MER Article Egyptian Advocacy NGOs Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been touted as a cure for almost every malady afflicting developing societies. Western governments, international organizations and regional activists expect NGOs to help fill the gap left by underfunded, ineffective state bureaucracies. NGOs are viewed as antidotes to authoritarian and corrupt rule and considered more efficient Krista Masonis El-Gawhary • 10 min read
MER Article NGOs' Dilemmas In the late fall of 1996, a key committee of the Arab League met to discuss a matter of utmost importance. One of the few committees that meet regularly -- the Ministries of the Interior Committee -- it convened in Tunis to strategize about one of the most dire national Julia Pitner • 10 min read
MER Article The Importance of Self-Reliance Shortly before Eritrea's declaration of independence from Ethiopia in May 1993, members of the Eritrean security forces arrived on the doorstep of the Regional Center for Human Rights and Development (RCHRD) in downtown Asmara, the capital. The center's director knew precisely why they had come -- t Dan Connell • 16 min read
MER Article The Transformation of Islamist NGOs in Palestine "It's over for this generation of Islamic activists. We tried and failed, but time is on our side. We must plant the seeds for an Islamic future in the next generation through social change. We must alter the mindset and mentality of people through an Islamic value system. We do this through example Sara Roy • 9 min read
MER Article Problems of Dependency On January 7, 2000, Lisa Hajjar spoke with Abdallahi An-Na'im, a lawyer from Sudan and a prominent human rights scholar and activist. He is professor of law at Emory University. Transcription was provided by Zachary Kidd and funded by the Morehouse College sociology department. Can you highlight so Lisa Hajjar • 16 min read
MER Article Gaza Dispatch The observance of International Women's Day this year led me to reflect upon celebrations past, which have frequently revealed huge gaps in reality: a wine and cheese reception at UNESCO headquarters in Paris where well-meaning bureaucrats sang feminist anthems modeled on "The Internationale," or a Hadani Ditmars • 4 min read
MER Article Palestinian NGOs Since Oslo The post-Oslo debate on Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza recently came full circle in two respects: An earlier debate that had envisioned NGOs as possible democratic alternatives to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was largely laid to rest by the NGO movement itself. At the same time, Rema Hammami • 15 min read
MER Article NGOs, INGOs, GO-NGOs and DO-NGOs This issue of Middle East Report takes a critical look at "NGOs" -- non-governmental organizations -- in and beyond the Arab world. The topic is both trendy and controversial. Although they may see themselves as marginal actors, charities, advocacy groups and a range of other civic associations in Sheila Carapico • 8 min read
MER Article Disbeliever In January 1998, unidentified gunmen entered a movie theater and small mosque near Algiers and massacred 120 men, women and children. By the hunger of the children of Iraq By the sound of frantic running in Kosovo By the swollen bodies in a river in Rwanda and Afghani women and the writers of Algie Mohja Kahf • 1 min read
MER Article Regimes of (Un)Truth Since 1992, the civil war ravaging Algeria has claimed at least 100,000 lives. Through armed raids, village massacres, terrorist bombings and weekly kidnappings and assassinations, the war has victimized Algerian society as a whole, from the urban elites to the village poor. While the body count continues to rise, Paul Silverstein • 13 min read
MER Article Bethlehem Dispatch Although millions of people around the world watched Bethlehem's millennial celebration on CNN, those not present on the scene missed some interesting background details. The event was held in an open square surrounded by five-story buildings, and by 10 PM, tens of thousands of people had crammed in Maad Abu-Ghazalah • 2 min read
MER Article Seeking Sanctuary Israel's Islamist movement's successful campaign to establish a mosque beside the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth has been interpreted in many ways. For much of the western media, it was another Huntingtonian clash between a beleaguered Christendom and a rabidly intolerant Islam. For the Vatican Graham Usher • 8 min read
