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
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 of 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
