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61. Hydro-Politics: Water and Difficult Dialogues on Resources

Author:
Abdel Rahman Tamimi
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Water is considered the most important factor leading to instability and conflict in the Middle East region. Recent analyses and reports point to the fact that the problem of water will get much more complicated than current politics can handle. This is primarily because the problem is in conjunction with the natural features of the region: it is dry and desert terrain. Indeed, desert covers 60% of Israel, 70% of Syria, 85% of Jordan, and 90% of Egypt.
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan

62. Israel's Mizrahim: "Other" Victims of Zionism or a Bridge to Regional Reconciliation?

Author:
Franklin Hugh Adler
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with Israeli society, and especially those who have been led to believe it primarily composed of European Jews who settled in the Middle East, that roughly half of Israel's Jewish population is made up of Jews who for millennia were deeply rooted in the region and summarily expelled from Arab states after Israel was founded in 1948. In fact, this Arab Jewish population exceeds in number those Palestinians who were displaced, and it possessed substantially greater property that was confiscated without compensation upon expulsion.
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, and Israel

63. Civil Society, Democracy, and Peace

Author:
Terry Boychuk
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Do democratic societies engender democratic states? Or, do democratic states engender democratic societies? Are democratic states inherently more peaceful than other regimes?

64. Meditations on a Middle-East Pilgrimage: Impasse, Memory, Hope/Promise

Author:
Dr. Lucy A. Forster-Smith
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The human community yearns for a home, for place, for a “storied space,” as Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann says, where meaning is attached to a place “because of the history lodged there.”1 This yearning is no more evident than in the daily reality of those living in Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. For Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Baha'is who live in this region and those drawn to it as a pilgrimage destination, it is a place where the power of history and the impasse of the present weigh upon the pilgrim's stride. Often the assumption for those from lands beyond the Middle East is that by leaving their home community and going to seek the sacred in a holy place, they will strengthen or restore their faith. Yet many times those who come from far-off places to seek the holy in the Holy Land encounter the pilgrim spirit in those who long for home, those whose pilgrim's way longs for a homeland, but hits walls, stumbles on slippery slopes, is snared by economic challenges—and their faith falters as they locate their story in the painful quest for the Holy Land. The pilgrim way heeds impasse, memory, and hope. In my encounter with this land, I also navigated the complex pilgrim's way through the eyes of university students, faculty members, administrators, and workers for peace.
Political Geography:
Middle East

65. Culture and Politics in the Visual Arts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Author:
Olga González
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
What makes Palestinian art “Palestinian”? This became a central question in my attempt to understand the emphasis on national identity that Palestinian visual artists put on their artwork, particularly given that what I saw at art exhibits and the studios and homes of artists during my short visit in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem could be basically classified under the broad category of contemporary visual art. Whether realistic, figurative, abstract, or conceptual in their styles, the five artists I interviewed presented me with a varied assortment of images meant to highlight the “Palestinian-ness” in the contemporary art of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Political Geography:
Palestine, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem

66. Zionism and the Nationalization of Jerusalem

Author:
Khaldoun Samman
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Over the years, I have given many public talks on the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. After discussing the formation of apartheid in Israel and its unethical nature, I have at times received responses implying that I hate the “Jewish people.” I have all too often witnessed occasions in which some pro-Israeli supporters quickly label you as an anti-Semite at the slightest hint of language that speaks critically of Israel, as if such language is a condemnation of all Jews. Similarly, this equating of Zionism with the “Jewish people” has lately seeped into Palestinian and Arab discourse, which is surprising given the fact that traditionally activists have consciously attempted to disentangle the two concepts. Some Palestinians may even think that you are a traitor if you show up in Arab East Jerusalem with a Jewish friend wearing a yarmulka, as I noticed on one occasion during my last visit to the region. Indeed, this defensive “knee-jerk” reaction of identifying criticism of state policy as an attack on your own identity has become the rule rather than the exception when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When I protest this form of what we could call a “culturalized” or an identitarian politics, the response is usually a blank stare, as though my criticism is impractical and naïve. “Isn't it self-evident,” many ask me, “that the issue is between two peoples?” My response is an unequivocal, “No, it is not so!”
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, Arabia, and Jerusalem

67. The Dilemmas of Humanitarian Action in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Author:
Wendy Weber
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This essay reflects upon the dilemmas of humanitarian action in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Its reflections center around the experience of Machsom Watch, an Israeli organization established in 2001 in response to the current closure regime that restricts the mobility of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Machsom Watch is not a traditional humanitarian organization in the sense of providing relief and/or protection in accordance with the principles of impartiality, neutrality, and independence. Rather, it is an organization that works to protect human rights and to end Israel's occupation of the Palestinian Territories that has integrated humanitarian activities into its political work. As such, its experiences assisting Palestinians reveal both the dilemmas facing all humanitarian organizations working in the OPT as well as the serious difficulties that confront organizations that combine humanitarian and political work.
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, and Jerusalem

68. Conflicts, Occupation, and Music-Making in Palestine

Author:
Chuen-Fung Wong
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This article began as a reflective essay for the Faculty Development International Seminar of Macalester College, Minnesota, entitled, The Israeli-Palestinian Impasse: Dialogic Transformations, in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The seminar involved a semester-long preparation of lectures, colloquia, and readings in St. Paul, Minnesota, leading to a three-week on-site seminar and research in the West Bank cities of Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, in May and June 2008.
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem

69. Resettling Peoples, Redressing Histories: Challenging Answers to the Land Question in Namibia and the Netherlands

Author:
Liora Barba
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Nearly a decade after national liberation in South Africa and Namibia, demonstrators outside of the 2002 United Nations Conference on Development filled the streets of Johannesburg with the resounding melodies of apartheid protest songs. Meanwhile, inside the conference gates, former President Thabo Mbeki called for an “end to global apartheid.”Nearly a decade after national liberation in South Africa and Namibia, demonstrators outside of the 2002 United Nations Conference on Development filled the streets of Johannesburg with the resounding melodies of apartheid protest songs. Meanwhile, inside the conference gates, former President Thabo Mbeki called for an “end to global apartheid.”
Political Geography:
South Africa, Netherlands, and Namibia

70. Identities in Migrant Cinema: The Aesthetics of European Integration

Author:
Jalene Betts
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Although much progress was made in Europe over the last half century with regard to the integration of markets and the near-vaporization of national borders, recent years show that, contrary to the illusion of an “enlightened” continent free from the racism of the past, ethnicity continues to play a role in European culture. As demonstrated by disputes in the Balkan region over Kosovo's independence, debates on the acceptance of new member states into the European Union (in particular Turkey's application for admittance), and growing concerns over immigration in the Netherlands and France, ethnicity seems to prove itself as a thing of the present, not the past. Media coverage of the “problems” of Islam—unemployed “Arab” youths roaming the streets, young girls forced to wear head-coverings by their “sexist” relatives—is a reality, whether or not the claims made by such representations are valid.
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, France, and Netherlands