MER Article Israel’s Permanent Siege of Gaza The devastating human and health consequences of intervention by deprivation are noted in Ron Smith’s account of Israel’s decade-long siege of Gaza, whose dynamics are similar to the catastrophic sanctions regime imposed by the United States on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and the siege warfare util Ron Smith • 15 min read
Current Analysis Operation Protective Edge For 51 days in July and August 2014, Israel conducted a military operation in Gaza known as Protective Edge. It was the third major Gaza operation by the Israeli armed forces in seven years, and by far the most lethal and destructive. Some 2,205 Palestinians, including 722 militants and over 500 chi Michael Thomas • 13 min read
MER Article Gaza as an Open-Air Prison In February, the well-known British street artist Banksy went to the Gaza Strip to draw attention to the plight of Palestinians in the aftermath of the devastating Israeli assault the previous summer. With regard to the murals he painted around the Strip, he wrote: “Gaza is often described as ‘the w Ilana Feldman • 7 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2014) In the last week of August, after several false starts, a ceasefire finally halted the summertime slaughter in Gaza. Israel’s bombs stopped falling, Palestinians stopped dying and the world media stopped its round-the-clock coverage. And, just like that, Gaza was again yesterday’s news. The Editors • 4 min read
Current Analysis Solidaridad con Gaza, La Segunda Parte Latin American solidarity movements with Palestine are starting to win important political battles. Cecilia Baeza • 3 min read
Current Analysis Covering the Coverage Three weeks into Israel’s military campaign against Gaza, media and observers are turning the lens inward on the coverage itself. NBC was the focus of the conversation after the network recalled its correspondent in Gaza, Ayman Mohyeldin, shortly after he filed a powerful report on the killing of fo Bayann Hamid • 4 min read
baeza_072214 Current Analysis Solidaridad con Gaza The brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, the fourth in less than ten years (2006, 2008-2009, 2012 and now again), has triggered a burst of solidarity in Latin America. Cecilia Baeza • 3 min read
Current Analysis Gaza Notes I’ve been through wars before, two of them, in 2008-2009 and 2012. The difference this time around is that I am responsible for a six-month old daughter. I have to be strong for her. I have to be around her all the time. I have to be ready to make funny noises as soon as the Israeli F-16s resume th W S • 3 min read
Current Analysis Gaza Is “Gaza is Israel’s Soweto.” With those four words, Joan Mandell led her dispatch for Middle East Report [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer136/gaza-israels-soweto] in 1985. Visitors to Gaza cannot help but draw grim parallels. The place urges it upon them. Julie Peteet prefaced her 2009 piece [http://www. The Editors • 4 min read
Current Analysis 'Assaf, Palestine and the "Forgotten Palestinians" For months Arab television watchers have been engrossed in the phenomenon of Muhammad ‘Assaf, the 23-year old Gazan singer who has now been crowned the winner [http://www.mbc.net/ar/programs/arab-idol-s2/videos/live-performance/finals/articles/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%8A Leena Dallasheh • 3 min read
Current Analysis Israel's "Operation Mow the Lawn" One can only imagine the nods of self-satisfaction when an Israel Defense Forces planner came up with “Pillar of Cloud” to name Israel’s subsequent eight-day aerial assault on Gaza. By lifting this metaphor from several well-known passages [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillar_of_a_cloud] in the Tora Steve Niva • 6 min read
MER Article Gaza's Tunnel Complex For an informal smuggling route, the tunnel complex underneath Gaza’s border with Egypt is remarkably formal. A security cordon of chicken-wire fencing surrounds the Gazan side of the site, barring entrance from Rafah town a few hundred meters away. At each exit a squad in military fatigues monitors Nicolas Pelham • 18 min read