MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2000) Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif, ed. Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture and Politics (New York: Palgrave, 2000). Arat, Zehra F., ed. Deconstructing Images of “The Turkish Woman” (New York: Palgrave, 2000). Armbrust, Walter, ed. Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Cul The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Jerusalem Texts Reviewed Salim Tamari, ed., Jerusalem, 1948: The Arab Neighborhoods and Their Fate in the War (Jerusalem: Institute of Jerusalem Studies and Badil Resource Center, 1999). Meron Benvenisti, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996). Mic Thomas Abowd • 7 min read
MER Article The Sneer of Memory Last February 10, readers of Lebanon’s leading Arabic daily, al-Nahar, awoke to find a strange apparition on an inner page of their morning paper. Slotted in the top lefthand corner of page five was an open letter written by one As‘ad Shaftari, a former attendant to Elie Hobeika, Michael Young • 8 min read
MER Article Olives, Stones and Bullets On the evening of November 17, the villagers of Hares called and asked people from Gush Shalom to please come there. This Palestinian village is cut off from the world. The army is blockading it -- no one is allowed to enter or leave. The olives, the only product of the village, are going to rot on Uri Avnery • 4 min read
MER Article Protest Amid Confusion Beginning with Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and continuing during the first intifada in 1987-93, large numbers of Israelis took to the streets to express their clear rejection of the state’s military policies. 400,000 people angrily protested Israeli general Ariel Sharon’s complicity in the Efraim Davidi • 10 min read
MER Article Israel's Accountability for Economic Warfare As Israel escalates the military conflict in the occupied Palestinian territories, brushing aside criticism of excessive force by the United Nations and human rights groups, it is tempting to conclude that international law is irrelevant to the real struggle being waged on the ground with bullets an Roger Normand • 9 min read
MER Article Palestinians in Israel The mass demonstrations of Palestinian citizens of Israel during the first week of October represent a new stage of resistance and a transformation in the Palestinians’ struggle in Israel. The demonstrations were the culmination of several years of political ferment during which Palestinians in Isra Hassan Jabareen • 4 min read
MER Article "A Double Responsibility" Azmi Bishara, a contributing editor of this magazine, represents the National Democratic Assembly (NDA), a party advocating cultural autonomy and civil rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel, in the Knesset. He spoke with Middle East Report on November 29, 2000, the day after Israeli Prime Minist Chris Toensing • 10 min read
MER Article Under Siege By mid-November, Israel had imposed over 50 days of closure on the whole of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian persons and goods were refused entry into Israel, or exit from the confines of the Occupied Territories. Mobility within Palestinian-controlled areas was also curtailed. According to Leila Farsakh • 10 min read
MER Article International Law and the al-Aqsa Intifada Though the Israeli government and the US media persist in describing the second Palestinian intifada as a security crisis or a disruption to the "peace process," in international law, Palestinian resistance to occupation is a legally protected right. For 33 years, Israel has administered a military occupation of Richard Falk • 8 min read
MER Article Hebron Under Curfew As I sit here writing on October 30, 2000, I hear voices outside -- a rare occurrence these days. Our apartment is in H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron. In 1997, an interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) split Hebron in two. 100,000 Palestinians live in H1, admin Natasha J. Krahn • 4 min read
MER Article Shatila Dispatch "Before the intifada children used to mock me when I mentioned Palestine. They would say that Palestine was lost, that I was dreaming, that Arafat forgot about us," remarks Rabi' Zaaroura, 15. "Now they have become interested in politics." In the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, the re Mayssun Sukarieh • 4 min read