MER Article Locked In, Locked Out of Work Article VI, Item 2 of the 1993 Oslo accords concluded between Israel and the Palestinians states, “After the entry into force of this Declaration of Principles and the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and Jericho area, with the view to promoting economic development in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, au Jennifer Olmsted • 11 min read
MER Article Beyond Compare “Rolling into Gaza I had a feeling of homecoming,” writes the novelist Alice Walker. “There is a flavor to the ghetto. To the bantustan. To the ‘rez.’ To the ‘colored section.’” In a poetic vein, Walker captures the confinement and marginality one senses in the Gaza Strip, and its familiarity to tho Julie Peteet • 22 min read
MER Article "Creeping Apartheid" in Israel-Palestine On July 5, 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said something that had many rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Reviewing his government’s first 100 days, he pronounced, “We have managed to create a national agreement about the concept of ‘two states for two peoples.’” Can it be that the Oren Yiftachel • 20 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2009) Some words cannot escape the horrors of the human past. When, in September 2001, President George W. Bush proclaimed a “crusade” against terrorism, he evoked in Muslim minds the indiscriminate slaughters by knights seeking to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom. People have been lynched in many times and places, The Editors • 3 min read
Current Analysis Rachel Corrie in Palestine…and in San Francisco The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the oldest such festival in the United States, was founded in rebellion against received wisdom. Since 1980, the festival has promoted independent Jewish films that contest the conventional Hollywood depiction of Jewish life, particularly its lachrymose over-c Joel Beinin • 16 min read
Current Analysis Out of the Rubble Speaking to his people on January 18, hours after Hamas responded to Israel’s unilateral suspension of hostilities with a conditional ceasefire of its own, the deposed Palestinian Authority prime minister Ismail Haniyeh devoted several passages of his prepared text to the subject of Palestinian nati Mouin Rabbani • 5 min read
MER Article At the Station of a Train Which Fell Off the Map Grass, dry air, thorns, and cactus on the tracks There, the shape of the object in the absurdity of non-shape is chewing its own shadow There is nothingness there, tied and surrounded by its opposite Two doves flying over the roof of an abandoned room at the station The station is like a tattoo whic Mahmoud Darwish • 5 min read
MER Article Mural I will walk in my footsteps down the old path through the sea air no woman will see me passing under her balcony I have of memories only those necessary for the long journey Days contain all they need of tomorrows I was smaller than my eyelashes and my two dimples So take my sleepiness and hide me i Mahmoud Darwish • 2 min read
MER Article In the Labyrinth of Solitude Our territory is inhabited by a number of races speaking different languages and living on different historical levels…. A variety of epochs live side by side in the same areas or a very few miles apart, ignoring or devouring one another…. Past epochs never vanish completely, and blood still drips f Peter Lagerquist • 21 min read
MER Article Time in a Bottle Olive oil has been a central element of Palestinian agriculture for centuries. It is a relatively durable food commodity, unlike fresh produce such as strawberries or tomatoes, which rot quickly in the sun. Unlike wine, however, olive oil does not improve with age, and is best consumed within a year Anne Meneley • 15 min read
MER Article Dromocratic Palestine Toward the end of January 2008, residents of Gaza living under a suffocating Israeli blockade managed to punch holes in the wall separating Gaza from Egypt. For a few days, thousands of Gazans were able to cross into Egypt and purchase needed supplies before Egyptian officials, bowing to US and Isra John Collins • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2008) It’s easy to forget, but the United States has a pressing year-end deadline to meet in Israel-Palestine as well as in Iraq. At Annapolis in November 2007, President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to “make every effort” to hammer out The Editors • 3 min read
