New Article: Ross and Razon, Shifting Identity Markers in Palestine/Israel

Ross, Karen, and Na’amah Razon. “Interrogating Boundaries and Acknowledging Fluidity: Shifting Identity Markers in Palestine/Israel.” Journal of Borderlands Studies 30.2 (2015): 247-62.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2015.1046470

 

Abstract

In this article we problematize the taken-for-granted nature of the dichotomy between Palestinian and Israeli, or Arab and Jew by illustrating how these identity categories are referenced and navigated by Israelis and Palestinians (Arabs and Jews) in their daily life. Using examples from our observations and conversations with individuals in the region, we argue that while the categories of Jewish/Arab and Israel/Palestine serve as dichotomous organizing frameworks, the lived experiences of individuals reveal complexity, variability, and tensions in how these categories are navigated, negotiated, and inhabited. Rather than clear and natural categories, by attending to the specificity of how these categories are discussed and used in everyday life we highlight a middle ground questioning the firmness of this assumed dichotomy. We suggest that attending to the contingent and varied nature of this dichotomy can serve as a starting point to create more inclusive means to discuss identity in the region.

 

 

New Article: Lazar et al, Positive Weighing of the Other’s Collective Narrative among Jewish and Bedouin-Palestinian Teachers

Lazar, Alon, Orna Braun-Lewensohn, and Tal Litvak Hirsch. “Positive Weighing of the Other’s Collective Narrative among Jewish and Bedouin-Palestinian Teachers in Israel and Its Correlates.” International Journal of Psychology (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12152

 

Abstract

Teachers play a pivotal role in the educational discourse around collective narratives, and especially the other’s narrative. The study assumed that members of groups entangled in a conflict approach the different modules of the other’s narrative distinctively. Jewish and Palestinian teachers, Israeli citizens, answered questionnaires dealing with the narrative of the other, readiness for interethnic contact, negative between-group emotions and preferences for resolutions of the Israeli–Palestinian (I–P) conflict. Positive weighing of the other’s narrative among Jewish teachers correlated with high levels of readiness for interethnic contact and low levels of negative between-group emotions, across the various modules of the Palestinian narrative. Preferences for a peaceful resolution of the I–P conflict and rejection of a violent one were noted in two of the modules. Among Palestinian teachers, positive weighing of the other’s collective narrative was exclusively noted for the Israeli narrative of the Holocaust, and this stance negatively related to negative between-group emotions and preference for a violent solution of the I–P conflict, and positively related to readiness for interethnic contact and preference of a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Practical implications of these findings for peace education are discussed.

ToC: Tikkun 30.3 (2015)

Table of Contents for Tikkun 30.3 (2015):

 

Letters

• Readers Respond

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 3

Editorials

• RABBI MICHAEL LERNER

Repenting for What Israel Did to Gaza—Without Condoning the Wrongs Committed by Hamas

Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 5-7

• A Spiritual Practice of Forgiveness and Repentance: You Don’t Have to be Jewish to Benefit from the Spiritual Wisdom of Jewish High Holidays!

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 8-9

• War with Iran: The Disastrous Aim of Israel and the Republicans

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 10-12

Politics & Society

SAM ROSS-BROWN

• Net Neutrality and the Fight for Social Justice

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 13-14

• JESSICA BENJAMIN

Acknowledging the Other’s Suffering: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Trauma in Israel/Palestine

Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 15-16

• PETER GABEL

The Spiritual Dimension of Social Justice: Transforming the Legal Arena

Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 17-23

 

VANDANA SHIVA

• Rethinking Agriculture: Protecting Biodiversity Amid Climate Chaos

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 24-26

Special Section: Nonviolence in Foreign Policy

• NONVIOLENCE IN FOREIGN POLICY

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 27

  MICHAEL N. NAGLER

• Nonviolence Writ Large

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 28

  STEPHEN ZUNES

• Alternatives to War from the Bottom Up

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 29-30

  MATT MEYER

• Revolutionary Nonviolence: Statecraft Lessons from the Global South

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 31-33

  HELENA NORBERG-HODGE

Strengthening Local Economies: The Path to Peace?

Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 34-38

Rethinking Religion

JOY LADIN

• The Genesis of Gender

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 39-43

  ANA LEVY-LYONS

• Lessons from the Shadow Side of Football: Building the Religious Counterculture

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 44-45

  JOSEPH LUMBARD

• Love for the Prophet Muhammad: A Key to Countering Islamism and Islamophobia

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 46-48

Culture

Books

RAMI SHAPIRO

• A Scientific View of God

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 49-51

  A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet, by Nancy Abrams, Beacon Press, 2015

  AL HUNTER

• What Can Replace Prison?

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 51-53

  MARTHA SONNENBERG

• Jacob Chose Hospice: A Critique of Invasive End-of-Life Care

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 54-55; doi:10.1215/08879982-3140224

PHILIP TERMAN

The Poetry of a Jewish Humanist

Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 56-58; doi:10.1215/08879982-3140236

Poetry

Chana Bloch

• Babel

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 58-58

• Do You See Me

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 72

Tikkun Recommends

• Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places / Human Nature & Jewish Thought / Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought / Balancing on a Planet: The Future of Food and Agriculture / The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible / Capitalism: A Ghost Story/Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence / Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places / Human Nature & Jewish Thought / Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought / Balancing on a Planet: The Future of Food and Agriculture / The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible / Capitalism: A Ghost Story/Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence / Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places / Human Nature & Jewish Thought / Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought / Balancing on a Planet: The Future of Food and Agriculture / The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible / Capitalism: A Ghost Story/Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence / Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places / Human Nature & Jewish Thought / Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought / Balancing on a Planet: The Future of Food and Agriculture / The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible / Capitalism: A Ghost Story/Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence

  Tikkun (2015) 30(3): 2

New Article: Leon | ‘Ovadia Yosef, the Shas Party, and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Leon, Nissim. “Rabbi ‘Ovadia Yosef, the Shas Party, and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process.” Middle East Journal 69.3 (2015): 379-95.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3751/69.3.13
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/the_middle_east_journal/v069/69.3.leon.html

 

Abstract

One of the prominent religious parties in Israel, intimately involved in political decision-making, has been the Shas party, led by the late Rabbi ‘Ovadia Yosef. This article examines four components of Rabbi Yosef’s political stance: (1) his view of Jewish religious law as a factor that moderates the force of changes of seemingly historical and revolutionary significance; (2) his opposition to radical messianism; (3) his desire to adopt independent positions; and (4) his role in the development of a Mizrahi, ultra-Orthodox stream of Zionism.

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 19,2 (2013)

Israel Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 2, 01 Apr 2013 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Original Articles Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in Iran Rusi Jaspal Pages: 231-258 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778085   In defence of the idea of a Jewish state Mordechai Nisan Pages: 259-272 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778088 : 273-289 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778089   The status of Arabic in the discourse of Israeli policymakers Dafna Yitzhaki Pages: 290-305 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778091   Oversight by the State Control Committee in the Israeli parliament: form of accountability under stress Chen Friedberg Pages: 306-320 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778083   Israeli stamps 1948–2010: between nationalism and cosmopolitanism Einat Lachover & Dalia Gavriely Nuri Pages: 321-337 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778086   Advertising as a semiotic system of space: image of the desert in Israeli advertising, 1967–2004 Avivit Agam Dali Pages: 338-352 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778082   The transformation of the Israeli Civil Guard into a police force Yaffa Moskovich Pages: 353-363 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778087   Between self-interest and international norms: legitimizing the PLO Ogen S. Goldman Pages: 364-378 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778084     Book Reviews   Sharon: the life of a leader David Rodman Pages: 379-380 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778092   A lasting reward: memoirs of an Israeli diplomat David Rodman Pages: 380-381 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778093 The horsemen of Israel: horses and chariotry in monarchic Israel (ninth-eighth centuries BCE) David Rodman Pages: 381-382 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778095   In the sands of the Sinai: a physician’s account of the Yom Kippur war David Rodman Pages: 382-383 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778096   Israel’s silent defender: an inside look at sixty years of Israeli intelligence David Rodman Pages: 383-384 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778097   Brothers at war: Israel and the tragedy of the Altalena David Rodman Pages: 385-386 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778098   Israel: an introduction David Rodman Pages: 386-387 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778099   Only Israel west of the river: the Jewish state and the Palestinian question David Rodman Pages: 387-388 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778100   Israel and the United States: six decades of US–Israeli relations David Rodman Pages: 388-389 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778101   Nine lives of Israel: a nation’s history through the lives of its foremost leaders David Rodman Pages: 390-391 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778102   Israel’s Palestinians Raphael Cohen-Almagor Pages: 391-392 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2012.751734 Enjoy FREE ONLINE ACCESS to all Routledge articles published on the Arab Spring in the last year. Start reading now.

 

ToC: Israel Studies 18,2 (2013): Shared Narratives—A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.issue-2

 

Guest Editors: Paul Scham, Benjamin Pogrund, and As’ad Ghanem

1. Note from the Editors of Israel Studies(p. v) 

   Ilan Troen and Natan Aridan

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.v

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.v

2. Preface(pp. vii-viii) 

   Daniel C. Kurtzer

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.vii

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.vii

3. Introduction to Shared Narratives—A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue(pp. 1-10) 

   Paul Scham, Benjamin Pogrund and As’ad Ghanem

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.1

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.1 

 

A Comparison between Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism

1. Palestinian Nationalism: An Overview(pp. 11-29) 

   As’ad Ghanem

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.11

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.11

2. The Zionist/Jewish and Palestinian/Arab National Movements: The Question of Legitimacy—A Comparative Observation(pp. 30-40) 

   Moshe Maoz

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.30

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.30

Approaches over Time to the ‘Other Narrative’

1. To Understand Oneself: Does it Mean to Understand the Other?—Reflections(pp. 41-52) 

   Yosef Gorny

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.41

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.41

2. Israelis and Palestinians: Contested Narratives(pp. 53-69) 

   Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi and Zeina M. Barakat

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.53

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.53

Comparison of Palestinians after the Nakba and Jews after the Holocaust

1. We Israelis Remember, But How? The Memory of the Holocaust and the Israeli Experience(pp. 70-85) 

   Dalia Ofer

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.70

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.70

2. The Palestinian Nakba and its Continuous Repercussions(pp. 86-99) 

   Adel Manna’

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.86

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.86

Concepts of Land

1. Israeli Views of the Land of Israel/Palestine(pp. 100-114) 

   S. Ilan Troen

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.100

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.100

The Growth of Religious Nationalism and the Conflict over the Holy Places

1. Narratives of Jerusalem and its Sacred Compound(pp. 115-132) 

   Yitzhak Reiter

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.115

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.115

Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism; Possibilities of Recognition and Reconciliation

1. Zionism and Palestinian Nationalism: Possibilities of Recognition(pp. 133-147) 

   Tamar S. Hermann

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.133

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.133

2. Recognition of the Other and His Past(pp. 148-155) 

   Said Zeedani

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.148

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.148

1. Notes on Contributors(pp. 156-158) 

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.156

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.156

2. Guidelines for Contributors(pp. 159-161) 

   DOI: 10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.159

   Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/israelstudies.18.2.159

Cite: Aggestam & Strömbom, Disempowerment and Marginalisation of Peace NGOs

Aggestam, Karin & Lisa Strömbom. “Disempowerment and Marginalisation of Peace NGOs: Exposing Peace Gaps in Israel and Palestine.” Peacebuilding 1.1 (2013): 109-124.

–

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21647259.2013.756278

–

Abstract

This article analyses the enabling and restraining conditions of local peace organisations in Israel and Palestine. It utilises the analytical notion of peace gaps to accentuate the interplay between local and elite levels. It also highlights the discrepancies when it comes to expectations of peace, the ability to communicate peace discourses and the power to influence and build wider domestic peace constituencies. The empirical findings reveal how current vertical and horizontal peace gaps result in the disempowerment and marginalisation of local peace NGOs on both sides. Such a precarious situation hinders broader peace mobilisation and is further exacerbated by widespread political apathy and peace fatigue among Israeli and Palestinian publics. By way of conclusion, the article argues for the need to re-politicise and re-negotiate space for a more agonistic peacebuilding, which allows for differences to co-exist.

Cite: Golan and Orr, Israeli NGOs Defending Palestinian Rights

Golan, Daphna and Zvika Orr. “Translating Human Rights of the ‘Enemy’: The Case of Israeli NGOs Defending Palestinian Rights.” Law & Society Review 46.4 (2012): 781-814.

 

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2012.00517.x/abstract

 

Abstract

This article explores the practices, discourses and dilemmas of the Israeli human rights NGOs that are working to protect and promote the human rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. This case can shed light on the complex process of “triangular translation” of human rights, which is distinct from other forms of human rights localization studied thus far. In this process, human rights NGOs translate international human rights norms on the one hand, and the suffering of the victims on the other, into the conceptions and legal language commonly employed by the state that violates these rights. We analyze the dialectics of change and reproduction embedded in the efforts of Israeli activists to defend Palestinian human rights while at the same time depoliticizing their work and adopting discriminatory premises and conceptions hegemonic in Israeli society. The recent and alarming legislative proposals in Israel aimed at curtailing the work of human rights NGOs reinforce the need to reconsider the role of human rights NGOs in society, including their depoliticized strategies, their use of legal language and their relations with the diminishing peace movement.

Cite: Ibrahim & Beaudet, Effective aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

Ibrahim, Nassar and Pierre Beaudet. "Effective aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories?." Conflict, Security & Development 12.5 (2012): 481-500.

–

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14678802.2012.744181

–

Abstract

The Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, otherwise known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), have been a test case for international aid policies and practices for many years, especially since the Oslo agreement between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993. Yet in many ways, the OPT are unique since they are not a state, not even a fragile state, therefore rendering the applicability of aid principles, as captured by the Paris Declaration, somehow problematic. Despite substantial aid flows over the last years, the problem of the absence of statehood is a fundamental block to development. Moreover, many aid programmes have been, partially at least, instrumentalised to stabilise the occupation. In the meantime, social and economic conditions have deteriorated. Although there are many reasons for that deterioration, we argue that the perpetuation of the Israeli occupation is the most important factor since it reproduces the social, political and economic dislocation of the OPT. This persisting occupation of the OPT, and the consequent external control over land, security, borders and so many other key elements of governance and sovereignty, explain the fact that the many attempts to make aid more ‘effective’, in the spirit of the aid effectiveness principles of the OECD, have failed.

Cite: Haas, Missed Ideological Opportunities and George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern Policies

Haas, Mark L. “Missed Ideological Opportunities and George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern Policies.” Security Studies 21.3 (2012): 416-54.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09636412.2012.706499

 

Abstract

Numerous analysts have criticized George W. Bush’s Middle Eastern policies for their strong ideological content. This article agrees with a core premise of these critiques, but it does so for very different reasons from most analyses. Ideological rigidity on some issues, paradoxically, prevented the Bush administration from taking advantage of the full range of ways in which ideologies shape international relations. There were three major opportunities to advance US interests in the Middle East during Bush’s presidency that were created by the effects of ideologies. First, liberalizing parties in otherwise illiberal regimes tended to be significantly more supportive of US interests than other ideological groups in the same country at the same time. Second, major ideological differences among different types of illiberal enemies of the United States enhanced America’s ability to adopt “wedge” strategies toward various hostile coalitions. Finally, the existence of different types of ideological enemies in the Middle East created incentives for some illiberals to align with the United States because of mutual ideological enmity for a third ideological group. The Bush administration, however, failed at key times to take advantage of these openings. If Bush administration officials had been less ideologically dogmatic while, somewhat paradoxically, making better strategic use of ideologies’ major international effects, America’s security would have been significantly advanced in critical cases.