MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 2006) Alagha, Joseph. The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology: Religious Ideology, Political Ideology and Political Program (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2006). Cook, Jonathan. Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State (London: Pluto Press, 2006). Deeb, Lara. An Enchanted (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Cynthia Nelson Cynthia Nelson (1933–2006), professor of anthropology at the American University in Cairo and founding director of its Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, passed away on Valentine’s Day after a long, severe illness. She was in Sacramento with family. Shahnaz Rouse • 2 min read
MER Article Youssef Darwish Youssef Darwish (1910–2006) was born to a Karaite Jewish family of modest means in the Cairo neighborhood of ‘Abbasiyya. His father was illiterate, but made sure that his children received a first-rate education. In France to study commerce and then law, Darwish met the Communist Party of France in Joel Beinin • 2 min read
MER Article Ahmed Abdalla Rozza MERIP notes with deep sadness the passing of Ahmed Abdalla Rozza on June 6, 2006, at age 56. A former Egyptian student leader, Abdalla was an independent scholar and activist who wrote frequently on Egyptian politics and sociology, authoring several articles for this magazine in the 1990s. He was a Marsha Pripstein Posusney, Michaelle Browers • 3 min read
MER Article Deborah J. "Misty" Gerner Misty Gerner, an editor of this magazine and an inspiration to so many of us, died in the tranquility of her home in Vinland, Kansas on June 19, 2006 after a lengthy struggle with cancer. Misty was a scholar, activist and peacemaker, exemplifying always both reason and passion. She “let her life spe Gwenn Okruhlik • 14 min read
MER Article The Ghetto vs. the Gun Idith Zertal, Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (trans. Chaya Galai) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). Shira Robinson • 7 min read
MER Article Not All Black and White In photography books, Palestine is a schizophrenic place. In certain books it is primarily funerals, masked militants with guns and crumbling buildings, while other Michelle Woodward • 5 min read
MER Article Documents: Statement by Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon The month-long war in Lebanon elicited diverse reactions from the Lebanese left. We reproduce here two examples. The first statement, distributed on July 25, 2006, was signed by Ibrahim al-Amin and Joseph Samaha of the new al-Akhbar newspaper, leftist intellectuals Fawwaz Trabulsi and Samah Idriss, al-Safir editor Talal Salman, filmmakers (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article Palestinian Women in the Israeli Knesset On March 28, 2006, Nadia Hilou from the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Jaffa became only the second Palestinian woman to be elected to the Knesset since 1949, the year of Israel’s first national elections. Hilou’s sole predecessor was Husniyya Jabara, who made history in 1999 when she won a seat in the I Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud • 17 min read
MER Article The Only Place Where There's Hope Beginning in December 2004, and then every Friday since February 2005, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals have converged on the West Bank village of Bil‘in to demonstrate against the barrier that Israel is building there, as part of the chain of walls and fences (the Wall) that the Israeli go Robert Blecher • 15 min read
MER Article Bilateralism on Trial During my short flight from Amman to Beirut on July 3, the flight attendant was distributing copies of Jordan’s state-owned newspapers. They are all worthless, I told him. He replied: “Sir, the only page that contains truth is the obituary page.” The steward’s remark succinctly captures the Arab pub Nubar Hovsepian • 4 min read
MER Article Siege Notes Rasha Salti moved back to Beirut from New York on July 11, 2006, the day before Hizballah’s cross-border raid and Israel’s month-long war on Lebanon. We publish here excerpts from several entries in a diary she kept during the war. Her “Siege Notes” can be read in full at www.electroniclebanon.net [ Rasha Salti • 16 min read
