The EU against the New Normal: Avoiding the Banalization of the Israeli‒Palestinian Dispute

This article assesses the European Union (EU)’s engagement with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and highlights the unintended consequences of the policies pursued by Brussels on this matter. While stressing that Palestinians and Israelis interested in peace face the danger of the banalization of the conflict, the article argues that the current status quo is unacceptable and unstainable in the long run, and this demands new policies from the actors involved with the conflict or its resolution. The EU policies’ overall rationale must be to treat the Israeli?Palestinian dispute as a normal, non-exceptional conflict, in which economic and legal tools can be employed to create new legal facts on the ground. An alternative EU approach to the conflict must recognize the insufficiency of recent initiatives and should be built upon two pillars: the legalization of the main contending issues and the empowerment of the civil society actors and initiatives that foster dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.     

From terror to public diplomacy: Jibril Rajoub and the Palestinian Authorities’ uses of sport in fragmentary Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Focusing on sport as an arena of struggle in the Israel/Palestine conflict, the current study traces, conceptually and historically, the way in which the Palestinian Authority in general, and Jibril Rajoub in particular, have shifted efforts toward the sporting arena in order to promote global awareness of the Palestinian case. In the current case study, the Palestinians were not successful at drawing attention to their political goals or in suspending Israel from Fédération Internationale de Football Association. However, their attempt emphasizes the ways in which conflicts had changed and the importance of images in the information age we live in. Conflicts today are very much battles of ideas and the information designed by the media. Alongside the military confrontations, an Image War is taking part in which each side tries to justifies its ideas, beliefs and actions.     

The Impact of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis on the Development of Amman, 1947–1958

Amman has been relatively underexplored in the literature on Middle Eastern cities. Using a broad range of primary and secondary sources, this article addresses the impact of the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War on the Jordanian capital during the late 1940s and 1950s. A number of themes are examined: Amman during wartime; the settlement of the Palestinians; change and continuity in terms of Jordan's centralization process and Amman's urban growth; and, finally, the city's transformative socio-economic structures and political forces. This article argues that the influx of Palestinian refugees transformed the public culture of Ammani society, which became much more politicized than before. It is also argued, however, that the political developments of the late 1940s and 1950s were not sufficient to overturn the defining characteristics of Amman as it had existed before the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War.     

The British Mandate and the crisis of Palestinian landlessness, 1929–1936

This article examines landlessness among Palestinians as a facet of colonial policy in Mandate Palestine before the 1936 revolt. The growth of what was sometimes called a ‘landless class’ came into official view after the violence of 1929. Subsequent investigations indicated that landlessness was a significant problem and that it threatened to destabilize the Mandate. The effort to ameliorate the crisis of landlessness, however, clashed with the dominant colonial conception of settler developmentalism, the notion that Jews, not Arabs, were the agents of modern economic development in Palestine. The first part of this examination revisits the contest over the 1930 White Paper, focusing on its relationship to the advent of mass landlessness. The rapid defeat of the new policy via the MacDonald letter left the landlessness problem to fester while simultaneously obscuring it. As the situation in the Arab countryside continued to deteriorate, the onset of the fifth aliya temporarily reinforced erroneous assumptions about the potential to rectify the problem through the yishuv's development. By the time mass landlessness was ‘rediscovered’ and new land controls designed to protect Arab smallholders were on their way to promulgation in 1935–1936, the Palestinian countryside was just months away from determined revolt.     

A Paradise Lost? The Rise and Fall of the Palestinian Community in Kuwait

The article discusses the evolution of the Palestinian community in Kuwait in the wake of the 1948 War. The demand for skilled labour facilitated the gradual integration of the Palestinians into Kuwaiti society, especially in the education system and state institutions. In this regard the article examines the role of education and students in creating personal and political socio-economic networks. The relatively liberal political atmosphere in Kuwait during its years of development transformed it into a hotbed for Palestinian political activism. This trend continued up to the 1991 Gulf War, when Yasir Arafat's support of Saddam Husayn in that wa, caused the fall from grace of the Palestinians in Kuwait. This ended the central role that the Palestinians played in the historical process of Kuwait state building. Following the death of Arafat the PLO began to seek reconciliation with Kuwait. At this timely moment in the history of relations between these two communities, the article sheds light on these efforts.     

Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Haram al-Sharif: A Pan-Islamic or Palestinian Nationalist Cause?

The World Islamic Conference, held in Jerusalem in 1931 under the auspices of Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Supreme Muslim Council, marked a turning point in the Palestinian nationalist struggle as well as in the struggle between the two main factions—the more extremist one led by Hajj Amin and the more moderate Opposition—for control of the Palestinian leadership. The Conference, though co-sponsored by Shawkat ‘Ali and the Muslim Indian Congress, and ostensibly representative of the worldwide community of Muslims, was effectively dominated by Hajj Amin and his Palestinian supporters. Through his control of its proceedings, Hajj Amin was able to redefine the Palestinian nationalist cause as essentially a pan-Islamic one, in connection with the perceived need to defend the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem against Zionist encroachment. Contrasted here with the World Islamic Conference (and held concurrently with it) is the Second Arab Orthodox Congress. Whereas the World Islamic Conference sought to redefine an issue arguably specific to Palestine as pan-Islamic, the local Christian Orthodox community, in keeping with its desire to Arabise Palestine's Greek Orthodox Church (hence their self-designation as the Arab Orthodox Church in Palestine), sought to redefine what was essentially a religious matter—concerning the succession of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem—in nationalist terms. It was not simply a matter of differing ideological perspectives; defining the cause of the Haram al-Sharif as a pan-Islamic one also served a political objective, namely the enhancement of Hajj Amin's position vis-à-vis his political rivals. Nonetheless, whatever the motivations involved, this development was a factor in the marginalisation of the Christian Arab component of the Palestinian nationalist movement. Whereas at the start of the British Mandate they had played a role disproportionately large relative to their actual numbers, by its end, their role in the nationalist movement had diminished almost to the point of near inconsequence, as evidenced, for instance, by their marginal involvement in the Arab Revolt (1936–1939).     

Sheikh Qaradawi and the Internal Palestinian Struggle Issues Preventing Reconciliation Between Fatah and Hamas and the Influence of the Qaradāwi Era over the Struggle Between the Organizations

Sheikh Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the most influential Muslim thinkers in the world. Western observers consider him a moderate, a bridge between Muslim conservatives and Islamic activists. This article, through direct translation of Sheikh al-Qaradawi's verbal and written expressions, shows the view of him as a moderate to be wishful thinking when it deals with the Palestinian problem. This article deals with issues preventing reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and the influence of the Qaradawi era over the struggle between the organizations.     

From Al‐Aqsa to Aqaba: The Israeli‐Palestinian conflict and the road map to peace

The much‐heralded road map for peace has hardly made a dent in the conflict which shows no signs of abating.     

The Palestinian Issue as Constructed in Jordanian School Textbooks, 1964–94: Changes in the National Narrative

This article will discuss the school textbooks in history and civic in the elementary and secondary schools of Jordan between 1964 and 1994 and will show that the changes in the narrative manifested in the school textbooks in the course of these years were influenced by the political, ideological and national needs of Jordanian regime in this period and especially in the light of the Palestinian component in the Jordanian society that presented not only a national-ideological, but also a physical and existential challenge to the integrity of the kingdom. The article will show how, in view of the developments in the Palestinian arena, the school textbooks reflect an attempt on part of the Jordanian regime to forge a national Arab and Jordanian-Palestinian identity up to the end of the 1960s whereas since the beginning of the 1970s, the emphasis is placed on a separate Jordanian territorial identity.     

They Were Prepared: The Palestinian Arab Scout Movement 1920–1948

This article explores different historical aspects of the Palestinian scouting movement, mainly during the British Mandate (1920–1948). I begin with the general contours of the movement's development and its deteriorating relationship with the Mandate government. I then proceed to reconstruct and analyze scouting culture, showing how it exposed Palestinian boys and young men to a vast array of socializing practices which solidified identification with local communities, parent organizations, and the Palestinian Arab nation. The article also shows that scouting was a visible and powerful component of the Palestinian public sphere. This article explores a historical phenomenon significant to the broader history of Palestinian society and the development of the national movement.     

The Well of Forgetfulness and Remembrance: milieu de mémoire and lieu de mémoire in a Palestinian Arab Town in Israel

This article explores the history of an ancient well that had been a vivid milieu de mémoire, in Pierre Nora's term, for hundreds of years. In the 1950s water pipelines were connected to many houses in the town of Baqa al-Gharbiyya, where the well was situated, and within a few years the well was deserted. Throughout the second half of the twentieth century the well had been forgotten as waste piled up where once an ancient source of life had flourished. This article focuses on the circumstances of a recent conservation project intended to rescue the well from a careless municipal ‘development’ plan, and to preserve the site for the benefit of the local population. The new lieu de mémoire of the well deserves scholarly attention because it was built ‘from the grass roots,’ by ordinary men and women who conceive of their cultural heritage as an important part of their identity and oppose the ‘acceleration of history,’ as Nora put it. The interpretation of the memorial site is carried out in a contextual symbolic analysis of its spatial and artistic characteristics, alongside written evidence concerning the initiative, as well as oral testimonies relating the history of the well since the 1930s. This multilayered interpretation revolves around the gap between memories and relics of an essentially rural culture, and complex urban, social, and political realities.     

SPLM–NCP asymmetrical power relations jeopardise the implementation of the CPA and the future of the Sudan

ABSTRACT

The political instability that has characterised Sudanese politics since independence is attributable to political exclusion, economic neglect and marginalisation. Discrimination based on religion, language and culture has constituted the main contradictions between the masses of the Sudanese people (periphery) and the politically dominant Arabised Nubians (centre) in all the different politico-ideological hues experienced by the nation. Attempts to resolve this contradiction have left the structural imbalances inherited from the colonial administration of the Sudan intact. This explains the resurgence of war, particularly in Southern Sudan. The recent peace agreements between the National Congress Party (NCP), namely the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A); the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) (Minawi); the Cairo Agreement with the National Democratic Alliance and the Eastern Sudan Peace Agreement with the Eastern Sudan Front, have left the NCP still in firm control of the oppressive state machinery. The CPA power-sharing protocol awarded the NCP a majority which institutionalises a power asymmetry that the NCP utilises to obstruct implementation of the CPA and delay the process of democratic transformation.

This article analyses the asymmetry in the NCP–SPLM partnership and power relationship. It assumes that the tragic death of Dr. John Garang de Mabior is a major cause of the political weakness demonstrated by the SPLM since 2005. This power imbalance jeopardises the CPA implementation and the future of the Sudan as a state.     

Israel approaches the nuclear threshold: the controversies in the American administration surrounding the Israeli nuclear bomb 1968–1969

The article focuses on the internal debate in the US Administration as Israel Approached and passed the Nuclear threshold in 1968–1969. The article is based on recently released American Defense and State Departments documents and also on Presidential and National Security Advisor documents hitherto unavailable.