Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Israel

Normalizing the Surveillance State—Cybersecurity Cooperation and the Abraham Accords
Under Secretary Silvers on a panel February 3, 2023 with Israel National Cyber Directorate Director General Gaby Portnoy, Head of the UAE Cyber Security Council Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, CEO of the Bahrain National Cyber Security Center Shaikh Salman bin Mohamed bin Abdulla al-Khalifa and Director General of Morocco’s General Directorate of Information Systems Security El Mostafa Rabii. Photo by DHS, public domain.

Normalizing the Surveillance State—Cybersecurity Cooperation and the Abraham Accords

The new, and not-so-new, cyber dimension of Arab-Israeli normalization.
Marwa Fatafta • 9 min read
India, Israel and the Coordination of Control
A municipal worker cleans the road ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Ahmedabad, India, January 15, 2018. Amit Dave/ReutersNSUI activists protest against Modi’s government for using military-grade, Israeli spyware Pegasus to monitor political opponents, journalists and activists. New Delhi, India, August 2, 2021. Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images

India, Israel and the Coordination of Control

How Modi is weaponizing the 'Israeli Experience' to target dissent.
Abdulla Moaswes • 14 min read
India, Israel and the Coordination of Control
A municipal worker cleans the road ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Ahmedabad, India, January 15, 2018. Amit Dave/ReutersNSUI activists protest against Modi’s government for using military-grade, Israeli spyware Pegasus to monitor political opponents, journalists and activists. New Delhi, India, August 2, 2021. Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Uncategorized

India, Israel and the Coordination of Control

How India weaponizes the 'Israeli Experience' to target dissent.
Abdulla Moaswes • 14 min read
'A Place Without a Door' and 'Uncle Give me a Cigarette'—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah
Portrait of Walid Daqqah by artist and architect Hazem Abutawila.Protesters gather to hold a demonstration demanding the release of Walid Daqqa in Bethlehem, West Bank on June 7, 2023. His wife and daughter appear in the poster behind him. Wisam Hashlamoun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Current Analysis

'A Place Without a Door' and 'Uncle Give me a Cigarette'—Two Essays by Palestinian Political Prisoner, Walid Daqqah

Essays, smuggled out of prison, have been translated as part of the campaign for Daqqah's release.
Walid Daqqah, Dalia Taha • 8 min read
Changing Attitudes towards Zionism among American Jews—An Interview with Zachary Lockman
A gathering of American Jews at the departure of the Train of Food Aid to Israel In 1949. [Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images]
Current Analysis

Changing Attitudes towards Zionism among American Jews—An Interview with Zachary Lockman

Zachary Lockman speaks to Lori Allen about the history of Jewish support for Israel in the United States. They discuss Lockman’s views on the changing attitudes towards Zionism among American Jews over the course of the twentieth century and the new spaces for criticism that have emerged over the pa
Lori Allen, Zachary Lockman • 15 min read
Indigenous Wine and Settler Colonialism in Israel and Palestine
The trilingual Marawi label on the Recanati Winery’s “ancient wines” series. Daniel Monterescu, 2018.Elyashiv Drori walks across his research vineyard at Ariel University. The signpost acknowledges the financial support of Ariel University, the Jewish National Fund, the Samaria Region and the Jordan Valley Research and Development Center for his “Israeli grapevine varieties.” Daniel Monterescu 2018Elyashiv Drori (left), a molecular biologist, at work in his research winery at Ariel University in the West Bank. An assistant winemaker removes a tasting sample from a barrel. Daniel Monterescu, 2018.In the northern hills of the West Bank, winemaker Fadi Batarseh points across the Cremisan Valley at the Israeli settlement Har Gilo, south of Jerusalem and close to Bethlehem. Daniel Monterescu, 2017.The Israeli separation barrier cuts through the Cremisan monastery’s fields in the West Bank. Daniel Monterescu, 2017.Under the banner “We live and exist here,” Bethlehem-area Christians and solidarity activists celebrate Mass to protest the Israeli separation wall that will cut off the Cremisan monastery and winery from nearby Palestinian communities. Ryan Rodrick Beiler, 2011.
MER Article

Indigenous Wine and Settler Colonialism in Israel and Palestine

In 2008 the first Palestinian wine made from indigenous grapes was released, introducing a discourse of primordial place-based authenticity into the local wine field. Six years later, Israeli wineries started marketing a line of indigenous wines. Since then, a growing number of Palestinian and Israe
Daniel Monterescu, Ariel Handel • 13 min read
Settler Entanglements from Citrus Production to Historical Memory
Poster by Henri Dormoy in 1930 for the centennial anniversary of French colonization of Algeria.  Credit  Coll. Galdoc-Grob/Kharbine-Tapabor.French government map depicting the similarities between California and Algeria featured in a study on fruit production published in 1933. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF)Cartoon by the Algerian artist Dilem, December 6, 2021. Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune walks alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who asks, “What is it like living next to an Israeli colony,” with the Moroccan flag flying prominently in the background. The heading reads: “The Palestinian President on an official visit to Algeria.” Available on the artist’s Facebook page.
MER Article

Settler Entanglements from Citrus Production to Historical Memory

Although settler colonies are often depicted as unique and distinctive, Muriam Haleh Davis argues that analyzing settler colonialism in a global framework reveals their multiple commonalities. Here she examines the large-scale production of citrus in Algeria, Israel and California as one fascinating
Muriam Davis • 12 min read
Settler Colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa: A Protracted History
An 1837 watercolor depicts French forces advancing across cliffs and through a breach in the wall of the fortified city of Constantine in Algeria. Artist possibly Jean-Louis Gaspard of the 31st Regiment of Infantry. Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at the Brown University Library/Library of CongressThe governor of Italian Libya, Italo Balbo, welcomes arriving Italian colonists in Tripoli in 1938. Courtesy of State Treasury of Poland, image in the public domain.
MER Article

Settler Colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa: A Protracted History

Settler colonial studies developed as a distinct field of research to address the particular circumstances of settler societies. Since its advent in the 1990s, this field has only marginally considered the Middle East and North Africa, focusing instead on the Anglophone settler societies of North Am
Lorenzo Veracini • 13 min read