MER Article

The Shifting Contours of US Power and Intervention in Palestine

Lisa Bhungalia Jeannette Greven and Tahani Mustafa argue that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against the Palestinians—which gives Israel free reign to violently dispossess Palestinians while simultaneously withdrawing US aid for food, schools and hospitals—has both worsened Pal

Lisa Bhungalia, Jeannette Greven, Tahani Mustafa • 18 min read

Current Analysis

Disavowing Israeli Apartheid

The decision by the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy’s (IARPP) to hold their annual conference in Tel Aviv, Israel cannot be written off as simply a misunderstanding, ignorance of global issues or unconscious enactment: it's a disavowal of current reality.

Lara Sheehi • 9 min read

Current Analysis

How One Palestinian University is Remaking ‘Israel Studies’

At Birzeit University in the Israeli occupied West Bank, students and faculty are fundamentally remaking the dominant paradigm of Israel Studies as it has been configured in the United States with its proud “advocacy” mandate on behalf of the Israeli state. Birzeit’s program turns this paradigm insi

Rebecca L. Stein • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Israel and the Antisemitism Playbook in Great Britain and the Grassroots

The ongoing attacks on Congressional critics of Israeli policies like Rep.'s Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib for their alleged antisemitic remarks appear culled from the same playbook that Israel’s supporters in Great Britain used to tarnish Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn: continuously vilify the me

Neve Gordon, Lynne Segal, Kristian Davis Bailey, Olivia Katbi Smith • 29 min read

Current Analysis

The Manufactured Controversy About Ilhan Omar and the Israel Lobby

The firestorm that greeted newly elected Congresswoman (D-MN) Ilhan Omar’s tweets about the Israel lobby’s clout in Congress reveals as much about her critics as it does about the rising tide of progressive politicians who no longer show deference to establishment prohibitions on criticizing Israel.

Joel Beinin, Noura Erakat, Omar Baddar, Mouin Rabbani • 21 min read

MER Article

Editorial (Summer 2018)

The articles in this issue of Middle East Report illuminate some of the sources of displacement, dispossession and loss found throughout urban areas in the contemporary Middle East, which often produce the very population outflows that militarized border zones seek to contain. The merciless killing by Israeli snipers of over

Steve Niva • 2 min read

Current Analysis

The United States’ Recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and the Challenge to the International Consensus

On December 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that the US was recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and would be moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv in fulfillment of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act (henceforth Embassy Act). In one fell swoop, the US has seriously challenged 70

Mahmud Muna, Mandy Turner • 17 min read

Current Analysis

Recognizing Annexation

The White House announcement distinguishes between recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and establishing an embassy there and recognizing “the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.” In other words, the Trump administration, like all those before it, seeks to avoid acknowledgi

Joel Beinin • 7 min read

Current Analysis

Fifty Years of Occupation

“Beautiful Israel” and the 1967 War Joel Beinin The 1967 Arab-Israeli war unleashed forces that reshaped Israeli politics and society. But much about the war is rooted in the military tactics, governance practices and political culture of “beautiful Israel,” as liberal Ashkenazi Zionists often nostalgically refer to the pre-1967 state.

Maha Nassar, Ilana Feldman, Zachary Lockman, Noura Erakat, Joel Beinin • 23 min read

Current Analysis

Striking for Dignity and Freedom

More than 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners began a hunger strike on April 17 for better conditions inside Israeli jails. Their demands include access to education, proper medical care and an end to the practice of solitary confinement. They are striking to make their families’ lives easier, too—for regular

Amahl Bishara • 6 min read

Current Analysis

The Walled-Off Hotel Controversy

The British street artist known as Banksy is no stranger to controversy. His public art about capitalism, misogyny and racism always produces conversation. His newest installation in occupied Bethlehem, the Walled Off Hotel, is generating significant public debate about Palestine-Israel. According to different media reports, Banksy aims to focus attention

Jamil Khader • 14 min read

MER Article

Open Hillel

Lodge 5 at Swarthmore College is a dignified building in gray stone, the aesthetic match of much of the rest of the bucolic campus located 20 miles outside Philadelphia. The structure houses three floors supporting Jewish student life: a kosher kitchen, a lounge and a library whose walls are heavy w

Mimi Kirk • 14 min read