First Intifada Research Articles

The Masculinity Studies Reader

Acknowledgments. Editors' Acknowledgments. Introduction (Rachel Adams and David Savran) Part I: Eroticism. Introduction. 1. Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction between the Sexes (Sigmund Freud) 2. Masochism and Male Subjectivity (Kaja Silverman) 3. Subject Honor, Object Shame (Roger Lancaster) 4. The Democratic Body: Prostitution and Citizenship in Classical Athens (David Halperin) Part II: Social Sciences. Introduction. 5. Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight (Clifford Geertz) 6. Toward a New Sociology of Masculinity (Tim Carrigan, Bob Connell, and John Lee) 7. The Fraternal Social Contract (Carole Pateman) 8. The Birth of the Self-made Man (Michael Kimmel) Part III: Representations. Introduction. 9. The Beast in the Closet: James and the Writing of Homosexual Panic (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick) 10. The Woman Warrior versus The Chinaman Pacific: Must a Chinese American Critic Choose between Feminism and Heroism (King-Kok Cheung) 11. Skin Head Sex Thing: Racial Difference and the Homoerotic Imaginary (Kobena Mercer) 12. Bonds of (In)Difference (Robyn Wiegman) Part IV: Empire and Modernity. Introduction. 13. The Fact of Blackness (Frantz Fanon) 14. The History of Masculinity (R. W. Connell) 15. The White Man's Muscles (Richard Dyer) 16. What Does a Jew Want? or, The Political Meaning of the Phallus (Daniel Boyarin) 17. The Economy of Colonial Desire (Revathi Krishnaswamy) 18. Male Gender and Rituals of Resistance in the Palestinian Intifada (Julie Peteet) Part V: Borders. Introduction. 19. Homosexuality and the Signs of Male Friendship in Elizabethan England (Alan Bray) 20. An Introduction to Female Masculinity (Judith Halberstam) 21. That Sexe Which Prevaileth (Anne Fausto-Sterling) 22. The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Don Kulick) Index.

The collective Jew: Israel and the new antisemitism

For Theodor Herzl, Zionism, in the sense of a political movement to establish a sovereign Jewish state, offered the only workable solution to the problem of antisemitism. Some commentators today speak of a 'new anti-Semitism'. They claim, first, that there is a new wave or outbreak of hostility towards Jews that began with the start of the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000 and is continuing at the present time. Second, and more fundamentally, the 'new anti-Semitism' is said to involve a new form or type of hostility towards Jews: hostility towards Israel. This is the claim under discussion in Klug's paper. The claim implies an equivalence between (a) the individual Jew in the old or classical version of antisemitism and (b) the state of Israel in the new or modern variety. Klug argues that this concept is confused and that the use to which it is put gives a distorted picture of the facts. He begins by recalling classical antisemitism, the kind that led to the persecution of European Jewry to which Herzl's Zionism was a reaction. On this basis, he briefly reformulates the question of whether and when hostility towards Israel is antisemitic. He then discusses the so-called new form of antisemitism, especially the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. He concludes by revisiting Herzl's vision in light of the situation today.

Class, Economy, and the Second Intifada

The current Palestinian Intifada and Israel's brutal response has been the subject of countless articles over the last two years. There is however a disappointing vacuum within left analysis, with much of this writing attempting to explain the character of Israeli policy through the right-wing views of Ariel Sharon. Within this framework, Israeli strategy is presented as a racist extension of colonialist designs on the Occupied Territories sometimes including the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip (hereafter referred to as WB/GS).This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Last of the Patriarchs

JUST OVER a year ago, on March 7, 2001, Ariel Sharon took office as Israel's eleventh prime minister, having beaten his predecessor, Ehud Barak, in a landslide. Sharon's election seemed like ultimate expression of Israeli anger, choice of a public frustrated by stagnation of peace process and violence of second Pales tinian intifada. After all, Sharon, known as the Bulldozer, was ultimate hard-liner: builder of settlements and a warrior who had fought Arabs for more than 50 years. Indeed, Sharon had been responsible for some of most controversial acts in Israel's military history, including its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Now finally at helm, he vowed not to negotiate under fire and to fight until terror was defeated. Only then, he promised Israelis, would he make what he called painful concessions for peace. Conditions in Israel are now even worse than when Sharon took office. Palestinian terror attacks occur almost daily and have killed more than 250 Israelis in past year. Israel has responded with a mix of economic sanctions and escalating military actions. These strikes have included recent, massive incursions into cities and refugee camps in West Bank and Gaza with tanks, troops, and helicopter gunships; Israel even temporarily reoccupied Ramallah with a division size force. Although more than 640 Palestinians have already been killed in last year, however, war of attrition continues with no end in sight. Only a delicate combination of mutual deterrence and

Where Have All the Women (and Men) Gone?

The authors ground their reflections on gender and the complex realities of the second Palestinian intifada against Israeli occupation in the political processes unleashed by the signing of the Israeli–Palestinian rule, noting that the profound inequalities between Israel and Palestine during the interim period produced inequalities among Palestinians. The apartheid logic of the Oslo period – made explicit in Israel's policies of separation, seige and confinement of the Palestinian population during the intifada and before it – is shown to shape the forms, sites and levels of resistance which are highly restricted by gender and age. In addition, the authors argue that the Palestinian Authority and leadership have solved the contradictions and crisis of Palestinian nationalism in this period through a form of rule that the authors term ‘authoritarian populism’, that tends to disallow democractic politics and participation. The seeming absence of women and civil society from the highly unequal and violent confrontations is contrasted with the first Palestinian intifada (1987–91), that occurred in a context of more than a decade of democratic activism and the growth of mass-based organizations, including the Palestinian women's movement. The authors explore three linked crises in gender roles emerging from the conditions of the second intifada: a crisis in masculinity, a crisis in paternity and a crisis in maternity.

Jordan's predicaments

Jordan's King Abdullah is being put to the test. The effects of the second Palestinian intifada have spread beyond Israel: Jordan too has struggled to contain the political, security and economic ramifications of the ten months of violent protests. As a relatively small and weak state buffeted by regional powers, Jordan's prime objective must be to navigate the present crisis and hope that a stable cease–fire is followed by the resumption of Israeli–Palestinian peacemaking. Abdullah's nightmare is that violence will escalate to such a degree that Israel sends its forces back into the Palestinian governed areas of Gaza and the West Bank, increasing pressure on him to tear up Jordan's peace treaty with Israel. Even that, however, would not be as bad as things could get for the Kingdom.

Political violence, social integration, and youth functioning: Palestinian youth from the Intifada

AbstractInformed by social ecological, social capital, and social disorganization theories, this study tested an ecological model of youth experience in the Palestinian Intifada. The sample included 6,000 Palestinian 14 year olds, assessed in 1994 and 1995 after the end of the conflict. Data from retrospective self‐reports of youth exposure to and involvement in political violence, and self‐reports of current individual functioning (depression and antisocial behavior) and integration in several social contexts (family, peer relations, religion, education, and community), revealed: direct associations between Intifada experience and antisocial behavior and depression (females only); Intifada experience was positively associated with religiosity and unrelated to social integration in family, school, and peer relations; in some cases, social integration in family, education, religion, and peer relations significantly moderated the associations between Intifada experience and youth problems; integration in the several social contexts was directly related in predictable ways to youth problem behaviors, with neighborhood disorganization the most consistent and powerful predictor. The discussion centers around youth resilience to the effects of political violence, the role of psychological meaning children and adolescents can attach to political violence, and the overall salience of social integration in youth development. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Palestinian Intifada 1987–1993: The dynamics of symbols and symbolic realities, the role of symbols, rituals and myths in national struggles

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together. Ecclesiastes 3:5 The Palestinian Intifada of 1987–1993 was awash with symbolism. Persons, objects, and events, whether rooted in past history, or part of the present, or representing future hopes, were elevated and transformed into highly charged symbols, rituals or myths. Stones, colour, smoke, speech, silence, tyre‐burning, action and in action ‐ all acquired significance and purpose well beyond their literal meaning. The symbolic dimension of the Intifada was by no means a static affair. On the contrary, during the Intifada symbols were subject to continuous change. Some symbols gained in strength, others still gradually lost their potency. Occasionally, new symbols appeared on the scene, while others disappeared altogether. Most common were symbols that betoken a deviation and departure from routine practice. The words of an Israeli officer, ‘They [the Palestinians] host PLO flags, they paint PLO flags; we remove these flags, we erase these flags’, show that the Intifada was plainly, literally a battle of symbols and de‐symbolization during a national struggle.

Protecting Palestinian Intifada children: Peaceful demonstrators, child soldiers or child martyrs?

AbstractNo Abstract

Mothercraft, statecraft, and subjectivity in the Palestinian intifada

Focusing on Palestinian subjectivity during the intifada, / highlight connections between domestic processes and the nascent state. Empowered by the progressive‐nationalist movement, ordinary young men and women challenged the moral authority of the domestic patriarch. The new moral subjects were not, however, producing "themselves" individually and reflexively. In the face of paradoxical conditions of self‐making precipitated by the organized political struggle, young men with their mothers and sisters became moral persons through a collaborative and reciprocal exercise of self,[statecraft, kinship, political organization, gender, personhood, Middle East]

The Polyvalent Politics of Martyr Commemorations in the Palestinian Intifada

During the second Palestinian intifada (uprising), which began in September 2000, martyr funerals and posters were the most predominant form of memorialization. These practices did not constitute simple expressions of nationalist sentiment; they created a public sphere in which participants and observers were hailed as national subjects, while simultaneously generating a forum in which public political debate occurred. This article explores the tensions among different visions of the Palestinian national project that appeared through these commemorative practices as the normative effects of martyr memorialization dissolved into criticism, cynicism and apathy.

Armed But Not Dangerous: Women in the Israeli Military

Over the years, the fact that Israel has been the only country in history to conscript women for military service has given rise to many myths. This article will separate those myths from the facts. The facts are as follows. During pre-state days, women formed about 15% of the armed movements that opposed the British. When the War of Independence broke out, however, women were taken out of combat units. They were never allowed to return; instead, as in other armed forces, they filled `traditional' slots. The expansion of women's role in the military, which took place during the late 1970s, was the result of the Israel Defence Force's (IDF) desperate quest for manpower. This expansion of women's roles coincided with the incipient decline of the Israeli Army as a fighting force. As first the Lebanese adventure and then the need to put down the Palestinian Intifada accelerated that decline during the eighties, more women entered the IDF; the more women entered the IDF, the more its prestige declined. Thus, in the IDF as in the armed forces of all other developed countries, the entry of women into the military, far from representing a feminist triumph, is both cause and symptom of the decline of the military.

Book Reviews: British Politics since the War, The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher, Authoritarianism and Democratisation in Postcommunist Societies, Vol. 1: The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe, Vol. 2: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe, Vol. 3: Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, Vol. 4: Conflict, Cleavage, and

Book Reviews: British Politics since the War, The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher, Authoritarianism and Democratisation in Postcommunist Societies, Vol. 1: The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe, Vol. 2: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe, Vol. 3: Democratic Changes and Authoritarian Reactions in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, Vol. 4: Conflict, Cleavage, and

Judicial Rhetoric, Government Lawyers, and Human Rights: The Case of the Israeli High Court of Justice during the Intifada

Many studies suggest that courts fail to protect individual rights since they support and uphold state repressive practices during periods of emergency or confrontation. Previous studies focused on judicial policies as reflected injudicial declarations and decisions that were fully disposed by judges and officially published. I argue that the study of out-of-court settlements and the comparison between the outcomes of settlements and the judicial rhetoric are key to understanding the behavior of courts in times of national crisis. At such times, courts may hesitate to openly confront the government on the issue of minority rights, but they may strive to protect minorities by exerting pressure on the governmental legal apparatus and by effecting out-of-court settlements more favorable to minorities than official decisions. Thus, courts influence social practices while avoiding government or public opinion counterreactions that would impair their institutional autonomy. This argument is demonstrated in a case study of the Israeli High Court of Justice during the Palestinian Intifada.

The American Feminist Concept of Motherhood: Test Practice in Israel as Evaluated through Oral History Research

Between 1989 and 1991, I interviewed women in Palestine/Israel to explore the theoretical perspective that claims women are often in favor of peace and peaceful negotiations to resolve conflicts as a result of their experiences of motherhood.' From the oral history interviews I conducted with women concerning their lives, political opinions, and relation to the protracted nationalist conflict, I concluded that the notions of motherhood that are so central to the theoretical stance of many American feminists are culturally defined and directly bound up in notions of national political identity. Any easy reliance on a idea of maternal thinking is further complicated by the model of motherhood that has been presented under this cover of universal rhetoric that is actually middleclass, white, and heterosexual. Some comments I collected from these women illustrate Sara Ruddick's critique that the creation of a mother identification is often tribal-promoting women to position themselves against the Other, the alien-and is therefore a hostile and racist act rather than an invitation to bond across race and national lines.2 When I began this research, the intensity of the Israeli response to the Palestinian Intifada was prominent in international news. In five trips I gathered material from women in an interview sample that included grassroots organizers, workers, mothers, students, and grandmothers. Geographically, the interviews included women throughout Israel from north to south, in both urban and rural settings. The women were from Jerusalem, including settlements in East and West Jerusalem as well as from the suburbs3; Haifa; Maalot; Nazareth; Mizpah Ramon; Kibbutz Lotan; Kibbutz Gan Schmuel; Kibbutz Kinneret; Hadera; and small Arabic villages within Israel's borders (where some interviewees preferred to use pseudonyms and which therefore I cannot name). The women ranged

The Court, the Ministry and the Law: Awad and the Withdrawal of East Jerusalem Residence Rights

In 1988, at the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada, a deportation case came before the Israeli Supreme Court (sitting as a High Court of Justice). The facts of the case presented no great difficulty, but the Court took the opportunity to declare the law governing the previously uncertain residence status of East Jerusalem Palestinians. The judgment of the Court was given by Barak J. In a remarkable passage, the learned judge not only examined the legislatively defined conditions for the loss of permanent residence, but went on to discuss the subsistence and expiry of this status in more fundamental terms, focusing on the “reality” of the licence-holder's presence in Israel. The case thus introduced a second, judge-made test for the loss of permanent residence, which appears to exist in uneasy parallel with the test provided by the legislature. This essay questions the propriety and the quality of Barak J.'s innovation, and examines some of its consequences.

Who is the Enemy?

This study focuses on the portrayal of Arabs in Israeli news during the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada. At that time, there was only one news television programme in Hebrew - Mabat - which was (and still is) owned by the state. This was the only source of information and images which constructed and represented Israel-Arab relations and legitimized the contemporary power structure. We have found after conducting a content analysis of 54 news broadcasts that coverage presented a negatively biased portrayal of all Arabs. Arabs tend to be underrepresented, unidentified by name or profession and engaged in oppositional activities. The coverage also distinguished the Palestinians from the other Arab groups in ways that tended to undermine or trivialize their struggle. This finding can be best understood in the context of a conflict between two nations where each is trying to draw the boundaries of its own `imagined community'.

Icons and Militants: Mothering in the Danger Zone

L'A. etudie la situation des femmes et plus particulierement des meres dans les zones de conflit. Elle s'efforce de comprendre la nature du lien entre maternite, nationalisme et conflit. Elle analyse le role du sexe dans les situations de guerre, la vie dans les regions situees sur la zone de front au Liban et la signification et les pratiques en matiere de maternite chez les femmes palestiniennes. Elle retrace les grandes etapes du conflit qui a ensanglante le Liban entre 1968 et 1982 ; evoque la situation des femmes au cours de «la guerre des pierres», l'intifada et souligne que celles-ci sont presentees d'une maniere symbolique, «iconique» au sein des discours politiques palestiniens. Elle s'interroge quant au statut social des meres, quant a la signification de leur appartenance sociale dans le cadre de ces discours

Surgical management of ophthalmic trauma due to the Palestinian Intifada

The purpose of the study was to determine the causes, morbidity and visual outcome of 567 Intifada eye injuries which occurred during a 6 year period from December 1987 to December 1993. A prospective study was undertaken of Intifada eye injuries from December 1987 to December 1993 which were treated at the St John Ophthalmic Hospital, Jerusalem, or in private clinics in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Seventy-five per cent of those injured came from East Jerusalem or the West Bank. The average age of a person injured was 17 years. Male preponderance was 84.7%. The study demonstrates both the high morbidity and the poor visual outcome which characterise Intifada eye injuries. There were 567 eyes in the series, of which 143 (25.2%) lost perception of light and 72 (12.6%) had vision less than or equal to 6/60. Eighty-six eyes (15.1%) required enucleation. In total 43.1% of the series had severe ocular injuries. Rubber or plastic bullets caused 154 injuries. They were the commonest indication for the enucleation of an eye (90.6% of 86 enucleations). There were 3 cases of severe Gram-negative endophthalmitis in the group of patients who presented late to the hospital (0.52%). Intifada injuries are associated with far greater morbidity than non-military eye injuries. Rubber or plastic bullet injuries are the leading cause of visual loss and of eye enucleation. Military curfews exacerbate the morbidity of Intifada injuries by prolonging evacuation time.

Elite Identification in Collective Protest Movements: A Reconsideration of The Reputational Method with Application to The Palestinian Intifada

Identifying and studying the role of political leaders in low-intensity collective protest movements with informal leadership structure poses extraordinary challenges. This article argues that the procedures associated with the reputational school of power are useful, particularly when the procedures are made more reliable and sophisticated. By selecting a panel of judges according to specific criteria it is possible to ensure that presumably knowledgeable persons are included, to explore whether the panel design is biased, and even to test whether the perceptions of the judges are accurate. It is also possible to identify the leaders using additional indicators ofprominence than reputed influence. The article is based on the author's experience ident65 ing the "spokespersons" of the Palestinian intifada