Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Joel Beinin

Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University and a contributing editor of Middle East Report.

MER Article

The Diaries of Yossef Nachmani

The Diaries of Yossef Nachmani (Dalia Karpel). New York: First Run/Icarus Films, 2006.

Joel Beinin • 3 min read

MER Article

Letter from al-Tuwani

The village of al-Tuwani in Masafir Yatta, or the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank, is the poorest and most desolate place I have seen. In June 2007, I accompanied Rebecca Vilkomerson on her visit to Hafiz Hurayni, a representative of al-Tuwani’s popular committee. Rebecca is working with the pop

Joel Beinin • 3 min read

MER Article

Youssef Darwish

Youssef Darwish (1910–2006) was born to a Karaite Jewish family of modest means in the Cairo neighborhood of ‘Abbasiyya. His father was illiterate, but made sure that his children received a first-rate education. In France to study commerce and then law, Darwish met the Communist Party of France in

Joel Beinin • 2 min read

MER Article

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed (1928–2006), a long-serving contributing editor of this magazine, was born in Cairo into a cosmopolitan family whose landed wealth dated to the era of Mehmet Ali. He was a life-long activist in the communist and progressive movements, one of Egypt’s leading political writers and in

Joel Beinin • 3 min read

MER Article

Taha Sa'd 'Uthman

Taha Sa‘d ‘Uthman (1916–2004), a life-long trade union and leftist political organizer, passed away at the age of 88 last November. His funeral in Cairo’s ‘Umar Makram mosque was attended by over 1,000 people representing the spectrum of Egypt’s progressive forces -- trade unionists, lawyers, human

Joel Beinin • 1 min read

MER Article

Acts of Refusal

Rela Mazali, an Israeli writer and feminist peace activist, is a founder of New Profile, a group challenging the militarization of Israeli society and opposing the occupation. Joel Beinin, an editor of Middle East Report, spoke with her in Herzliya, Israel on January 6, 2004 and continued the conver

Joel Beinin • 9 min read

MER Article

No More Tears

Benny Morris, 1948 and After: Israel and the Palestinians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, second edition, 1994). Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem R

Joel Beinin • 19 min read

MER Article

The Working Class and Peasantry in the Middle East

Since the early 1970s the working class and peasantry of the Middle East have been socially reorganized while their political salience has been reconfigured. These processes are associated with a transition from economic nationalism, industrially biased statist development and populist politics towa

Joel Beinin • 15 min read

MER Article

The Israeli Peace Movement

Mordechai Bar-On, In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996). Iman Abdel Megid Hamdy, “Dissenters in Zion: The Bi-nationalist and Partitionist Trends in the Politics of Israel,” unpublished PhD dissertation (Cairo Univ

Joel Beinin • 7 min read

MER Article

The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict After Oslo

Naseer Aruri, The Obstruction of Peace: The US, Israel and the Palestinians (Common Courage, 1995). Norman Finkelstein, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (Verso, 1995). “Palestine: Diplomacies of Defeat,” special issue of Race & Class 37/2 (October-December 1995). Edward Said, Pe

Joel Beinin • 8 min read

MER Article

Categories of Power

Regular readers of this magazine will know that one of our defining characteristics has been a commitment to understanding the Middle East in terms of political economy: the relationship between forms of political power and the social relations of production and distribution at the local and international levels. Edward Said’

Joel Beinin • 5 min read

MER Article

Terrorism, Class and Democracy in Egypt

During April 1994, armed actions of the radical Islamist opposition in Egypt achieved a new level of lethal efficiency. One Gama‘a Islamiyya (Islamic Group) hit squad killed Maj. Gen. Ra’uf Khayrat, who was responsible for conducting undercover operations against them; another assassinated the chief

Joel Beinin • 5 min read