MER Article Letters ARAB WOMEN AT THE MARGIN? Here we are again! It is 1991, but Arab women researchers and writers continue to be placed at the margin of the theoretical enterprise, to borrow a metaphor used by African-American writer Bell Hooks to describe how women of color are ghettoized by white feminists, who re (Author not identified) • 6 min read
MER Article Photos and Art from Palestine John Running, Pictures for Solomon (Northland, 1990). Phyllis Bennis and Neal Cassidy, From Stones to Statehood (Olive Branch, 1990). Kamal Boullata, Faithful Witnesses: Palestinian Children Recreate Their World (Windrush, 1990). Lisa Frank • 6 min read
MER Article Sprinzak, Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right Ehud Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right (Oxford, 1991). Most of the sociopolitical and historical research on Israel to date has oddly concentrated on the so-called left-wing sections of this polity. Even when recently some researchers (like Shapiro, Heller or Shavit) deal with the Baruch Kimmerling • 3 min read
MER Article Romann and Weingrod, Living Together Separately M. Romann and A. Weingrod, Living Together Separately: Arabs and Jews in Contemporary Jerusalem (Princeton, 1991). After armies come the academics. Usually the first wave comprises archaeologists and historians who wish to legitimize a particular excursion or expansion. These are followed by econom Mick Dumper • 6 min read
MER Article Assessing Storm Damage Following upon the devastation of Iraq, the Gulf warmongers have attempted to articulate their vision of a Middle East dominated by Washington and its allies. In an effort to forestall the growing criticism of the “special relationship” between Israel and the US in policymaking circles, After the Storm: Challenges for Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Algeria's Democracy Between the Islamists and the Elite Algeria’s experience over the past three years has shown that in a Muslim land the process of democratization gives rise to currents that seek to destroy it. But neutralizing these currents by force entails halting the democratization process and encloses society in repression. Society can escape th Lahouari Addi • 8 min read
MER Article Al Miskin DANGEROUS For decades, Muhammad Madbouli’s bookshop in the center of Cairo has been one of that city’s -- and Egypt’s -- major cultural landmarks. Egyptians and foreigners alike knew that Madbouli had the city’s best array of Arabic books of every kind, including those which aroused the ire of the Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article How Israel Gets Its Credit Rating A “C” rating from the US government credit evaluators, coming after Washington has held up the $10 billion loan guarantee for more than four months, must come as something of a shock for Israel. Only last September Jacob Frenkel, governor of the Bank of Israel, told the Financial Times that a “good Fareed Mohamedi • 4 min read
MER Article Palestinian Self-Government Proposal On January 14, in the second round of direct talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in Washington, DC, the Palestinian side presented a draft outline of a Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority (PISGA). Media accounts of the talks barely noted this unprecedented development, but this is one document that should not Joe Stork • 3 min read
MER Article Aftermath Eighteen-year old Anwar is new to bastat, street peddling. Two days ago his mother bought several crates of corn on the cob, which she boiled for him to sell in Tulkarm refugee camp streets. Recently released from a six-month term at Ansar III detention camp in the Negev desert, Anwar returned home Sharry Lapp • 9 min read
MER Article Erasing Arab Jerusalem Palestinian geographer Khaili Tufukji walks the streets of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem every day, carefully noting the dizzying Israeli construction. He documents cases of demolished and seized houses, follows up on land confiscations, studies new archaeological and historical claims, and tries to decipher the meaning and extent of Israeli government plans Anita Vitullo Khoury • 8 min read
MER Article American Jews and Palestine In 1988, in the midst of the intifada, American Jews mustered their forces in opposition to an Israeli government policy and forced the government to back down. At issue was the Israeli government’s decision to change the Law of Return to recognize only Orthodox converts to Judaism. The same America Marilyn Neimark • 16 min read
