MER Article Reflections on a Village in Time of War It is easy to talk about “then.” The “now” is far more difficult. Memories confronted with that “now” take on a sense of fantasy and unease. A strange light is shed over the inner landscape by the changes in the outer. Since I speak of Lebanon, the light is also lurid. I am not sure what shadows it Michael Gilsenan • 17 min read
MER Article The Resistance Front in South Lebanon Though it fell like a piece of ripe fruit into the hands of the Israelis, southern Lebanon rapidly became a quagmire for the most powerful armed forces in the Middle East. An armed resistance developed, which by early 1984 was carrying out two attacks daily. Popular mobilization did not diminish in Samir Kassir • 8 min read
MER Article Eyewitness to the Iron Fist Jim Yamin is Middle East program coordinator for Grassroots International, a relief organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with programs in Lebanon and the Horn of Africa. He spoke with Joan Mandell and Kathryn Silver in April, 1985. You’ve just spent ten weeks in south Lebanon. What were Joan Mandell • 8 min read
MER Article A Lebanon Primer Lebanon is a microcosm of the peoples, cultures and religions found in the Middle East region as a whole. Under Ottoman rule from the 16th century until World War I, that province of mountainous eastern Syria known as Mt. Lebanon was home and refuge for various religious and ethnic communities. Leba Tom Russell • 8 min read
MER Article Roots of the Shi'i Movement Many saw the Shi‘i revolt in west Beirut and its southern suburbs in February 1984 as the sudden and unexpected mass uprising of a rapidly expanding social group in the midst of a tumultuous religious revivalism. But the February uprising was a significant social movement, with roots in the profound Salim Nasr • 24 min read
MER Article "People are suffering tremendously" Dan Connell, a contributing editor to this magazine, is executive director of Grassroots International, a relief agency working in Lebanon and the Horn of Africa. Jim Paul spoke with him in New York on June 17, 1985. James Paul • 9 min read
MER Article The War of the Camps, the War of the Hostages June 19,1985. In Beirut, TWA flight 847 stands desolate on the empty tarmac, a huge hulk of white metal shimmering in the heat, a picture off the cover of some bungled tourism brochure. Some 40 Americans are unwilling guests in the southern shantytowns known as the “suburbs” of Beirut. More than a h Joe Stork • 14 min read
Letters (May 1985) Martin van Bruinessen’s response in MERIP Reports 127 (October 1984) contains innuendos and inaccuracies which make it an unacceptable last word on the Armenian question. Van Bruinessen equates Armenian and Turkish views of the mass killings of Armenians under the heading of “dogmatized versions.” (Author not identified) • 5 min read
Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain Fu’ad Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). Fu’ad Khuri has provided us with a sensitive analysis of the recent history of Bahrain. He captures the broad sweep of socioeconomic and political change brought about by the colonial bureaucracy and the discovery (Author not identified) • 4 min read
Labor Movements in Bahrain Labor activism has been a major feature of political life in Bahrain, going back to early industrial activities following the discovery of oil in 1928-1932. [1] These early efforts absorbed many destitute pearl divers, peasants and freed slaves, and paved the way for a new stratum of middlemen from 'Abd al-Hadi Khalaf • 18 min read
"The Rulers Are Afraid of Their Own People" “Isa” grew up in Bahrain and lived there until recently. He spoke with several MERIP editors in April 1985. He asked to remain anonymous in order to protect friends and family still living there. What sort of distinctions and divisions are there among expatriates? You’ve got the Europeans and Amer (Author not identified) • 7 min read
Class and State in Kuwait Over the past five years, Kuwait’s rulers have confronted a variety of crises. Declining oil revenues have forced the regime to engage in deficit spending, which may jeopardize both the state’s extensive system of social welfare programs and its efforts to encourage diverse industrial development pr Fred H. Lawson • 20 min read
