Current Analysis Sparks of Activist Spirit in Egypt For a few days in October 2000, near the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada, it looked as though Egypt's student movement had finally found its voice again after years of quiescence. Students at Cairo University and other schools demonstrated daily and even clashed with security forces dur Paul Schemm • 7 min read
Current Analysis In Ramallah, Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On He was the tallest of the Palestinian policemen. Thin, his olive drab uniform ballooning over his boots, he swayed momentarily as a helmeted Israeli soldier stood behind him and tucked the muzzle of a gun into the Palestinian's right armpit, keeping his finger on the trigger. Only then did the line Charmaine Seitz • 6 min read
Current Analysis Sharon's Journey of Colors At approximately 1:00 am on March 15, 2002, Israeli military forces began withdrawing from the twin cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh in the West Bank, which they had occupied in a massive show of force three days previously. In the ensuing hours, Israel evacuated most of the other Mouin Rabbani • 7 min read
MER Article Women and the Palestinian Left Palestinian women played a major role in the intifada of 1987-93, but have not, so far, in the current uprising. In January 2001, the Jerusalem-based magazine Between the Lines asked Eileen Kuttab, director of the Women’s Studies Institute at Birzeit University in the West Bank, to talk about the wi Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article The Search for Good Governance in Palestine The second Palestinian intifada, a spontaneous expression of anger against the persistent Israeli occupation, has been sustained since last September through a complicated interplay of forces. The early Israeli deployment of sharpshooters quickly shut down large-scale popular protests. In their place, a type of guerrilla resistance, given staunch moral Charmaine Seitz • 7 min read
Current Analysis Closure As soon as the Israeli army jeep disappears around the bend, a dusty minivan emerges from the grape fields outside Beit Ummar, a farming town in the southern West Bank. Revving the engine as he accelerates into the turn, the driver leans out the window and yells, "Go! Go! Chris Smith • 6 min read
MER Article An Uprising at a Crossroads More than eight months have passed, and over 500 lives have been lost, since the second intifada broke out in September 2000, but few, if any, of the uprising's original goals have been achieved. Instead, the iconic enemy of Palestinian nationalism, Ariel Sharon, was elected Israeli premier at Jamil Hilal, Rema Hammami • 15 min read
MER Article Toward a War of Attrition in Palestine As the second intifada in the Occupied Territories approaches its sixth month, the activities of increasingly effective armed cells have been supplanting civil forms of resistance. This gradual "Lebanonization" of the conflict poses a challenge to Israel. For all his bluster about refusing to negotiate under fire, putting Mouin Rabbani • 7 min read
MER Article Jerusalem Texts Reviewed Salim Tamari, ed., Jerusalem, 1948: The Arab Neighborhoods and Their Fate in the War (Jerusalem: Institute of Jerusalem Studies and Badil Resource Center, 1999). Meron Benvenisti, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996). Mic Thomas Abowd • 7 min read
MER Article Under Siege By mid-November, Israel had imposed over 50 days of closure on the whole of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian persons and goods were refused entry into Israel, or exit from the confines of the Occupied Territories. Mobility within Palestinian-controlled areas was also curtailed. According to Leila Farsakh • 10 min read
MER Article Hebron Under Curfew As I sit here writing on October 30, 2000, I hear voices outside -- a rare occurrence these days. Our apartment is in H2, the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron. In 1997, an interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) split Hebron in two. 100,000 Palestinians live in H1, admin Natasha J. Krahn • 4 min read
MER Article Fatah's Tanzim On November 9, 2000, Hussein Abayat and Khalid Salahat, along with around 50 other Palestinians, were visiting one of the seven houses hit by Israeli tank shells the previous night in the West Bank village of Beit Sahour. They then climbed into their Mitsubishi pickup truck to drive back up the hill Graham Usher • 6 min read
