Some of the West Bank’s anger : a diary

Saturday, September 30th, 2000Two days of anger and I wonder how the news is spreading in the world. Living in Birzeit and having the chance to have a satellite dish, we did not stop changing from one channel to another to hear what the news are saying. The portrayal on CNN and the BBC still shocks me. They talk about clashes between two sides, not about youngsters throwing stones and an army shooting live ammunition at them, not about an anger against an occupation that persists, about the l..

The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond.jpg

This book revisits contemporary Arab engagements with the question of Jewish political rights (as individuals, religious communities and/or a national collective) under the light of European anti-Semitism and Zionism. It also explores Jewish engagements with the Arab Question, namely how Zionism and non-Zionist Jewish voices dealt with Palestinian presence and political rights in historic Palestine. These two key political questions have been historically debated, but not juxtaposed, despite the fact that they have become inextricably intertwined. They continue to inform, feed and kindle conflicts in Europe, Middle East, and US. Revisiting the Jewish and Arab questions today is all the more urgent in view of the crisis that Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, and European nationalisms are facing

Undermining Democracy in Palestine: the Politics of International Aid since Oslo

After the Oslo peace process got underway in the early 1990s, internationaldonors allocated billions of dollars in aid to the occupied Palestinian territoriesto kick-start the process of economic development deemed necessary to statebuilding. This article argues that although much of the money was directed atdemocracy enhancement and civic engagement projects, contrary to statedintentions, it actually undermined rather than promoted those outcomes. Donorcountries, led by the United States and the European Union, designed andimplemented programs with complete disregard for the reality underlying thePalestinian predicament—the almost 50 years of military occupation and thebroader context of Israel’s settler-colonial project. Besides their entrenchmentof a neoliberal agenda, such projects have contributed to the ongoing fracturingof Palestinian politics and the growing authoritarianism of the Ramallahgovernment, leaving the Palestinian economy less viable and more dependenton Israel than ever

The \u27Right to Have Rights\u27: Partition and Palestinian Self-Determination

This paper reexamines the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and theextent to which a viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict wasever truly possible. It argues that the history of the fifty years reinforces the claim that a State is central to any attempt to fight erasure and ensure “the right to have rights,” as Hannah Arendt putit, but it also shows that such an entity needs to be elevated above the nation, than made subservient to it if it is to protect the rights of Palestinians all those living on the land of Palestine

Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labor, Land and Occupation

Ever since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, Palestinian commuting labour migration has played a key role in binding the Palestinian economy to Israel. It absorbed over one-third of the employed workforce and shaped the nature of Palestinian economic development. However, since the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, migrant flows have become erratic, leading to a fall in Palestinian per-capita income and predictions that the era of migration has come to an end.This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rise and fall of Palestinian labour flows to Israel. It highlights the interdependence between Israel confiscation of Palestinian land and the use of Palestinian labour, showing how labour migration has been the result of the evolving dynamics of Israeli occupation and Palestinian labour force growth. This study analyses the pattern of Palestinian labour supply, the role of Israel territorial and economic policies in the Occupied Territories in releasing Palestinian labour from the land, and the nature of Israeli demand for Palestinian workers, especially in the construction sector, where the majority of commuting labourers are concentrated. The book is also original in its exploration of the way changing patterns in labour flows reflect a process of redefinition of the 1967 borders. The analysis of the contrasting forces of separation and integration between Israel and the Palestinian territories shows how the Gaza Strip is being separated from Israel while the West Bank continues to be incorporated into the Jewish state.This book will be of interest to development specialists as well as to economists, scholars and policy makers concerned with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict