Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Palestine Journal Journal of Palestine Studies

261. From the Editor

Author:
Rashid I. Khalidi
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
THIS SPECIAL ISSUE of JPS celebrates the work of the renowned anthropologist Rosemary Sayigh, a pioneer in the field of refugee studies and the first scholar to emphasize the signal importance of Palestinian refugees in the revival of Palestinian nationalism in the 1960s-notably in her pathbreaking Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, published thirty years ago. At the same time, Rosemary was one of the first researchers to examine issues of gender in Palestinian and Arab society, as her reliance on women as resources for her investigations revealed to her-and through her, to generations of readers- the crucial role played by women in the social and economic structure of Palestinian refugee camps and Palestinian political life.
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, and Arabia

262. A Tribute Long Overdue: Rosemary Sayigh and Palestinian Studies

Author:
Beshara Doumani and Mayssun Soukarieh
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Rosemary Sayigh-writer, activist, mentor, and ethical compass-has arguably made a greater impact on Palestinian studies than most scholars over the past generation. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon; women under occupation; oral history of the Nakba; gender and politics; memory and identity; culture and resistance; the political responsibility of the researcher-these are but some of the lines of inquiry she has pioneered. Starting with her classic book, The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries; A People's History, published thirty years ago, she has become the unofficial mentor of large numbers of PhD students specializing in the above fields. "Unofficial" because, although she has been an indispensable resource for emerging scholars, she remains an outsider to institutions of higher education. She has never held a permanent academic position and was largely shunned by universities and research centers in Lebanon, the country where she has lived for more than fifty years. This special issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS) in honor of Rosemary Sayigh is richly deserved and long overdue.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, and Arabia

263. Speaking Palestinian: An Interview with Rosemary Sayigh

Author:
Mayssun Soukarieh
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This interview is part of a longer conversation that independent researcher Mayssun Soukarieh conducted with Rosemary Sayigh in Beirut during the summer of 2008. Sayigh, an anthropologist, oral historian, and researcher, was born in Birmingham in the United Kingdom and moved to Beirut in 1953, where she married the Palestinian economist Yusif Sayigh. She earned her master's degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1970 and was awarded a PhD from Hull University in Yorkshire in 1994. Since coming to Beirut fifty-six years ago, Sayigh has dedicated her life to writing and advocating for the Palestinians in Lebanon and elsewhere. She is the author of two groundbreaking books: Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries; A People's History (Zed Books, 1979) and Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (Zed Books, 1993). Although these conversations focused on Sayigh's scholarly work rather than her personal history, it became clear that the two are inextricably linked.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, America, Palestine, and Lebanon

264. What Rosemary Saw: Reflections on Palestinian Women as Tellers of the Palestinian Present

Author:
Penny Johnson
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Referencing the "stereotypes of self" identified by Rosemary Sayigh in the life stories of Palestinian camp women in Lebanon who had lived through the Palestinian resistance, the author focuses on the narratives of two women in Ramallah's Am'ari refugee camp since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada to reflect on the Palestinian present. Though the women-and their goals and struggles-could not be more different, their narratives reveal significant shifts in self-representation that reflect both the impact of post-Oslo political realities and the new (unattainable) aspirations fueled by satellite television images and Ramallah caf´e culture. The narratives also reflect, in very different ways, the national crisis, the impotence of Palestinian political groups and institutions, and the erosion of solidarities
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon

265. Memories of Home and Stories of Displacement: The Women of Artas and the "Peasant Past"

Author:
Falestin Naïli
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This article deals with the memory narratives of women from the West Bank village of Artas who were displaced as a result of the 1967 war and are today living in working-class neighborhoods of eastern Amman. Imbued with nostalgia, their narratives extol the values that had governed life in the village before their dispersal, values that have proved to be important for survival in exile. The "peasant past" remembered by these women is examined in the dual context of the history of Artas and the migratory itineraries of the women, many of whom were displaced for a second time during the Gulf War of 1990-91.
Topic:
War
Political Geography:
Palestine

266. Kelly: Law, Violence, and Sovereignty among West Bank Palestinians

Author:
Samera Esmeir
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Little is written about Palestinian law and society, and Tobias Kelly's Law, Violence and Sovereignty among West Bank Palestinians comes as an ethnographic and theoretical contribution to this small and growing field. Focusing on the everyday application of the law and life of West Bank workers, Kelly, an anthropologist who has conducted long-term fieldwork in the occupied Palestinian territories, exposes the abstract nature of regimes of power. While these regimes are often understood as suspending the law and legitimizing violence, they emerge in Kelly's analysis as having created an intimate relationship between legal orders of rights and violence. The book focuses on legal practice, rather than legal doctrine, and inquires into how law, rights claims, and spaces of jurisdictions are mobilized in the village where Kelly conducted his fieldwork (given the fictional name of Bayt Hajjar). Instead of viewing rights talk as alien and imposed from above and reducing all frameworks of moral and political reference to that of the law, the book reveals the many meanings acquired by the law in its everyday coexistence with other significant relationships: "For the residents of Bayt Hajjar, rights claims do not emerge in an abstract legal universe, but are created in the context of ongoing, morally charged relationships, involving elements of village and national solidarity. The result is a profoundly ambivalent attitude to legal claims".
Political Geography:
Palestine, Arabia, United Nations, and Lebanon

267. Cohen: Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948

Author:
Lenni Brenner
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
Hillel Cohen must be congratulated for the quality of Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948. This accurate and finely detailed book will be assured a permanent place in Palestinian nationalist historiography. While Cohen is a declared Zionist, there are no signs that his politics distorted his scholarship, which is based on declassified Zionist reports, British colonial archives, and captured Arab documents. He carefully describes how Zionists took advantage of "the fissures that cut through Palestinian society-between villagers, city dwellers, and Bedouin, between the rival families of the urban elite, between classes, between ethnic and religious groups" (p. 7) to defeat the right-wing Palestinian nationalist leadership of that era.
Political Geography:
Palestine

268. Photos from the Quarter

Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This small sample of photos, selected from hundreds viewed by JPS, aims to convey a sense of the situation on the ground in the occupied territories during the quarter.
Political Geography:
Israel and Palestine

269. Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy: 16 February - 15 May 2009

Author:
Michele K. Esposito
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The Quarterly Update is a summary of bilateral, multilateral, regional, and international events affecting the Palestinians and the future of the peace process. More than 100 print, wire, television, and online sources providing U.S., Israeli, Arab, and international independent and government coverage of unfolding events are surveyed to compile the Quarterly Update. The most relevant sources are cited in JPS's Chronology section, which tracks events day by day.
Political Geography:
United States, Israel, Palestine, and Arabia

270. Congressional Monitor

Author:
Brian Wood and Paul Costic
Publication Date:
07-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
The Congressional Monitor provides summaries of all relevant bills and resolutions (joint, concurrent, and simple) introduced during the previous session of Congress that mention, even briefly, either Palestine or Israel. Speeches are not included. The format of this Monitor provides an overview of U.S. legislation related to the Palestine issue and helps to identify the major themes of legislation, its initiators, their priorities, the range of their concerns, and their attitudes toward the regional actors. Material in this compilation is drawn from www.thomas.loc.gov, where readers can also find a detailed primer on the legislative process entitled "How Our Laws Are Made."
Political Geography:
Palestine