New Article: Cuéllar & Silverburg, South America and the Recognition of Palestine

Cuéllar, Angélica Alba, and Sanford R. Silverburg. “Diplomatic Dominos: South America and the Recognition of (the State of) Palestine.” Review of Social Sciences 1.3 (2016): 11-24.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.18533/rss.v1i3.18
Abstract

All but one of the states in South American have extended some type of diplomatic recognition to Palestine. There is a discussion of the meaning of diplomatic recognition in the current state system with its importance. The central theme of this paper is an examination of the process and an explanation for South American states’ provision of diplomatic recognition to Palestine while one other in the same cultural-geographical region has not.

 

 

 

New Article: Martins, The EU and the Recognition of the Palestinian State

Martins, Bruno Oliveira. “‘A Sense of Urgency’: The EU, EU Member States and the Recognition of the Palestinian State.” Mediterranean Politics 20.2 (2015): 281-287.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2015.1046268

 

Abstract

In the aftermath of the July–August 2014 war in Gaza, the Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine. This decision triggered a cascade of resolutions adopted in national parliaments of European Union member states and, eventually, led to the adoption of a European Parliament resolution supporting in principle the recognition of Palestinian statehood. Understood collectively, these efforts constitute a multifaceted European attempt to break with the status quo of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This Profile critically analyses these developments and sets the context in which they unfolded, arguing that they are indicative of a complex yet growing European impatience with Israel’s policies towards the conflict and with the stalemate of the peace process.

New Book: LeVine and Mossberg, eds. One Land, Two States

LeVine, Mark and Mathias Mossberg, eds. One Land, Two States. Israel and Palestine as Parallel States. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.

 

 

Abstract

One Land, Two States imagines a new vision for Israel and Palestine in a situation where the peace process has failed to deliver an end of conflict. “If the land cannot be shared by geographical division, and if a one-state solution remains unacceptable,” the book asks, “can the land be shared in some other way?”

Leading Palestinian and Israeli experts along with international diplomats and scholars answer this timely question by examining a scenario with two parallel state structures, both covering the whole territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, allowing for shared rather than competing claims of sovereignty. Such a political architecture would radically transform the nature and stakes of the Israel-Palestine conflict, open up for Israelis to remain in the West Bank and maintain their security position, enable Palestinians to settle in all of historic Palestine, and transform Jerusalem into a capital for both of full equality and independence—all without disturbing the demographic balance of each state. Exploring themes of security, resistance, diaspora, globalism, and religion, as well as forms of political and economic power that are not dependent on claims of exclusive territorial sovereignty, this pioneering book offers new ideas for the resolution of conflicts worldwide.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword: Two States on One Land—Parallel States as an Option for Israel and Palestine
Álvaro de Soto

Preface
Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine

1. One Land—Two States? An Introduction to the Parallel States Concept
Mathias Mossberg

2. Can Sovereignty Be Divided?
Jens Bartelson

3. Parallel Sovereignty: Dividing and Sharing Core State Functions
Peter Wallensteen

4. Security Strategy for the Parallel States Project: An Israeli Perspective
Nimrod Hurvitz and Dror Zeevi

5. Palestinian National Security
Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi

6. An Israel-Palestine Parallel States Economy by 235
Raja Khalidi

7. Economic Considerations in Implementing a Parallel States Structure
Raphael Bar-El

8. Parallel Sovereignty in Practice: Judicial Dimensions of a Parallel States Structure
Various authors, compiled by Mathias Mossberg

9. Religion in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: From Obstacle to Peace to Force for Reconciliation?
Mark LeVine and Liam O’Mara IV

10. The Necessity for Thinking outside the Box
Hiba Husseini

11. Parallel Lives, Parallel States: Imagining a Different Future
Eyal Megged

Contributors
Index

 

New Article: Azarov, Perils and Prospects of the Palestinian UN Bid

Azarov, Valentina. “An International Legal Demarche for Human Rights? Perils and Prospects of the Palestinian UN Bid.” International Journal of Human Rights 18.4-5 (2014): 527-44.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13642987.2014.914028

 

Abstract

The Palestinian UN bid has the potential to enhance Palestinian claims for respect of human rights and international law and mobilise international opposition to Israel’s unlawful conduct. Participation in international organisations and ratification of treaties fortify Palestine’s legal and political status within the international legal order, enabling it to call for the non-recognition by third states of unlawful Israeli conduct in the context of their inter-state relations with Israel. The UN bid also facilitates access to international courts, including the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, which may deter Israel’s unlawful conduct and contribute to the production of normative assessments of situations under Palestinian jurisdiction.

ToC: Holy Land Studies 13.1 (2014)

1  Nakba Memoricide: Genocide Studies and the Zionist/Israeli Genocide of Palestine

Haifa Rashed, Dr Damien Short and Professor John Docker

25  Liberating Methodologies and Nakba Studies: Palestinian History and Memory from below as Sites of Lifelong Learning

Professor Nur Masalha 

71  Pedagogy under Siege in Palestine: Insights from Paulo Freire

Najwa Silwadi and Professor Peter Mayo

89  Resisting Colonialism through Nature: An Ecopostcolonial Reading of Mahmoud Darwish’s Selected Poems

Dr Hamoud Yahya Ahmed and and Dr Ruzy Suliza Hashim

Book Reviews

• 109 Palestinian Cultural Production
  Anna Ball, Palestinian Literature and Film in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective (New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2012). xvi+ 223 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-88862-2. Hardback

  Professor Bart Moore-Gilbert

• 111 Challenges to Zionism: Christian Perspectives
  Carole Monica Burnett (ed.), Zionism Through Christian Lenses: Ecumenical Perspectives on the Promised Land (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013). 201 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1610977715. Paperback

  Dr Mark Braverman

• 114 Philosophical Reflections on Zionism and Jewish Thought
  Eyal Chowers, The Political Philosophy of Zionism: Trading Jewish Words for a Hebraic Land (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). 274 pp. ISBN: 9781107005945. Hardback

  Professor Oren Ben-Dor

• 117  Instrumentalising the Bible
  Nur Masalha, The Zionist Bible: Biblical Precedent, Colonialism and the Erasure of Memory (London: Acumen, 2013). 295 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1844656578. Hardback

  Ramona Wadi

  Books Received

• 121 Citation

New Article: Leech, Who owns ‘the spring’ in Palestine?

Leech, Philip. “Who Owns ‘The Spring’ in Palestine? Rethinking Popular Consent and Resistance in the Context of the ‘Palestinian State’ and the ‘Arab Spring’.” Democratization, published online April 29, 2014.

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2014.899584

Abstract

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) claim to embody the spirit of the “Arab Spring”, through its recent “state-building” agenda – including its elevation to “non-member observer status” at the United Nations – is disingenuous. This conclusion rests on three key arguments outlined in this article. First, this article identifies a continuation of broader patterns of authoritarianism represented by the PA’s lack of adherence to democratic practices, the deprivation of access for the Palestinian population to basic resources and the wider issue of the continued absence of Palestinian sovereignty. Second, it identifies the intensification of some authoritarian practices within Palestine, particularly in the areas of security and policing, for example by the use of force against protestors. Finally, this article identifies that civil-society groups and opposition supporters throughout 2011–2012 have more genuinely embodied evidence of resistance to authoritarianism in popular demonstrations against the PA.