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
MER Article On Elections in Israel On June 5, 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) became the ninth prime minister of Israel. Soon after his election he successfully replaced the ruling Labor-led coalition with a Likud-led coalition of secular and religious right-wing parties led by his ruling Likud party. This was the third electoral up Baruch Kimmerling • 12 min read
MER Article Thwarting Palestinian Development The preamble of the Protocol on Economic Relations between the Government of the State of Israel and the PLO, signed on May 4, 1994, states: This protocol lays the groundwork for strengthening the economic base of the Palestinian side and for exercising its right of economic decision making in acco Jennifer Olmsted • 9 min read
MER Article Palestinian Political Prisoners Since the Oslo accords came into effect in May 1994, Israel’s treatment of Palestinian political prisoners has been a litmus test for a viable, just end to the Israeli occupation. Today the prisoners’ crisis continues to reflect an agreement that entrenches Israel’s remote control over Palestinians Yifat Susskind • 3 min read
MER Article Political Negotiations on the Palestinian Refugee Question Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the Palestinian refugee question began with the first meeting of the Multilateral Working Group on Refugee Affairs in 1992. After the 1993 Oslo accords, the question of the repatriation of the 1967 refugees to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip was to be dealt Ingrid Gassner-Jaradat • 9 min read
MER Article Palestinian Authority, Israeli Rule From September 23-26, Palestinian security forces and civilian demonstrators clashed with Israeli soldiers armed with machine guns and helicopters leaving approximately 80 Palestinians and 14 Israeli dead and 1,200 Palestinian and Israeli wounded. The pitched battles, which began in East Jerusalem t Mouin Rabbani • 14 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Winter 1996) Three years ago, a handshake in Washington was to have ushered in an unprecedented era of peace in the Middle East. While the return of the Likud to power has focused the attention of mainstream media on the questionable future of this “peace process,” it would be a grave error The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Fall 1996) Afary, Janet. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). Berrada, Mohamed. The Game of Forgetting (Austin, TX: University of Texas, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1996). Chatty, Dawn. Mobile Pastoralists: Development Planning and Social Change in Oman (N (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Nasrallah, On Boys, Girls and the Veil Yousry Nasrallah’s new documentary film, On Boys, Girls and the Veil, touches on a paradoxical aspect of Egyptian filmmaking. Despite the ubiquitous hijab -- the neo-Islamic “veil” -- in Egyptian life, covered women are quite rare in the cinema. The reason for this is that both filmmakers and Islami Walter Armbrust • 6 min read
MER Article Bahrain Regime Stages Confessions, Rejects Compromise At the end of May, the government of Bahrain summoned the international press to Manama for what it promised would be a major policy statement on Monday, June 3. I was in Bahrain at the time, conducting interviews for a report on human rights conditions there. Bahraini opponents of the regime in exi Joe Stork • 9 min read
