Palestinian Territories Research Articles

Loneliness as lack of solidarity: The case of Palestinians standing alone.

This paper explores the notion of loneliness as lack of solidarity in relations to Palestinians living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Israel, and the diaspora. Loneliness as lack of solidarity is defined as lacking someone to identify with and/or lacking someone who is willing to assist while carrying a burden. We describe the mechanism of lack of identification using the concept of epistemic injustice. The paper suggests that art may serve as a way to mitigate this kind of loneliness, and focus on the Freedom Theater, which was operating in Jenin Refugee Camp until recently.

The Role of Cinematic Elements in Creating Sympathy for the Hero in Palestinian Narrative Films “Paradise Now Film” as a Model: Analytical Study

Objectives: The study aimed to explain the role of cinematic elements in creating sympathy among the audience with the hero in Palestinian feature films by studying the film “Paradise Now” as a model. Methods: Employing an analytical approach, the research utilized content analysis—a form of scientific research—to describe the explicit content of the media material being analyzed. Results: Cinematic elements significantly contributed to crafting a realistic cinematic illusion, incorporating plot, image, sound, and landscape design to complete the realistic picture and create a sense of sympathy for the audience with the martyr hero. The study identified eight issues in "Paradise Now," comprising six social and two political issues related to Palestinian rights and resistance to occupation. The film employed conflict, human concerns, and values frameworks to present these issues. The role of cinematic elements in generating sympathy for the hero was underscored, emphasizing cinematic language as a tool to convey the message.. Conclusion: The studies concluded that cinematic elements play a major role in creating and simulating the cinematic illusion of reality. The study called on research centers and researchers interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict to conduct more media studies that present the details of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in an impartial manner, and realistically document the violations and oppression practiced by Israel in the Palestinian territories against the Palestinians.

Death dealers: Dynamics of Israel’s permanent war economy

This study critically explores Israel’s permanent war economy, examining its core principles and strategic impacts. It analyzes how the war economy is integral to Israel’s settler-colonial structures and functions, fulfilling various ideological, geopolitical, and financial goals through a sustained conflict footing, rather than being a transient occurrence. To this end, the study identifies and analyzes four key dynamics underpinning Israel’s war economy: First, acute societal militarism serves as an economic growth engine, nurturing skilled military capital and advanced technologies that feed the war economy system. Second, the role of American patronage is examined as a key enabler of the Israeli war economy. In the absence of a traditional colonial metropole, the United States functions as an imperial sponsor, providing extensive military aid, technological transfers, financial assistance, and diplomatic backing–without which Israel’s military posture would be inconceivable. Third, the article investigates Israel’s exploitation of the occupied Palestinian territories as a laboratory for testing, optimizing and marketing military systems’ performance to international clients. Fourth, examines how Israel’s arms export multiplies revenues for the Israeli war economy while also providing diplomatic leverage to advance Israel’s geopolitical agendas and foreign policy objectives.

Realigning Social Protection Across the Nexus: Reflections from Protracted Crises in the Arab Region

Humanitarian emergencies are increasingly protracted and characterised by multiple compounding crises. International social security standards provide a roadmap for building national social protection systems. In the Arab States region, the International Labour Organization has been critically assessing how to apply these standards across the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus when countries face protracted crises. This article presents case studies in four countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It addresses questions on how to strengthen humanitarian–development transitions using international standards, where entry points exist or challenges remain, and how these transitions may contribute to strengthening peace through social cohesion.

“We Haven’t Even Started Crying Yet”: Caring for the Family Under Occupation and War in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

“We Haven’t Even Started Crying Yet”: Caring for the Family Under Occupation and War in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Constitutional Overhaul, the War in Gaza, and the Puzzle of Civic Mobilization in Israel

Abstract Much has been written on the constitutional overhaul in Israel, and the attendant constitutional crisis in the first nine months of 2023. Since October 7, however, with the breakout of the Israel-Gaza war, the overhaul was seemingly shelved. This Article seeks to connect both events, by comparing the legal-political response to the overhaul with the legal-political response to the war. It asks why, given the intensity of the protest movement generated by the overhaul, there was a dearth of protest activity after the war, even though both events implicated similar values, namely the rule of law and individual rights, championed by the protest movement. I argue that a central reason for the disparity cannot only be explained by the dynamics of war but also due to the tensions and complexities inherent in Israel’s self-professed constitutional identity as a Jewish and democratic state. In particular, I argue that anti-overhaul protests appealed to liberal universalist values to garner bipartisan support, with the effect of bypassing substantive issues such as the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and discrimination faced by Israeli Palestinians. This explains the lack of Arab participation in the protests, as many perceived them to be an internal Jewish Affair. Thus, when post-war repressive measures mostly affected Israeli Palestinians, the protest movement failed to rally in their support. Although anti-overhaul protests could have brought about greater liberal consolidation in Israel, the relative lack of post-war mobilization casts lingering doubts on the possibility of long-term consolidation of liberal values in Israel. Attempts to depoliticize the protests, while perhaps successful in warding off the overhaul, and though impressive on their own, have likely failed in instilling deeper, more resilient, liberal values in Israel.

Storm in an Ice Cream Cone: Was Ben & Jerry's Decision to End Ice Cream Sales in Israeli Settlements a Responsible Corporate Exit from Occupied Territories?

Abstract Ben & Jerry's – the famous ice cream brand known for its quirky flavours and social justice ethos – announced in 2021 that it would withdraw its products from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This announcement sparked controversy, with an impact on the company and its parent, Unilever. While the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (2011) (UNGP) have established themselves as the leading international governance framework for the social responsibilities of businesses, their application to conflict-affected areas lacks clarity. Questions remain, including when is a company legally complicit in violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), and when is a corporate exit from an area under military occupation the appropriate and responsible thing to do. This article uses Ben & Jerry's withdrawal from the OPT as the basis for investigating these questions. It finds that while it is unlikely that Ben & Jerry's would be exposed to any legal liability for violating IHL through its product sales in Israeli settlements in the OPT, its withdrawal aligns with its responsibilities under the UNGP as a reasonable and prudent corporate action in response to its activities being linked to enduring and severe IHL violations.

Evaluation of performance and estimation of genetic parameters for milk yield and reproductive traits in Awassi and Asaf sheep breeds and crosses in the Palestinian territory.

This study aimed to estimate genetic parameters, including heritability and repeatability, for milk yield and prolificacy in sheep. It included 3682 records from 1837 ewes across various breeds: Awassi, Assaf, and Awassi x Assaf crosses, two Awassi lines: Improved Awassi, AFEC Awassi. The study measured total milk yield (TMY), yield up to 120 days (TMY120), and yield up to 150 days (TMY150), alongside reproductive traits: litter size (LS), number of lambs born alive (NLBA), and lambing interval (LI). The analysis utilized a mixed model and the REML procedure to estimate genetic parameters. Results indicated that litter size (LS) had no significant impact on milk traits, whereas breed, location, ewe parity, and lambing season showed significant effects. Lactation length also significantly influenced TMY. For reproductive traits, treatment was significant for NLBA, with location associated with breed, parity, and season affecting all traits. Heritability estimates for TMY ranged from 0.00 in Awassi x Assaf crosses to 0.11 in Awassi, and for TMY120 and TMY150, from 0.00 in Awassi x Assaf crosses to 0.16 in Awassi. Estimates for LS and NLBA varied similarly. The heritability for LI was 0.03 in Awassi and zero in other breeds and crosses. The findings suggest that in the northern West Bank regions of Nablus and Jenin, Assaf or Awassi x Assaf breeds are preferable. The study underscores the importance of comprehensive performance and pedigree recording for effective sheep farm management.

Two Paths to Violence: Individual versus Group Emotions during Conflict Escalation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Experiencing repression creates intense emotions and raises dilemmas about handling political action to achieve social change. Past studies suggest that mainly group-based emotions are associated with support for violent collective action while the exact influence of individual emotions remains unclear. This research compares the association of individual- versus group-based emotions with violent collective action while examining conflict context as the moderating factor. We propose to distinguish two context aspects—collective versus personal threat—determining the relative impact of individual versus group emotions on support for violence. We conducted two quantitative field studies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during different types of conflict experience, defined by either prevalent personally experienced threat versus elevated collectively experienced threat (Study 1), or both (Study 2). Results indicate that for mainly collectively experienced threat, group (but not individual) emotions predicted violent collective action, while for personally experienced threat, individual (but not group) emotions predicted violent engagement.

Leveraging Crowdsourcing for Mapping Mobility Restrictions in Data-Limited Regions

This paper introduces a novel methodology for the real-time mapping of mobility restrictions, utilizing spatial crowdsourcing and Telegram as a traffic event data source. This approach is efficient in regions suffering from limitations in traditional data-capturing devices. The methodology employs ArcGIS Online (AGOL) for data collection, storage, and analysis, and develops a 3W (what, where, when) model for analyzing mined Arabic text from Telegram. Data quality validation methods, including spatial clustering, cross-referencing, and ground-truth methods, support the reliability of this approach. Applied to the Palestinian territory, the proposed methodology ensures the accurate, timely, and comprehensive mapping of traffic events, including checkpoints, road gates, settler violence, and traffic congestion. The validation results indicate that using spatial crowdsourcing to report restrictions yields promising validation rates ranging from 67% to 100%. Additionally, the developed methodology utilizing Telegram achieves a precision value of 73%. These results demonstrate that this methodology constitutes a promising solution, enhancing traffic management and informed decision-making, and providing a scalable model for regions with limited traditional data collection infrastructure.

Stance and Engagement in Egypt’s Argument before the ICJ on Israeli Practices in Palestinian Territories: A Linguistic Analysis of Interactional Metadiscourse Markers

Stance and Engagement in Egypt’s Argument before the ICJ on Israeli Practices in Palestinian Territories: A Linguistic Analysis of Interactional Metadiscourse Markers

Trauma care supported through a global telemedicine initiative during the 2023–24 military assault on the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory: a case series

Hospitals, patients, and health-care workers are legally protected by international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention. However, since Oct 7, 2023, the health-care system in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory, has been under unprecedented direct military attacks by Israel, with support for patients proving to be challenging for the remaining health-care workers. Peer-to-peer telemedicine holds promise for assisting surgeons in high-risk, low-resource environments, but might be of reduced utility in extremely austere settings. We present a patient case series of traumatic injuries shared in an international telemedicine group by the surgical team at Nasser Medical Complex, also known as Nasser Hospital, the largest remaining partially functioning hospital in Gaza. WhatsApp (Meta; Menlo Park, CA, USA), a widely available and user-friendly end-to-end encrypted smartphone application, was used to facilitate consultations for weapon-inflicted injuries. All the presented patient cases were shared after obtaining verbal consent from the patients and discussed through a multidisciplinary team approach. The group was developed into a community with more than 15 specialty and injury-oriented subgroups and over 1000 members who joined through non-targeted social media outreach followed by snowball recruitment. Prospective registration and formal ethics approval in Gaza was impossible because the Ministry of Health, including the local Helsinki Committee, had suspended all operations. In June, 2024, we obtained ethics approval from the local Helsinki committee in Gaza. We present 12 select patient case studies from a pool of hundreds of patients admitted to Nasser Hospital between Jan 28 and Feb 12, 2024. Four (33%) of the 12 patients were female and eight (67%) were male, with four patients (33%) being children (younger than 18 years). The age range was between 3 years and 70 years, with a median age of 25 years. Most patients presented with penetrating injuries (11 [92%] of 12), with six patients presenting with wounds secondary to fragment injury, and five patients presenting with wounds due to gunshots. One patient presented with a direct blast injury. The site of reported injuries included head and neck areas (four [33%] of 12), abdomen (four [33%] of 12), chest (three [25%] of 12), pelvis (two [17%] of 12), and limbs (one [8%] of 12). Most patients were lost to follow-up (11 [92%] of 12) and were affected by the invasion of the hospital by the Israeli Defense Forces, which subsequently rendered the hospital non-functional. One patient died following their injury. The health-care team at the now non-functioning Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza adapted their allocation and distribution of extremely low resources and relied on smartphones for specialised telemedicine outreach purposes. This enhanced the capability of the medical teams in management of mass casualties of military assaults that few are trained to work in. Nonetheless, the options available to a health-care system that is under-staffed, under-served, and under siege, are extremely constrained, regardless of such telemedicine initiatives. None.

Situational Judgement Tests among Palestinian community members and Red Crescent volunteers to inform humanitarian action: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundInforming humanitarian action directly from community members is recognized as critical. However, collecting community insights is also a challenge in practice. This paper reports data collected among community members and Red Crescent volunteers in the occupied Palestinian territory. The aim was to test a data collection tool, situational judgment tests (SJTs), to collect insights in the community around three themes.MethodsThe SJTs covered violence prevention, road safety, and environmental pollution (waste), and were constituted of hypothetical scenarios to which respondents indicated how they would react. For each theme, the answers’ pattern provides insights for humanitarian action regarding which beliefs to address. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in January and February 2023 with 656 community members, and 239 Red Crescent volunteers.ResultsData showed that violence is the theme for which the need is the highest among community members. Some responses varied according to the public (age, governorate, or disability level), suggesting actions could be tailored accordingly.ConclusionsDespite many difficulties during data collection, this study show that the tool allowed to collect community insights, a crucial task to ensure adequate response to the challenges faced by community members and Red Crescent volunteers in occupied Palestine.

Use of Cardiovascular Disease Secondary Prevention Medications in Four Middle East Countries in a Community Setting.

Evidence-based International clinical practice guidelines, universally recommend secondary prevention medications for those with previous cardiovascular disease (CVD). There is limited data on the community use of these medications in the Middle East (ME). This study assesses the use and predictors of evidence based secondary prevention medications in individuals with a history of CVD [coronary heart disease (CHD) or stroke]. Between 2005 and 2015, we enrolled 11,228 individuals aged between 35-70 years from 52 urban and 35 rural communities from four ME countries, United Arab Emirates (n = 1499), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (n = 2046), Occupied Palestinian Territory (n = 1668) and Islamic Republic of Iran (n = 6013). With standardized questionnaires, we report estimates of medication use in those with CVD at national level and the independent predictors of their utilization through a multivariable analysis model. Results: Of the total ME cohort, 614 (5.5%) had CVD, of which 115 (1.0%) had stroke, 523 (4.7%) had CHD and 24 (0.2%) had both. The mean age of those with CVD was 56.6 ± 8.8 years and 269 (43.8%) were female. Overall, only 23.5% of those with CVD reported using three or more proven secondary prevention medications, and a substantial proportion (stroke 27.8%, CHD 25.8%) did not take any of these medications. In a fully adjusted analysis, increasing age, female gender, higher education, higher wealth in individual household, residence in a higher income country as well as being obese, hypertensive or diabetic were independent predictors of medication use. The use of secondary prevention medication is low in ME and has not reached the modest recommended WHO target of 50% use of 3 or more medications. Independent factors of higher use were, better socioeconomic status (household wealth, country wealth and education) and better contact and accessibility to health care (increasing age, female gender, obesity, diabetes and hypertension).

The Middle East Tragedy: Between Utopia and Dystopia

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the present Israeli-Palestinian war, with an emphasis on the destructive clash between two utopian visions: the vision of “Greater Israel” – including all Palestinian territories – of the far right in Israel, and the vision of destroying the state of Israel, fundamental in Hamas ideology. The dystopic result of this clash is explored from a psychoanalytic point of view, relying in part on Ogden’s notion of historicity as achieved only in the depressive position, and Jessica Benjamin’s notion of a “doer and done-to” mode which excludes recognition of the reciprocal interaction that is essential to that historicity. A brief review of the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, lasting more than a hundred years, points to the constant reciprocal influences leading to its deterioration, and ends with the hope for a pragmatic compromise that would alleviate the suffering and traumatization on both sides.

Applying the experiment design approach to minimize pollutants in olive mill wastewater using aluminum sulfate and ferric chloride as coagulants. West Bank—occupied Palestinian territories

A significant environmental contaminant in the West Bank and the Mediterranean Basin is olive mill wastewater (OMWW). OMWW was released between mid-September and mid-November, when harvesting was taking place. This led to environmental issues with soil, water resources, and the ecology. The optimization of the removal of organic compounds as total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total polyphenols group (TP) pollutants is the main goal of this study. Both aluminum sulfate (AS) and ferric chloride (FC) are utilized as coagulants. The ideal dosages, coagulant types, and pH values to reduce the concentration of these pollutants were determined using the Design of Expert program (DoE). For the AS and FC, the optimal pH range is between 4 and 5, which reduces the TSS by roughly 93 % and 80 %, respectively. By using AS and FC, respectively, COD was removed at rates of 68 % and 58 %, and 0.5 g/l was the ideal coagulant concentration dose. The most important factor affecting the elimination procedure was the pH level. The outcomes show that those three contaminants can be successfully eliminated by the coagulation process. TSS ranges between 90 % and 96 %, COD between 53 % and 73 %, and TP between 11 % and 37 % when the two coagulate salts are used

The state of the financial system in the West Bank and Gaza

The linked economies of the Palestinian territories had maintained a semblance of economic vitality prior to the start of the Israel–Hamas war, but the devastation in Gaza and a difficult new economic reality is posing a serious threat to the stability of the banking system in the West Bank. In addition, the Palestinian Authority, the largest employer and spender in the economy, is now experiencing its most severe crisis since its inception and faces the real possibility of default.

Prevalence of pre-eclampsia in women in the Middle East: a scoping review.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are the second most common cause of maternal deaths worldwide. Metabolic syndrome is recognized as one of the risk factors for pre-eclampsia. A recent study revealed a high prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), particularly amongst Emirati women compared with global estimates. This finding raises the possibility that the prevalence of pre-eclampsia in the region may also be higher as research is increasingly demonstrating an association between pre-eclampsia and metabolic syndrome. We therefore conducted this scoping review of the literature to investigate the nature and extent of studies evaluating the prevalence of pre-eclampsia within the Middle East region to enable subsequent comparison of these findings with the global burden of pre-eclampsia, objectively identify gaps in the literature and inform the design of future studies to address these gaps. PubMed and Scopus were used to extract studies published over the last 20 years (2003-2023). The search terms used included ("Pre-eclampsia" AND "Prevalence") OR ("Hypertension in pregnancy" AND "Prevalence") OR ("Pregnancy" AND "Pre-eclampsia") OR ("Pre-eclampsia" AND "Epidemiology"). We limited our studies to those from the Middle East (ME). A total of 556 relevant articles were identified following which 11 were shortlisted for review. There were four studies from Iran, two from Saudi Arabia, two from Qatar, one from Jordan, and one from Bahrain. The remaining study included 29 countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East of which data from Jordan, Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Qatar were included. There were four retrospective, two cross-sectional, and two cohort studies, one prospective study, one meta-analysis, and one descriptive-analytical study. The prevalence of pre-eclampsia in the studies ranged from 0.17 to 5%. We did not find any study investigating the prevalence of pre-eclampsia in the United Arab Emirates. Based on our findings, we conclude that there is a significant scarcity of research in this area, especially within the Middle East, and notably an absence of studies specifically pertaining to the UAE. Consequently, we assert that there is a pressing requirement for additional research to evaluate the prevalence of pre-eclampsia in the region.

Mapping and countermapping dispossession in Palestine

AbstractIn their claim to distance from reality, maps seek power from representation. Maps are constituted by a particular set of practices that are enmeshed within wider social relations. Maps, then, are a powerful vantage point for understanding the geometries of power. Under settler colonialism, geography is constantly reshaped and reconfigured by expansionist and eliminatory logics. Such is the case in Palestine, where Israeli settler colonialism has fragmented the map of historic Palestine into messily separated archipelagos. As Palestinian geographies are constantly being reconfigured under Israeli settler colonialism, can maps catch up? How do we locate Palestine on the map? I take up these questions by focusing on the 1948 and 1967 Palestinian territories as two spatio‐temporally differentiated locations of settler colonial spatial reconfiguration. Using a counter‐map designed by Palestinian artist Haya Zaatry, I highlight the importance of counter‐mapping in bringing into sharp relief the conjunctural layering of dispossession in Palestine. If dominant colonial maps are about the neat packaging of lived realities into dominant spatio‐temporal demarcations, counter‐maps are about highlighting the ghostly stories and embodied spatial practices and processes of living within and beyond such demarcations.

Gazafication and Genocide by Attrition in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Gazafication and Genocide by Attrition in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh and the Occupied Palestinian Territories