Religious Geopolitics of Palestinian Christianity: Palestinian Christian Zionists, Palestinian Liberation Theologists, and American Missions to Palestine

The introduction of Protestantism into the Middle East by American missionaries in the nineteenth century met with limited success while the responses and internalizations of local converts proved incredibly diverse. The two resultant theological descendants are Palestinian Christian Zionists and Palestinian Liberation Theologists. The article provides a short history of these two movements and highlights influential voices through interviews and media analysis. This article argues that hybrid religious identifications with nation and place has transcended, in some cases, political struggle for territory.

Human Rights, Local Plights: The Implications of Rights Discourses in the Struggle over Arab-Palestinian Bedouin Land in Israel

A widely diffused, engaged approach understands human rights as an opportunity to enhance moral progress. Less visible has a critical realm of research that reveals the often ambiguous social life of human rights discourses. This article draws on a specific case study from the intricate issue of how activism for Arab-Palestinian Bedouin citizens in Southern Israel engages with the global human rights discourse. It follows the implications of mobilization, focusing on events related to a campaign against house demolitions in informal,unrecognised settlements. The case shows how human rights discourses tend to silence the agency of political subjects, victimizing and patronizing those who seek emancipation. The ethnographic insights emphasize the role of a range of carnivalesque and spontaneous acts ofresistance, which subvert the patronizing implications of the human rights language.

Acts of Solidarity: Crossing and Reiterating Israeli-Palestinian Frontiers

In academic and public discourses on the Zionist-Palestinian conflict prevails still a ‘methodological nationalism’ based on a separatist imagination that overshadows the existence and role of Israeli-Palestinian forms of communality and solidarity. This article analyzes micropolitical practices that cross existing frontiers both within Israel and between occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Through recent conceptualizations of ‘acts’, I read these ethnographic episodes in their intentional and performative dimension. What is the role of these ‘acts’? What are their effects on both the participants and the wider public? Through two interconnected cases, different functions of acts are explored. The first case relates to encounters between Israelis and Palestinian in the embattled city of Hebron in the occupied Palestinian territories; the second investigates moments of a Gandhi-inspired peace march at the ‘internal’ frontier of the Israeli Negev desert. The ethnographic perspective reveals what lies behind and beneath the acts, going beyond the obvious structures of power of the conflict. Acts function primarily as a valve of catharsis for the participants themselves, both overcoming and reproducing hegemonic discursive elements of the conflict. Paradoxically, acts of solidarity are often crucial in creating public knowledge about the conflict in more sectarian terms. 

Order without law? An anatomy of Hamas security: The Executive Force (Tanfithya)

In the struggle to assert and consolidate its power, the Hamas movement of the Palestinian territories has devised several strategies for control. In recognition that control of security remains a key goal for any power-seeker, following its election victory in January 2006, Hamas entered into a fierce and ultimately successful conflict with Fatah for control of the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Interior and Palestinian Security Forces (PSF) in the Gaza Strip. One way in which Hamas was able to achieve this objective was through the creation of its own internal ‘police’ force called the Tanfithya (Executive Force or EF). This article details an anatomy of the EF and the implications of this force in terms of Hamas' confrontation with opponents and its attempts at governance. It also examines the extent to which the EF can be considered to be a model of Islamic policing and its impact on secular rivals in the Gaza Strip.

Extent and nature of unlicensed and off-label medicine use in hospitalised children in Palestine

Objective of the study: To determine the extent and nature of unlicensed/off-label prescribing patterns in hospitalised children in Palestine. Setting: Four paediatric wards in two public health system hospitals in Palestine [Caritas children’s hospital (Medical and neonatal intensive care units) and Rafidia general hospital (Medical and surgical units)]. Method: A prospective survey of drugs administered to infants and children <18 years old was carried out over a five-week period in the four paediatric wards. Main outcome measure: Drug-licensing status of all prescriptions was determined according to the Palestinian Registered Product List and the Physician’s Desk Reference. Results: Overall, 917 drug prescriptions were administered to 387 children. Of all drug prescriptions, 528 (57.5%) were licensed for use in children; 65 (7.1%) were unlicensed; and 324 (35.3%) were used off-label. Of all children, 49.6% received off-label prescriptions, 10.1% received unlicensed medications and 8.2% received both. Seventy-two percent of off-label drugs and 66% of unlicensed drugs were prescribed for children <2 years. Multivariate analysis showed that patients who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and infants aged 0–1 years were most likely to receive a greater number of off-label or unlicensed medications (OR 1.80; 95% CI 1.03–3.59 and OR 1.99; 95% CI 0.88–3.73, respectively). Conclusion: The present findings confirmed the elevated prevalence of unlicensed and off-label paediatric drugs use in Palestine and strongly support the need to perform well designed clinical studies in children.

The making of a void sovereignty: political implications of the military checkpoints in the West Bank

Research on the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank has emphasized not only that these checkpoints have dire implications for the Palestinians living there, at the personal, familial, and communal levels, and devastating eff ects on the Palestinian economy, but also that they have far-reaching consequences for the ability of the Palestinians to establish an independent political entity. At the same time, analysis of the Israeli forms of domination over the Palestinians has also stressed the role of a Palestinian governing authority in sustaining the Israeli rule, since the former relieves the latter of its responsibility to care for the occupied Palestinian population. This paper aims to address this apparent contradiction claiming that a comprehensive analysis of Israeli forms of domination requires a spatial examination of the operation of sovereignty with an assessment of governmentalizing arrays. This combined analysis suggests that a Palestinian sovereignty, but one which is emptied of its actual ruling power, is construed at the checkpoints as an epiphenomenon of Israeli apparatuses of control. © 2013 Pion and its Licensors.

On the Border of Indeterminacy: The Separation Wall in East Jerusalem

Drawing on a perspective which takes into account the convergences of sovereign and biopolitical ruling apparatuses, the aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive view of the Separation Wall constructed by Israel in East Jerusalem, and, through it, of Israeli control of Palestinian East Jerusalem. Neither a comprehensive border, nor a mere barrier, the Separation Wall which is being constructed in Jerusalem operates to reinstates sovereign power in arrays of governmentality for the purpose of drawing on the ability of sovereignty to appropriate legitimacy for the territorialisation of governmentality. This article claims that these territorialised arrays of governmentality give rise to processes of racialisation, by maintaining a grip on the communities of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and sustaining them in an intermediate position, standing in the way of their full integration into the Israeli population while severing their existing connections with the Palestinians in the West Bank. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Between Imaginary Lines: Violence and its Justifications at the Military Checkpoints in Occupied Palestine

Looking at one site, the Israeli checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territory, this article seeks to understand the mechanisms by which violence can present itself as justifiable (or justified), even when it materializes within frames presumably set to annul it. We look at the checkpoints as a condensed microcosmos operating within two such frames. One is the prolonged IsraeliPalestinian ‘peace process’ (the checkpoints became a primary technology of control in the period following the beginning of the peace process), and the other is regulatory power (disciplinary and biopower), which in the Foucauldian framework presumably sidelines the violent form which sovereign power takes. We argue that the checkpoints, which dissect the Palestinian occupied territories into dozens of enclaves and which are one of the most effective and destructive means of control within the current stage of occupation, can be seen as more than obstacles in the way of Palestinian movement; we suggest that they also function as corrective technologies that are meant to fail. It is with this failure that violence can appear as justified. In order to show the operation of this embedded failure, we examine one mechanism operating within the checkpoints: ‘the imaginary line’. The imaginary line is both a component within, and an emblem of a mode of control that constantly undoes itself in order to summon violence. Since it is never visibly marked in the physical space, the imaginary line is bound to be unintentionally crossed, thereby randomly rendering Palestinians as ‘transgressors’ of the rule and thus facilitating eruptions of violence by the soldiers stationed at the checkpoints. This article proposes an analysis of this hidden demarcation of space in order to question the different relations between subjects and power which it both assumes and constitutes.

Longitudinal relations between sectarian and nonsectarian community violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland

Although relations between political violence and child adjustment are well documented, longitudinal research is needed to adequately address the many questions remaining about the contexts and developmental trajectories underlying the effects on children in areas of political violence. The study examined the relations between sectarian and nonsectarian community violence and adolescent adjustment problems over 4 consecutive years. Participants included 999 mother-child dyads (482 boys, 517 girls), M ages = 12.18 (SD = 1.82), 13.24 (SD = 1.83), 13.61 (SD = 1.99), and 14.66 (SD = 1.96) years, respectively, living in socially deprived neighborhoods in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a context of historical and ongoing political violence. In examining trajectories of adjustment problems, including youth experience with both sectarian and nonsectarian antisocial behaviors, sectarian antisocial behavior significantly predicted more adjustment problems across the 4 years of the study. Experiencing sectarian antisocial behavior was related to increased adolescent adjustment problems, and this relationship was accentuated in neighborhoods characterized by higher crime rates. The discussion considers the implications for further validating the distinction between sectarian and nonsectarian violence, including consideration of neighborhood crime levels, from the child's perspective in a setting of political violence. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013.

Islamist Versus Islamist: Rising Challenge in Gaza

Islam's diversity is a direct result of centuries of schism and factionalism, and presents a challenge to the original spirit of unity as envisaged by its founder, the Prophet Mohammed. Rivalry within Islam undermines the precedent notion of unity through communal belonging (tawhid and ummah). Yet in the twenty-first century this diversity is ignored, and political Islam is represented as being more of a monolith than a spectrum of ideas and aspirations. Generally, the materialization of new Islamist groups is a challenge to those who hold that unity is all. In the Gaza Strip, specifically, the dominant Islamist actor, Hamas, is facing internal challenges from other Islamist elements. These rival Islamists are also influenced by events across their border in post-revolutionary Egypt where a plethora of new Islamist actors are vying for political space and power. This article deals with Hamas's Islamist rivals, and the effects they have had on Hamas's governance of the Gaza Strip, and political and religious legitimacy within it. It will focus on ideological and violent disputes between the Islamist elements in Gaza, and the means by which Hamas and its security elements have tackled newly emerging rivals.

Forgoing primacy: Damaging democratic policing in the West Bank

Since the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1993, the international community has supported civil policing programmes. It has done so as part of its development commitments to Palestinian state-building. Such programmes were, until the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, largely regarded as successful in terms of supporting the establishment of a Palestinian civil police (PCP). Such programmes were essentially Western imported models which loosely mixed community and public order policing approaches. With re-engagement in the Palestinian security sector (PSS) in the West Bank in 2007, the international community has once again sought to play a major role in PSS reform. This role includes supporting rehabilitation and retraining of the PCP as a principal institution of state-building. Such activities alongside the so-called transformation efforts within the wider realm of the PSS have re-established as their goal law and order. Within the transformation agenda, there are inherent demands with respect to Israel and the Palestinian National Authority's security and counterterrorism agendas. This analysis examines these activities, and accompanying political intent to contend that such approaches are undermining principles of democratic policing including civil police primacy (CPP). CPP reinforces police universality and means supporting rule of law by putting security under governmental control with proper mechanisms of accountability. This article argues that support to the security sector in the West Bank has increasingly only paid lip service or sought to subvert normative approaches to democratic policing.

Foreign Policy Essay: Hamas's Islamist Foes

Editor’s Note: The United States rightly regards the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Palestinian organization Hamas as a terrorist group, but Hamas is also the de facto government of the Gaza Strip. There it juggles the responsibilities of governing Gaza and the associated need to mollify Israel with its self-image as an Islamic “resistance” movement. Making this difficult act even harder, Hamas faces a terrorism problem of its own. Gaza is home to a range of groups that see Hamas as too accommodating toward Israel and too lenient when it comes to imposing Islamic law at home. Beverley Milton-Edwards, a professor at Queen’s University Belfast and renowned expert on Hamas, assesses these Islamist rivals and the risks for Hamas of being too confrontational or too passive in dealing with them.