MER Article After Oslo By shaking hands on September 13, 1993, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin jointly revised the parameters of political possibilities in the Middle East. Whether these possibilities include a just peace and comprehensive reconciliation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is, four months later, far from certain. In the first week of December, Beshara Doumani, Joe Stork • 9 min read
MER Article From the Editors (November/December 1993) In the preamble to the agreement signed on September 13, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization “agree that it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict.” This agreement may or may not serve that purpose. Peace and justice advocates should not be under any illusion The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Rabin's Gaza "Goodwill Gesture" Gazans stand in the wreckage of their home, destroyed by Israeli anti-tank missiles and dynamite. Some 20 families in the al-Amal quarter of Khan Yunis were made homeless on February 11 when more than 200 Israeli soldiers and border police carried out a 13-hour military assault in search of “terrori (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Teddy Kollek and the Native Question On Saturday night, June 10, 1967, Israeli authorities informed more than 100 families living in the Moroccan Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City that they had three hours to evacuate their homes, where some had lived for generations. As Teddy Kollek, mayor of the western half of the city since 1965, rec Joost Hiltermann • 11 min read
MER Article Growing Up In Jerusalem: A Conversation with Majda Batsh Majda Batsh is a 34-year-old journalist who studied cinematography in the Soviet Union. She grew up a hasan sabi [tomboy], “in the streets,” her mother says, of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, playing football on rooftops or in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and hopscotch Anita Vitullo Khoury • 5 min read
MER Article Growing Up In Jerusalem Jamila Freij (Umm Sam‘an) was born in 1930 in “new” Jerusalem, what is now called West Jerusalem. Her family had lived in Jerusalem’s Old City for 15 generations until 1925 when her father and his brother built houses in Bak‘a (which means “beautiful area”), then an unpopulated land outside the Old Anita Vitullo Khoury • 6 min read
MER Article Growing Up In Jerusalem: City of Mirrors A portrait of Albert Aghazarian hangs behind him as he sits in his living room in a century-old house nestled in the Armenian Covenant in the Old City. It captures his strong profile, but tames his coiffure, which typically has a twisted piece of hair shooting sideways. In a somewhat Penny Johnson • 8 min read
MER Article Jerusalem: Then and Now Jerusalem has often been a restless city, but the pace of change in this century has been truly frenetic. An observer, say, on a comet orbiting the earth every ten years, would gasp at the rapid transformations. For centuries the village of Jerusalem, then the town, and later the city, Mick Dumper • 14 min read
MER Article From the Editors (May/June 1993) We have long wanted to produce an issue dedicated to the proposition that Jerusalem’s political future must be firmly inscribed on the agenda of any Palestinian-Israeli peace talks that presume to be credible. We hope this issue can contribute to a more widespread appreciation among advocates of a n The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Intifada Memoirs Helen Winternitz, A Season of Stones: Living in a Palestinian Village (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991). Gloria Emerson, A Year in the Intifada: A Personal Account from an Occupied Land (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991). Joost Hiltermann • 5 min read
MER Article The Media and the Polls In the relationship between public opinion and government decision-making, the trajectory of influence goes from top to bottom. Policymakers try to mold public opinion to suit their needs, not mold policies to suit the public. On many controversial foreign policy issues, there is often a gap between informed public opinion (Author not identified) • 8 min read
MER Article Yitzhak Rabin and Israel's Death Squads Now that the abrasive and pugnacious Yitzhak Shamir has been replaced by the gravel-toned, pragmatic Yitzhak Rabin as Israel’s prime minister, should we anticipate a change for the better in Israel’s human rights record? Rabin cleverly campaigned for his June victory at the polls by ambiguously criticizing Likud’ Anita Vitullo Khoury • 7 min read
