MER Article The Cost of Peace We know the images well: ethnic cleansing in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, intra-communal violence in Northern Ireland, and competing claims to land rights spurring the forcible transfer of populations in Palestine and Israel. Claims to self-determination and minority rights, often found at the heart Kathleen Cavanaugh • 10 min read
Current Analysis Interpreting Israel's 1999 Election Campaign The current election campaign in Israel is often portrayed as a struggle over the future of peace with the Palestinians. But according to Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, "this great debate is over."[1] Most Israelis believe a Palestinia Joel Beinin • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Demise of the Oslo Process Following the death of King Husayn and the accession of Abdullah II, the Clinton administration and the International Monetary Fund expressed their support for the new Jordanian ruler by committing $450 million in new aid on top of $225 million committed by the US earlier this year. The US is also i Joel Beinin • 6 min read
MER Article The Palestinian Economy: Between Imposed Integration and Voluntary Separation Arie Arnon, Israel Luski, Avia Spivak and Jimmy Weinblatt, The Palestinian Economy: Between Imposed Integration and Voluntary Separation (Leiden: Brill, 1997). Emma Murphy • 5 min read
MER Article Understanding Ghada: The Multiple Meanings of an Attempted Stabbing I came to know Ghada, a young Palestinian village woman, during my 14 months of fieldwork in her village in the West Bank. Ghada’s village, located south of Bethlehem, is home to approximately 3,000 residents, all of whom are Muslims. Ghada gained notoriety in the village and the surrounding communi Celia Rothenberg • 6 min read
MER Article The Containment Myth Among those who direct American foreign policy, there is near unanimity that the collapse of communism represents a kind of zero hour. The end of the Cold War so transformed the geopolitical landscape as to render the present era historically discontinuous from the epoch that preceded it. Policy mak Stephen Hubbell • 11 min read
MER Article The Enigmas of Shas On April 23, 1997, the general secretary of Israel’s Sephardi orthodox Shas movement, Rabbi Aryeh Deri, was carried shoulder high above the roar of more than 20,000 adoring supporters gathered in the Givat Ram sports stadium in West Jerusalem. “We are all Deri,” was one chant; “Deri equals Dreyfus” Graham Usher • 8 min read
MER Article The Myth of Gender Equality and the Limits of Women's Political Dissent in Israel The profuse media coverage showered upon Israel on its fiftieth anniversary largely failed to consider more critical perspectives that might have cast a different light on the celebrations. While some commented on the familiar divisions between secular and religious Jews, left and right, or immigran Simona Sharoni • 10 min read
MER Article Dayr Yasin Remembered Noam Chomsky, commenting on the just released book Remembering Deir Yassin, notes that “the Deir Yassin massacre is a bitter symbol of a long history of terror and repression, to which -- to our shame -- we have contributed in many substantial ways, and still do. We should not only remember, but als Phyllis Bennis • 2 min read
MER Article Fifty Years Through the Eyes of "New Historians" in Israel Since the 1980s, professional Israeli scholars have been challenging the official Israeli version of the origins of Zionism and the birth of Israel. The “new historians” view of the past is much closer to the Palestinian historical narrative than to the Zionist one. Their criticisms also correspond to demands and Ilan Pappe • 9 min read
MER Article Countering Israel's Fiftieth on the Internet The struggle over the historical record and popular memory of 1948 has reached the Internet. A number of websites and posted materials devoted to the Palestinian experience in 1948 known as the nakba (national catastrophe) offer a wealth of information to counter the virtual media silence about the Steve Niva • 1 min read
MER Article Democracy or Ethnocracy? In February 1998, President of the Israeli High Court, Aharon Barak, issued a statement explaining the temporary deferral of proceedings on an appeal known as the “Katzir case.” The 1995 appeal was lodged by an Arab citizen who was prohibited, because of his non-Jewish status, from leasing state land. [1] Oren Yiftachel • 18 min read
