Abstract The expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland began in systematic form in 1948. A few thousand Palestinians had been previously evicted from their land in the 1920s and 1930s as a result of Zionist land purchase, but they remained within Palestine. The expulsion in many ways continues in an incremental, at times undetected, manner, through the first decade of the 21st century. The main reason for this uprooting is the internal logic of the Zionist ideology and the consensual vision in Israel of the need to create an exclusive Jewish state in historical Palestine.
The One State Reality: What Is Israel/Palestine? edited by Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, March Lynch, and Shibley Telhami. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023. 364 pages. $125 cloth, $39.95 paper, $25.99 e-book.
The World Today Series: The Middle East and South Asia. More than a quarter of the world’s population live in the Middle East and South Asia, yet our knowledge and understanding of the region is often limited to news updates about the latest conflicts and crises. This edition of the annually updated volume of the World Today Series provides important insights that take the reader beyond the headlines. It offers detailed and up-to-date information about the politics, economies and societies of the twenty-four states that make up the region. Contemporary events are placed in their historical context, through an examination of major civilizations and key historical events. This volume introduces major themes that have shaped the region, including the struggles of ordinary people to achieve democratic rights; the role of oil in shaping society; burgeoning environmental threats; and the rise and fall of the Islamic State caliphate. While there is reason for optimism in regards to the Middle East and South Asia, this is tempered by the very real challenges that confront the region. The general reader will gain an understanding of these challenges and opportunities through an exploration of current and past developments.
Between the 1948 and 1967 wars, politics savagely invaded the lives of everyone living between the River Jordan in the east and the Mediterranean in the west. Elite politics, more militarized and nationalized than ever before, now demanded the full attention, daily participation and unconditional loyalty of Palestinians and Jews alike. There were very few islands of peace where people felt immune from the intrusion. Political elites on both sides had a hold over their societies that they had never had before and would not have again for a long time. Dissenting voices were stifled, and any remaining impulses towards cohabitation disappeared almost entirely. But we also find elite politics beginning to lose its importance in people's lives. This was particularly true after the 1973 war. For many groups not occupying centre stage, politics was only one of the media through which they interacted with the state or the national elites. As most marginalized groups also suffered from economic deprivation, their main concern was daily survival. Tradition and culture continued to act as anchors or defence mechanisms in the face of a harsh reality.
The yellow bulldozers the Israeli army used to destroy houses in their collective punitive actions in the years of occupation were a familiar site in the city of Ramallah. The D9, Caterpillar-made bulldozer that arrived at the city centre in early April 2002 attracted nonetheless a special interest and concern. It was heading towards the Muqata, the compound, once the seat of the Israeli military governor of Ramallah and the West Bank and, since the days of Oslo, Arafat's residential headquarters in the West Bank. Arafat had a similar outfit in the Gaza Strip but, since the outbreak of the second intifada, was not allowed to use it, as part of the Israeli retaliation policy. This policy intensified after an escalation in the suicide attacks inside Israel, which culminated in the attack on Hotel Park in Netanya on Passover's Eve, 2002, killing forty people. That last attack prompted Operation Defence Shield. This operation included a harsh re-occupation of all the West Bank cities and villages, which was resisted by force, most courageously in the refugee camp of Jenin that was bombed and re-bombed in such a way that a huge hole cut the camp into two. The void consisted of piles of rubble covering a space where once stood a main street and houses in narrow alleys.
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