked the passing in 2012 of two widely known and influential public figures. The first was the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, who died on March 17. Shenouda had celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his enthronement as patriarch the previous Paul Sedra • 12 min read
MER Article Egypt's Popular Committees During the 18-day uprising of 2011, police disappeared from the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities at the same time that the state emptied the prisons of thousands of convicts. Neighborhood watch brigades, typically led by young men, sprang up to fill the security void as reports of criminal Asya El-Meehy • 12 min read
MER Article Police Impunity in Imbaba A string of tiny lights bows from the awning of the Star of Freedom café across an unpaved plaza to the globe of the municipal lamppost, whose light the government has not turned on in years. Tabletops of tea and dominoes spread from the café’s cramped interior and fill the horseshoe-shaped plaza, r Matthew Hall • 19 min read
MER Article Why the Egyptian Army Didn't Shoot The armed forces were a central part of the Egyptian regime from 1952 onward. They supplied the Free Officers who toppled the monarchy and replaced it with a republican order. All four presidents of the era hailed from the military’s ranks. The army was known to control a large economic empire, and Hicham Bou Nassif • 9 min read
MER Article The Writing on the Walls of Egypt Whoever has something to say in Egypt these days can write it on a wall. Ahmad loves Rasha; the revolution continues; build unity between Christians and Muslims; make Egypt an Islamic state. Private garage, no parking; we are all Egyptians; don’t forget the martyrs of the revolution; apply for a job Samuli Schielke, Jessica Winegar • 5 min read
MER Article Establishment Mursi On June 29, 12 days after he was elected president of Egypt, Muhammad Mursi ascended a Tahrir Square stage and issued a dramatic pledge to guard the revolution launched there the preceding spring. Mursi opened his jacket, revealing that he wore no bulletproof vest, thumped his chest and yelled, “I f Joshua Stacher • 6 min read
