MER Article Grave Breaches There are several things that strike you when first entering Jenin refugee camp: images of the Star of David spray-painted on the walls, the exposed fronts of houses which had been bulldozed, half-set tables, children’s toys scattered and then, as you approach Hawashin, a strong sweet odor. The Hawa Jamil Dakwar, Kathleen Cavanaugh • 12 min read
MER Article Postmortem of a Compassionate Checkpoint In late October 2000, the intifada was in its then bloodiest throes. In his offices in Stockholm harbor, architect Alexis Pontvik followed the news from the Middle East with growing disquiet but little surprise. What perhaps would have been his most prominent project to date had already been stowed Peter Lagerquist • 7 min read
MER Article The Shrinking Space of Citizenship On February 14, 2002, the Israeli government sent several light planes to spray 12,000 dunams of crops in the southern Negev region with poisonous chemicals. The destroyed fields had been cultivated for years by Bedouin Arabs, on ancestral lands they claim as their own. The minister responsible for Oren Yiftachel • 20 min read
MER Article Interregnum Operation Defensive Shield is formally over, but what Israel's climactic offensive in the West Bank will bring in its wake remains unclear. It is unlikely to be the denouement to 20 months of Palestinian resistance, Israeli aggression and US prevarication. Superficially, the current stage seems marked by long-awaited Rema Hammami • 23 min read
MER Article Mauritanian Activists' Struggle Against Slavery In the late summer of 2001, thousands of delegates from around the world gathered in Durban, South Africa for the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances (WCAR). For two weeks, the Durban air resounded with the slogan: “Zionism is apartheid.” The US and Is Alice Bullard • 9 min read
MER Article Kuwait's Economic Quandary Aiming to restore Kuwait's historic role as a hub of trade in the Persian Gulf, a member of the ruling family is spearheading a team to consider the deepening of economic ties with Iran and, eventually, with Iraq. Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah's effort to Karen Pfeifer • 8 min read
MER Article Financing Terrorism or Survival? Armed with a wide range of new legislative powers, in the months following September 11 the Bush administration stepped up action on the “second front” of its war on terrorism. The USA Patriot Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act provide Federal officials with the authority to freeze assets Khalid Mustafa Medani • 17 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Summer 2002) At least 700,000 people jammed the streets of New York on June 12, 1982 to demand full disarmament from the heads of state gathered to discuss nuclear policy at the United Nations. The raucous crowd's chants of "No nukes!" drew favorable comment from German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who praised the The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2002) Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif. Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture and Politics (New York: Palgrave, 2000). Antoun, Richard T. Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic and Jewish Movements (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2001). Beinin, Joel. Workers and Peasants (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Gender and Islamism in the 1990s In response to the patriarchal tendencies of the Islamist cultural revolution, a small group of Islamist and other Muslim women have reclaimed Qur’anic and other textual interpretation for their own purposes. The result is a new space for women within the Islamic tradition. Mervat Hatem • 13 min read
MER Article Refugees in Their Own Country Six bodies uncovered in February during construction on an old Iraqi army base in Iraqi Kurdistan were grim reminders of the Ba'th regime's past genocidal policies towards the Kurds. "The past is ever present in Kurdistan," as one Kurdish journalist says. But little reminder is needed of past atroci Maggy Zanger • 11 min read
MER Article Afghan Women When we are hungry, nobody listens, but when we are fighting, they send us loads of firearms and artillery. Why? -- Zubaida (April 1998) Saba Gul Khattak • 11 min read
