Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Rita Giacaman

Rita Giacaman is a member of the Women’s Studies Program and director of Birzeit University’s Community Health Unit.

MER Article

For the Common Good? Gender and Social Citizenship in Palestine

For almost half a century, to be Palestinian has meant the absence of formal citizenship, and the rights and duties it confers. While important elements of citizenship previously resided in membership in the Palestinian community and its institutions, the coming of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza and Jericho in

Rita Giacaman, Islah Jad, Penny Johnson • 15 min read

MER Article

Searching for Strategies

In a heated student election campaign at Birzeit University in November, the oppositional “Jerusalem First” coalition made a striking spectacle as hundreds of its supporters marched smartly across the university’s hilltop campus. In a prominent position at the head of the march, female students from the Popular Front, clad

Rita Giacaman • 8 min read

MER Article

Health as a Social Construction

Three basic theoretical formulations frame the state of the health debate among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The biomedical/clinical framework is generally espoused by the majority of the medical and allied health care establishment, most of whom have been trained in the Western medical t

Rita Giacaman • 12 min read