MER Article Gaza Dispatch The observance of International Women's Day this year led me to reflect upon celebrations past, which have frequently revealed huge gaps in reality: a wine and cheese reception at UNESCO headquarters in Paris where well-meaning bureaucrats sang feminist anthems modeled on "The Internationale," or a Hadani Ditmars • 4 min read
MER Article Palestinian NGOs Since Oslo The post-Oslo debate on Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and Gaza recently came full circle in two respects: An earlier debate that had envisioned NGOs as possible democratic alternatives to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was largely laid to rest by the NGO movement itself. At the same time, Rema Hammami • 15 min read
MER Article Bethlehem Dispatch Although millions of people around the world watched Bethlehem's millennial celebration on CNN, those not present on the scene missed some interesting background details. The event was held in an open square surrounded by five-story buildings, and by 10 PM, tens of thousands of people had crammed in Maad Abu-Ghazalah • 2 min read
MER Article The WWW in Palestine Traditional forms of media divide those who make the news from those who present it. Large corporations and states monopolize and shape the media, delivering information in ways that serve their own interests, rather than as objective reporting on events. The pretence of the mainstream media's objectivity belies Adam Hanieh • 10 min read
MER Article Twenty-First Century Palestine Salim al-Shawamreh, his wife, Arabia and their six children live in the village of Anata, half of which is classified as Area B (under Palestinian municipal control) and half -- where Salim’s house sits -- as Area C (under full Israeli control). About a third of Anata’s 12,000 residents hold Jerusal Roni Krouzman • 8 min read
MER Article Faith, Money and the Millennium The solar eclipse on August 11, 1999 led some people to expect the end of the world. According to one report, three people committed suicide, sure the end was near. Others shut themselves in their homes expecting extraordinary events to usher in the eschaton (“end times”). Since a simple eclipse cou Naim Ateek • 7 min read
MER Article "The Land without the People" On September 14, 1999, the day after Oslo’s Final Status negotiations opened, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited Ma’ale Adumim, the largest Jewish settlement on the West Bank. There he declared that this Jewish “neighborhood” would remain part of Israel’s Jerusalem. “Every house you build,” h Tom Abowd • 11 min read
MER Article Economics of Palestinian Return Migration Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have faced a series of economic shocks since the Gulf war. Each shock alone would have been difficult to weather, but combined they have led to a considerable worsening of economic conditions. These shocks included the Gulf war, Israeli closures of the W Ward Sayre, Jennifer Olmsted • 6 min read
MER Article Rediscovering Palestine Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995) Ussama Makdisi • 2 min read
MER Article Commodifying Honor in Female Sexuality Every year, hundreds of women and girls are murdered in the Middle East by male family members. The honor killing -- the execution of a female family member for perceived misuse of her sexuality -- is a thorny social and political issue. Palestinian activists campaigning for equality find it difficu Suzanne Ruggi • 9 min read
MER Article Documenting Land Ownership in the Palestinian Authority The Protocol Concerning Civil Affairs, an annex to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of September 1995, formalized the process by which Israeli authorities would transfer responsibility over land matters to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The first Oslo ag Michael R. Fischbach • 5 min read
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
