MER Article Pushing Israel's Boundaries of Debate Since expelling 415 Palestinians alleged to have been radical Islamic activists last December, the Israeli government, mass media and much of the Middle East studies establishment have intensified their campaign to demonize all forms of political Islam. On the academic front, Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center for Middle East Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Managing News and Iraqi Nukes MANAGING NEWS In the Logic textbook that my students use there is a chapter entitled “Managing The News.” Henceforth your lead article “Power Structure of the American Media” (January-February 1993) will become obligatory reading. The guided tour by Joe Stork and Laura Flanders behind the media cur (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Friedman, Zealots for Zion Robert I. Friedman, Zealots for Zion (Random House, 1992). Palestinians and Israeli leftists shared high hopes at the time of Yitzhak Rabin’s inauguration, but optimism quickly began to fade. Robert Friedman’s new book, published shortly after Rabin took office, participates in that early, post-Lik Rebecca L. Stein • 4 min read
MER Article Another Time, Another Deportation “The rule of repression will fail. The tsars did not succeed in repressing the Russian people’s aspiration for freedom by exiling thousands of its fighting sons to Siberia; the Nazis did not succeed in breaking the enslaved peoples’ spirit of resistance by exiling and destroying the best of their yo Al Miskin • 4 min read
MER Article Russian Jewish Immigration and the Future of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Russian Jewish migration to Israel, like other international streams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, is a mass phenomenon that can be explained primarily by traditional factors. Migration occurs when people are pulled to a new country where conditions appear better, or are pushed to escape from difficult circumstances. Bernard Sabella • 11 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 Improvisation and Continuity Sabreen is considered the premier Palestinian musical group performing today. Influenced by Western rock and jazz, their distinctive style blends traditional Arab rhythms and instruments with subtly political lyrics reflecting the current active resistance to Israeli occupation. Two members of Sabre Kamal Boullata, Joost Hiltermann • 7 min read
MER Article Jerusalem Voices Editor’s Note: In preparing this special issue, we asked a number of Jerusalem residents to share their thoughts about the significance of the city to them and about ways of thinking about Jerusalem’s future. AZMI BISHARA Azmi Bishara teaches philosophy at Birzeit University in the West Bank. (Author not identified) • 7 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 Representing Jerusalem Suad Amiry is coordinator of the Palestinian team for the Jerusalem program at the Smithsonian Institution’s 1993 Folklife Festival in Washington. An architect, Amiry is also a member of the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel. As Middle East Report was going to press, the Jerusale Penny Johnson • 3 min read
MER Article Yehezkel Kedmi Being served a soda or some fresh nuts by an unassuming man in the small, crowded kiosk across from Jerusalem’s central bus station, it would be hard to know that you were in the presence of one of the most powerful and original Hebrew poetic voices alive. The story of this poet, Yehezkel Kedmi, is Ammiel Alcalay • 2 min read
MER Article Jerusalem, The Islamic City Fulfilling almost every imaginable cliche of the city as palimpsest, one embedded layer of Jerusalem has been further and further marginalized in a discourse within which gratuitous tourism has replaced the ritual of pilgrimage. Despite the short shrift given to Muslims by the Hachette Blue Guide, during the 1,310-year Ammiel Alcalay • 8 min read
