MER Article Palestine in the New Order Since the Gulf war, the Palestinian cause has entered an entirely new phase, one that is not merely a consequence of the war in the narrow sense. The Gulf crisis was the setting for a series of confrontations between local and international forces of such intensity that it is difficult to find a pre Azmi Bishara • 17 min read
MER Article Editor's Bookshelf Feminist analysis has added an important dimension to the peace movement’s understanding of the issues in the Gulf war. Several commentators have noted the gendered character of the metaphors and symbols that the Bush administration has employed in representing the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the US response, and Joel Beinin • 4 min read
MER Article Letter from the Curfew Zone “What can we do?” asked Marwan, a service worker at the temporary quarters of the Birzeit University the morning President Bush announced a cessation of hostilities in the Gulf. “Whatever happens, it’s always on the head of the Palestinians.” He turned back to his own Herculean task -- attempting Penny Johnson • 5 min read
MER Article Human Rights Briefing What has been the performance of human rights organizations during the first two years of the intifada? A fresh look at eight organizations surveyed prior to the uprising (MER 150) shows that overall coverage has increased, as one might expect based on the intensity and duration of the uprising, but Nabeel Abraham • 3 min read
Muhawi and Kanaana, Speak Bird, Speak Again Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989). Speak, Bird, Speak Again, a collection of 45 Palestinian folktales, represents the largest selection of Palestinian folklore in English. The tales were recor Ann Barhoum • 2 min read
Prison Text, Resistance Culture The Israeli prison apparatus is a critical and contested site in the manifold struggle to control communication and information in the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. During the two decades of occupation before the intifada, prisons in Israel and the Occupied Territories housed an aver Barbara Harlow • 6 min read
Forbidden Territory, Promised Land Ilan Halevi, A History of the Jews (trans. A. M. Berrett) (London: Zed Books, 1987). Shlomo Swirski, Israel: The Oriental Majority (trans. Barbara Swirski) (London: Zed Books, 1989). Ella Shohat, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1 Ammiel Alcalay • 10 min read
Religion and Political Identity in Bayt Sahour In 1989, the West Bank village of Bayt Sahour made international headlines by staging a successful tax strike against Israeli military authorities. My introduction to Bayt Sahour came six years earlier, in late December 1983, when I attended Latin Christmas Eve celebrations at Manger Square in neigh Glenn Bowman • 12 min read
Sustaining Movement, Creating Space “Up here at the encampment,” said Abu Tha’ir, peering ahead through the windshield, “we cross the Green Line into ’48. If there is a checkpoint and they stop us, they’ll send me back to prison.” He looked at me as if asking for my opinion, but he did not slow down as we approached the army post perc Joost Hiltermann • 16 min read
Our Fate, Our House Many Palestinian stories are the stories of sons: heroes or victims, Everyman or Superman. In the intifada, the rebellious young men, the shabab, have become the sons of all the people and their exploits legendary. Sahar Khalifeh’s stories, like her own life, are the stories of daughters, mothers a Sahar Khalifeh • 8 min read
Women, the Hijab and the Intifada Many accounts have suggested that the intifada has enabled Palestinian women to make great strides toward their social as well as political liberation. While some positive developments have occurred, it is also true that the intifada has been the context for a vicious campaign in Gaza to impose the Rema Hammami • 15 min read
"What Elections? When?" At the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip, 35 kilometers south of Gaza City, lies the city of Rafah and its refugee camps. Of the total population of 110,000, 78,000 are refugees. A Rafah resident, ‘Isam Younis, interviewed a 28-year old worker from Rafah’s Shabura refugee camp. (Author not identified) • 2 min read
