Forwarded on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies
IN THE NEW ISSUE of the Journal of Palestine Studies
* Free and online: Gaza Unearthed...
Four candid interviews with key players
in an ambitious new archaeological project
lay bare a side of Gaza rarely seen in th
news. A French archaeologist, a Swiss
museum curator, a Palestinian businessman
and collector, and an official of the Palestinian
Authority's Antiquities Department discuss
Gaza's ancient past and the obstacles facing current and future research. Together, these interviews reveal the depth and complexity of the interplay between politics, religion, economics, and power structures in doing archaeology-and the massive challenges of doing archaeology under occupation. Beautiful photographs of discoveries from Gaza's archaeological sites accompany this must-read article. Excerpts here. Full text here.
* Rethinking the Economy...
UN economist Raja Khalidi powerfully demonstrates
that the Palestinian economies in Israel, Gaza, and
the West Bank -increasingly treated as separate units
- are in fact part of a single Israeli-dominated
economic regime, and he makes a compelling
case for charting a new course for the Palestinian
economy that recognizes and takes
advantage of their natural bond.
Read excerpts here. Purchase full article here.
* Cartoons of the Revolt...
Anthropologist Sandy Sufian looks at political
cartoons from the Arab and Hebrew newspapers
during the 1936-39 Arab revolt to show how racist,
pseudo-scientific notions of the age were
employed to portray adversaries -Arab, J
ewish, and British- as deviant and base.
Read excerpts here. Purchase full article here.
* Mizrahi Debates...
Reviewing four books on the Mizrahim in Israel,
scholar Moshe Behar dives into a contentious
polemic within the community of Jews of Middle
Eastern origin on activism and academics.
Read excerpts here. Purchase full article here.
* Free and online - three full JPS book reviews...
Augustus Richard Norton's book on Hizballah is
reviewed by Rula Abisaab, read it here; Michael
Dumper's book on the future of the Palestinian
refugees is reviewed by Michael Fischbach,
read it here; and Hamid Dabashi's groundbreaking
edited volume on Palestinian cinema is reviewed
by Haim Bresheeth, read it here.
* PLUS regular sections readers find invaluable:
Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy; Chronology;
Documents (including UN Special Rapporteur
John Dugard's call for the UN to withdraw from the
Quartet, and Human Rights Watch's revealing
report on civilian casualties during the
2006 Lebanon war); Book Reviews and Bibliography;
Settlement Monitor; Hebrew Press selections,
photographs & cartoons. Purchase here.
HIGHLIGHTS & EXTRACTS FROM JPS 146
** READ FULL ARTICLE ONLINE "Crossroads and
Contexts: Interviews on Archaeology in Gaza" by
Fareed Armaly (with Marc-André Haldimann,
Jawdat Khoudary, Jean-Baptiste Humbert,
and Moain Sadiq).
From Armaly's discussion with French archaeologist
Jean-Baptiste Humbert:" Gaza is a treasury for the
archaeologist. There are so many new sites, new
discoveries -not much has been done here. Gaza
of course is a 'gateway' of the East on the
Mediterranean. . . . one of the difficulties in
Mediterranean archaeology is that we find quite
a lot of items from the Indian Ocean in the
southeast corner of the Mediterranean, but it is
very rare to find Western items in India or China.. . . .
Just moving the sand dunes reveals an astonishing
density of human activity; sites of different periods
are very close to each other. Recent excavations
unearthed a large, totally unknown and unexpected
urban installation from the middle of the fourth
millennium B.C. and Egyptian military settlements
from the second millennium B.C. (under Thutmosis
III and the Ramses) close to Wadi Ghazza. We have
also identified under the sand the classical
Palestinian town and harbor of Anthedon, which
previously had been known only through historical sources,
and rich Byzantine churches and monasteries are under excavation."
Read full text here.
** Extract from "Sixty Years after the UN Partition Resolution:
What Future for the Arab Economy in Israel?" by Raja Khalidi.
"[T]he concept of Israeli-Palestinian economic relations
that has been defined by (and prevailed since) the Oslo
accords appears increasingly obsolete in light of the
political prospects being shaped by the ongoing conflict.
Economic policy analysts must therefore recognize the
extent to which political and demographic realities on
the ground have resulted in an economic power
structure that transcends the usual parameters
defining the economic implications of a two-state
solution. . . .The structural trends and binding
constraints on which Israeli economic success has
depended are the very factors that have perpetuated a
separate and dependent economic status of a million
Palestinian Arabs in Israel. The latter's economic fate
is almost as confined to the limited space in which
they reside as is the fate of the economy of the
Palestinian people encircled in Gaza or fragmented
in zones behind the separation barrier."
Read abstract and purchase article here.
** Extracts from "Anatomy of the 1936-39 Revolt:
Images of the Body in Political Cartoons of Mandatory
Palestine" by Sandy Sufian
"As tensions rose between the two communities
[during the Arab revolt], British censorship of Arabic
and Hebrew newspapers increased.... Censorship
increased the usefulness of political cartoons
because subversive messages could be shifted
out of the text (which then was not evidently
objectionable) and into the image. Physiognomy
thus became a camouflaged, visual way of
conveying critique. Incendiary words could be
reincarnated as caricatures, a form more likely to
pass censorship regulations."
Read abstract and purchase article here.
** Extracts from "Mizrahim, Abstracted:
Action, Reflection, and the Academization of
the Mizrahi Cause" by Moshe Behar.
"Critical scholarship . . . is ultimately judged not
by the use of 'provocative' or 'radical' terminology
or by recognizing, however belatedly, the
Palestinian right of return; these constitute
only part of the democratic Mizrahi perspective.
Alternative Mizrahi scholarship at its core
demands an inclusive, respectful solidarity with
those movements for justice and equality-Mizrahi
and Palestinian-that, as the result of decades of
hard labor by activists and scholars, are at its
very foundation. Mizrahi history cannot be
reconstructed backward, and
reconstituted forward, without adherence to
this principle."
Read Abstract and purchase article here.
The full Table of Contents, all abstracts, the first
two pages of the Chronology and Bibliography
sections are available here.
All articles can be purchased here.
Subscribe today and make sure to get your regular copy.
The Institute has produced authoritative studies on
Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict
since 1963.
__,_._,___
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment