MER Article Electoral Systems and Democracy This year has witnessed some important electoral developments in the Middle East and surrounding areas, with elections being held in Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Bangladesh and Bosnia. [1] Some of these elections have been especially interesting in terms of what they have revealed about the potential Hady Amr • 9 min read
MER Article Thwarting Palestinian Development The preamble of the Protocol on Economic Relations between the Government of the State of Israel and the PLO, signed on May 4, 1994, states: This protocol lays the groundwork for strengthening the economic base of the Palestinian side and for exercising its right of economic decision making in acco Jennifer Olmsted • 9 min read
MER Article Palestinian Political Prisoners Since the Oslo accords came into effect in May 1994, Israel’s treatment of Palestinian political prisoners has been a litmus test for a viable, just end to the Israeli occupation. Today the prisoners’ crisis continues to reflect an agreement that entrenches Israel’s remote control over Palestinians Yifat Susskind • 3 min read
MER Article Economic Deterioration in the Gaza Strip On February 25, 1996, following several Hamas suicide bombings in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel imposed a heightened closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. [1] This most recent heightening of the closure has severely damaged the already precarious economy of the Gaza Strip and caused immense Sara Roy • 14 min read
MER Article Closures, Cantons and the Palestinian Covenant On April 24, 1996 -- Israel’s forty-eighth Independence Day -- PLO leader Yasser Arafat made good on his 1993 pledge to the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to amend “those articles of the Palestine Covenant which deny Israel’s right to exist.” In a historic decision, 504 out Graham Usher • 12 min read
MER Article For the Common Good? Gender and Social Citizenship in Palestine For almost half a century, to be Palestinian has meant the absence of formal citizenship, and the rights and duties it confers. While important elements of citizenship previously resided in membership in the Palestinian community and its institutions, the coming of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza and Jericho in Rita Giacaman, Islah Jad, Penny Johnson • 15 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Spring 1996) The first month of 1996 saw election monitors and “democratization” consultants falling over each other in the West Bank. Along with the flood of media witnesses, they certified that, in former President Jimmy Carter’s words, “The Palestinian people had an historic opportunity to choose their leader The Editors • 4 min read
MER Article Tourists with Agendas One bizarre aspect about life in Palestine is the scrutiny to which we are subjected by journalists, researchers and political tourists who descend daily. Birzeit University is particularly attractive to researchers who come to “do Palestine.” At first glance, the benefits would seem great: publicit Salim Tamari • 2 min read
Recent Books on Palestinian Society Marianne Heiberg and Geir Ovensen et al, Palestinian Society in Gaza, West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem: A Survey of Living Conditions (FAFO, 1993). Ziad Abu-Amr, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad (Indiana, 1994). Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. M Ellen Fleischmann • 6 min read
Photo Books on Palestine George Baramki Azar, Palestine: A Photographic Journey (California, 1991). J. C. Tordai, Into the Promised Land (Cornerhouse, 1991). Both of these books present photographs taken in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between 1988 and 1990 that transcend the usual images of stone-throwing youths and gun Michelle Woodward • 3 min read
Homecoming I was afraid. Why should I be? But once I stood in front of the young women in the white and blue-striped shirt I was reduced to shivering with a tongue as dry as the Negev. She asked me insistently, “Why are you here?” I had earlier thought of two or three convincing answers, but suddenly I could n Numan Kanafani • 7 min read
Stacking the Deck For many Palestinians, the political success or failure of the Palestinian Authority (PA) hinges on its ability to bring rapid economic improvement to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where peoples’ livelihoods have been seriously eroded by the Israeli occupation, the intifada and the repercussions of Emma Murphy • 9 min read
