MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 1996) Aswad, Barbara and Barbara Bilge, eds. Family and Gender Among American Muslims: Issues Facing Middle Eastern Immigrants and Their Descendants (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996). Ayubi, Nazih. Overstating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle East (London: I. B. Tauris, 1996 (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict After Oslo Naseer Aruri, The Obstruction of Peace: The US, Israel and the Palestinians (Common Courage, 1995). Norman Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 1995). “Palestine: Diplomacies of Defeat,” special issue of Race & Class 37/2 (October-December 1995). Edward Said, Pe Joel Beinin • 8 min read
MER Article Al Miskin International/Tainted Love What is up in Egypt? In Cairo, Mustafa Bakri, was deposed as editor-in-chief of al-Ahrar following the failure of the mutiny he led in the halls of the Liberal Party to depose of its leader, Mustafa Kamal Murad. Bakri stormed the party headquarters with 600 armed followers and had himself voted pres Al Miskin • 3 min read
MER Article Bread Riots in Jordan On August 13, the Jordanian government lifted its subsidies on wheat. When bread prices immediately doubled, residents of the southern town of Karak demonstrated against the move, calling for a reversal of the policy and the resignation of the prime minister. The protests deteriorated into riots tha Lamis Andoni, Jillian Schwedler • 10 min read
MER Article The Destruction of Iraqi Kurdistan Less than five years ago, the US-led coalition against Saddam Hussein established a “safe haven” in Iraqi Kurdistan following Iraq’s brutal suppression of an uprising against the regime during March-April 1991. The mood among the majority of Iraqi Kurds was highly optimistic: A certain measure of se Joost Hiltermann • 13 min read
MER Article On the Right to Dream, Love and Be Free Michel Khleifi, born in Nazareth in 1950, studied theater and cinema at INSAS in Belgium, where he currently resides. In 1980, Khleifi directed his first film, Fertile Memory (al-Dhakira al-Khasiba). Khleifi received international acclaim following Wedding in Galilee (‘Urs fi al-Jalil, 1987), which Livia Alexander • 8 min read
MER Article Israeli Interrogation Methods: A View from Jalameh In June 1996, Bashar Tarabieh, a resident of the US, visited his family in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. On August 19, three days before he was scheduled to return to the US, he was arrested at 2:15 am by Israeli security service and police agents. Charged with spying for Syria, burning down a Beshara Doumani • 6 min read
MER Article On Palestinians in the Israeli Knesset Azmi Bishara was a young rising star in the Communist Party of Israel (Rakah) for several years. Since leaving the party after the upheavals of 1989, he and other Arab intellectuals periodically considered establishing a new Arab political party with a progressive-nationalist orientation. After much Steve Rothman, Sara Scalenghe • 7 min read
MER Article Settlement Expansion Update With the recent election of the Netanyahu government, the issue of settlements has again emerged in the media as an issue in the “peace process.” Settlement leaders have proposed spending $4 billion to expand settlements by as many as 120,000 housing units to accommodate an additional 500,000 people Michael Webb • 3 min read
MER Article Palestinian Rights in Post-Oslo Israel Below are the proceedings of a roundtable discussion held in Nazareth, Israel, on June 24, 1996. The participants were: Aida Toma-Suliman, general director of Women Against Violence, Hala Espanioli Hazzan, chairperson of the Follow-up Committee on Arab Education in Israel, Hassan Jabareen, director (Author not identified) • 10 min read
MER Article Electoral Systems and Democracy This year has witnessed some important electoral developments in the Middle East and surrounding areas, with elections being held in Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Bangladesh and Bosnia. [1] Some of these elections have been especially interesting in terms of what they have revealed about the potential Hady Amr • 9 min read
