Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Calling Erdogan’s Bluff on Palestine
Israel’s war in Gaza has animated Turkey’s longstanding political rivalries.
Urban Planning and the Struggle Against Israel’s Spatial Domination
Located in Wadi Ara within the Green Line, Kufr Qara is a Palestinian town of 20,000 residents. Before the Nakba, its land spanned 28,000 dunums (roughly 7,000 acres), but today, Israel has left it with less than 8,000 dunums (fewer than 2,000 acres). The town is...Palestine, Popular Will and Political Repression in Britain
On November 11, 2023, the largest demonstration in support of Palestinian rights in Britain’s history took place in London. People of all genders, ages, ethnicities and religions marched together from Hyde Park to the US Embassy in Vauxhall demanding a ceasefire in...The Houthis’ ‘Sovereign Solidarity’ with Palestine
Since October 7, Yemen has made an unexpected return from the margins of global attention. The Houthi movement’s seemingly ad hoc seizure of shipping vessels in the Red Sea, which began in early November in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, quickly became a...The Egyptian Public and the War on Gaza
The government’s delicate balancing act around Palestine.
Lessons from ’48
A Conversation on Silence, Complicity and Popular Mobilization of Palestinians in Israel
Reflections from the Present on the Future of Political Action for Palestine
Following October 7, 2023, the world has witnessed an unprecedented assault on Gaza and across historic Palestine. At the same time, these months have given rise to an unprecedented surge of global solidarity. New meanings and modes of struggle are animating public...The Houthis’ ‘Sovereign Solidarity’ with Palestine
Situating the Red Sea campaign in Yemen’s past and present.
Lessons from ’48—A Conversation on Silence, Complicity and Popular Mobilization of Palestinians in Israel
Amid a wave of unprecedented global solidarity with Palestine where does ’48 fit in?
Palestinian Trade Unions Call for an End to Arming Israel
Amid an escalating crisis in Gaza, trade unions in Palestine appeal for international solidarity.
The AnthroBoycott Collective and Organizing Against Apartheid—An Interview with Daniel Segal and Jessica Winegar
What we can learn from the American Anthropological Association’s historic resolution.
The Question of Palestinian Statehood and the Future of Decolonization
Is statehood the desired end goal of decolonization struggles or is it instead a useful tool along the way to achieving national liberation? The answer to this question has been at the heart of many national liberation movements since the twentieth century. Most struggles for decolonization have pursued the creation of a sovereign independent nation state as a right that is enshrined in international law with the 1960 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514, which defined colonialism as a crime and specified that “all people have an inalienable right to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory.” This resolution granted colonized people the internationally recognized right to political independence and self-determination.
“But if I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna steal it” – Israeli Settler-Colonial Accumulation by Dispossession
In a video clip widely shared on social media platforms in late April 2021, Mona al-Kurd (a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood) is seen confronting Jacob Fauci (an Israeli Jewish settler from Long Island) in the yard of her family home.[1]Mona al-Kurd speaking with Yaakov Fauci in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, April 2021 (Screen shot from video posted to Instagram.)“Yaakov, you know this is not your house?” she said. “Yes,” he replied, “but if I go you don’t go back [either]. So, what’s the problem? Why are you yelling at me? I didn’t do this. I didn’t do this…It’s easy to yell at me but I didn’t do this,” he categorically responded. “You are stealing my house,” al-Kurd continued, to which Fauci countered, “Yes, but if I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna steal it.”
Revisiting MERIP Coverage of Israel as an Apartheid State
The recent upsurge in analysis of Israel as an apartheid state has peaked again with Amnesty International’s February 2022 report. The willingness of mainstream non-governmental organizations to use the language of apartheid marks a shift in the terms of the debate—one that builds on a long history of analysis and activism, including by MERIP. Revisit MERIP articles that examine the parallels—and distinctions—between Israel’s system of control and that of apartheid South Africa.
Jerusalem Youth at the Forefront of 2021’s Unity Intifada
The Palestinian uprising of April, May and June 2021—known as the Unity Intifada—is part of a long tradition of revolutionary political activity in which Palestinians from Jerusalem have often played a role. Akram Salhab and Dahoud al-Ghoul report from the city about the reasons youth feel compelled to act and how they are organizing. They investigate the ways this uprising builds on earlier civic action and why this intifada is so important.
Israel’s Latest Effort to Fragment and Disempower the Palestinians
In October 2021, Israel spuriously designated six Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist” groups, liable to suppression and severe punishment under Israel’s counterterrorism law. Joost Hiltermann analyzes why Israel is targeting these well-regarded groups—including the oldest Palestinian human rights organization, Al-Haq—and why now. Israel’s focus on crushing Palestinian nationalism, the decline of the PA’s relevance in Palestinian life and international complacency all play a role.
The Enduring Question of Palestine
The guiding mission of MERIP’s founders was not centered around cultivating a better understanding of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Rather, their magazine consciously emphasized the range and diversity of progressive and revolutionary struggles...Tracing the Historical Relevance of Race in Palestine and Israel
The global conversation about race and racial oppression in recent years, which has reached new levels of visibility since the summer of 2020, has emerged largely as a reaction to police violence in the United States and the work of the Movement for Black Lives coalition. Its global reverberations have often been distinct, however. Activists are not only making connections between US practices and patterns of racial oppression and those in their own countries; they are also highlighting features of racial violence that are unique to different contexts.
Revisiting MERIP Coverage of Gaza, Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
For more than 50 years, MERIP has provided a depth of analysis on Palestine and Palestinian politics that is unmatched. Here we dive into the archives to highlight both historical and recent MERIP articles that provide key context for the current crises in Gaza and Jerusalem as well as important background for understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Dilemmas of Practicing Humanitarian Medicine in Gaza
Humanitarian medical aid was developed to provide life-saving assistance to populations suffering from war and disease. What happens when this model is applied to help those living under occupation and coping with chronic deprivations and long-term siege conditions? Osama Tanous, a Palestinian pediatrician in Israel, recounts how he saw the logic of medical aid shattered during trips to Gaza and reflects on the limits of humanitarianism. Forthcoming in MER issue 297 “Health and the Body Politic.”
