MER Article Culture and Politics, Culture as Politics Although MERIP is best known for political economy critiques of systems of resource extraction, imperialism and authoritarianism, artwork, creative texts and cultural reviews have never been merely supplemental to its project. Elevating cultural expression and aesthetic performance from the Middle East and North Africa can be an act of political Ted Swedenburg, Paul Silverstein • 7 min read
Current Analysis Five Exciting Developments from Across the Middle East in 2015 Negative stories about the Middle East dominated Western news headlines in 2015. It’s easy for Americans, especially those who listen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters, to get the impression that the region is just one miserable homogeneous place of violence, terro Jessica Winegar • 3 min read
MER Article Festivalizing Dissent in Morocco The website of Morocco’s National Tourist Office, a government organization, advertises the North African country as a land of cultural festivals and moussems (traditional fairs honoring a saint). According to the Ministry of Information, about 150 such festivals take place each year. The Ministry o Aomar Boum • 10 min read
Current Analysis Patti Smith Remembers Operation Iraqi Freedom On September 8, 2011, just a few days before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the intrepid rocker Patti Smith performed at Webster Hall in New York City. Ted Swedenburg • 1 min read
MER Article Peleg, Israeli Culture Between the Two Intifadas Yaron Peleg, Israeli Culture Between the Two Intifadas: A Brief Romance (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2008). Rebecca L. Stein • 4 min read
Current Analysis Hi, and a Low at the State Department As America’s standing with the Arab public continues to drop, many Americans ask just what the world’s greatest democracy must do to improve its image. The latest US venture in public diplomacy, a glossy monthly called Hi, is an exercise in American earnestness designed to answer precisely that ques Chris Toensing • 3 min read
MER Article Spatial Fantasies Rivka, the tragic protagonist of Amos Gitai's new film Kadosh, is unable to conceive a child. Her anxiety is acute. The ultra-Orthodox community of Me'ah She'arim in West Jerusalem, in which Rivka lives with her husband Meir, is known to ostracize its barren women. Seeking spiritual guidance, she le Rebecca L. Stein • 10 min read
MER Article Cartel: Travels of German-Turkish Rap Music “You are a Turk from Germany.” The words are from the song “Sen Turksun” (You Are a Turk) by German-Turkish rap group Cartel. Cartel shot to prominence in 1995 in Germany and Turkey with their album, “Cartel,” which within a month of its release sold 30,000 copies in Germany and 180,000 in Turkey. T Alev Çınar • 5 min read
MER Article "Wounded Kinship's Last Resort" Ironically, the latest junkets featuring liberal Israelis and recently domesticated Palestinians threaten to finally collapse the intricate history of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East into two streamlined, easily recognizable blocs: enlightened, idealistic and well-intentioned Zionists (“wounded sp Ammiel Alcalay • 10 min read
MER Article Culture Across Borders Salman Rushdie’s story of Ismail Najmuddin -- the former Bombay lunch-runner turned movie star, screen name Gibreel Farishta, the Muslim who played Hindu gods in numerous “theologicals,” migrant to London, victim of the bombing of flight AI-420, the man who fell from the sky and lived, only to dream Timothy Mitchell • 8 min read
