Territories Of West Bank Research Articles

Collateral Reforms and Access to Finance: Evidence from the West Bank and Gaza and Their Firms

Abstract This paper examines the impact of an important financial reform, namely a collateral reform extending the assets, which could qualify as collateral for bank loans to the firms’ own equipment and moveable assets, so as to increase the access to such credit by small private firms. The reform studied was undertaken in the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza (WBG) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where bank credit and financial markets have been especially heavily constrained. First, we apply two different synthetic control techniques to panel data covering both pre- and postreform years from both the WBG and a sample of comparable countries that did not undertake collateral reform. The results from both synthetic control methods show that such credit increased significantly after the reform in WBG but not in the nonreformed comparator countries. Then, we use comparable firm-level data obtained from a panel of all available firms in WBG from the Enterprise Survey of the World Bank, both 3 years before and 3 years after the reform to trace the impacts of the reform on various financial and other outcomes at the firm level. Despite the other difficulties that WBG was going through over the period, we find considerable evidence at the firm level that this collateral reform has been effective in stimulating credit, investment, and employment growth, especially among small firms, underscoring its potential for use by other low- and middle-income countries.

Unfastening Israel's Future from the Occupation: Israeli Plans for Partial Annexation of West Bank Territory

AbstractIsraeli plans to partially annex West Bank territory have mainly been perceived as frustrating the two‐state solution, and as putting Palestine/Israel on a path leading to the one‐state alternative. This paper analyses partial annexation plans without assuming that the future of Palestine/Israel would necessarily abide by either statist resolution. It argues that by ostensibly distancing Israel's hold of the West Bank from an identifiable configuration of a belligerent occupation, partial annexation is offered to Jewish Israelis as a path for detaching the futurity of the two nations, and as a trajectory for normalising the Israeli state, without having to make what much of this public would see as painful concessions. It further explores settlers’ objections to such plans, claiming that even a partial incorporation of West Bank territory into formal Israel is expected to erode the exclusivity of Jewish domination which Israel has been upholding in its settler‐colonial frontier.

Sledgehammer: How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East

Sledgehammer: How Breaking with the Past Brought Peace to the Middle East

Preliminary Estimation of the Basic Reproduction Number of SARS-CoV-2 in the Middle East

Up to April 9, 2020, 142490 cases have been confirmed as COVID-19 infection including 5705 associated deaths in the Middle East. Most of the countries, such as Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia have imported COVID-19 cases from Iran. Using the available data from WHO webpage, up to 9 April 2020, we traced epidemic curves and estimated the basic reproduction number ( ) of COVID-19 through the susceptible-infectious-recovered (SIR) model for the Middle East countries. Epidemic curves for Middle East countries and territory show similar trend as Iran, with a couple of weeks’ delay in time. In SIR model, ranged between 7.41 as in Turkey to lowest as 2.60 for Oman whereas basic reproduction number for Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip territory, and Cyprus were 4.13, 2.71, 3.39, 4.18, 4.45, 2.75, 2.60, 3.52, 3.35, 3.16, 4.99, 4.08, 2.89, and 4.05, respectively. This study indicates an important trend on an early outbreak of COVID-19 based on estimated for the Middle East countries, mean 3.76 for COVID-19, with median and interquartile range (IQR) in the Middle East.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan

The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan

UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATION: RIGHT TO RETURN OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES

For over last 70 years, the concept of "return" attained primary focus for the national narrative of Palestinian struggle against devastating conditions, categorized as (i) eviction from ancestral homeland, (ii) diffusion in all aspects and (iii) reconstitution of national unity. However, the very idea create fears among Israelis regarding their authority of whole Zionist enterprise, as well as demographic stability of Arab-Jewish ventures, with regards to the return of large number of Palestinians to their own places or any other part in Palestine. Discrimination in opposition to Palestinians is no longer perpetrated fully by Israeli state, but common to its society, as well. Our article is an answer to the complicated question: Can refugees along with other displaced victims ever claim their right in entering Israel and Palestine, since this State includes Gaza and West Bank territories? Various articles have made an attempt to clarify the matter through some internal laws and have also interpreted the rights mentioned in ‘International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights’, particularly while clarifying the idea evolved from the typical term: 'his own country’. The article focuses on the viable first point, specifically on the claim as a right of the Diasporas return to the formerly called ‘Palestine’. Various resources are utilised for the purpose of the research. This includes books, scholarly researched articles and newspapers etc. The study is analytical in nature and based on qualitative research method. Most of the literature used for the article is Secondary. The conclusion drawn in precise manner is that the intentions are blended in repeated violations of human rights, along with ethnic and religious refining and various innumerable deficiencies, and try to become regularly involved in sensitive issues. This turned out to be disheartening for the people living there as no efforts are made for a truthful resolution.

A systems-based assessment of Palestine's current and future infrastructure requirements

The occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza Strip are currently experiencing many challenges in the provision of infrastructure services for their inhabitants. This includes an undersupply of infrastructure services across multiple sectors – an issue exacerbated by population growth, increasing urbanisation, economic growth and climate change. We address this challenge by providing a systems-based assessment of Palestine's infrastructure requirements and identifying broad strategies for how those needs might be met. This assessment involved four key components including: 1) defining and assessing the current system and planned infrastructure investments; 2) assessing potential future demand for infrastructure services; 3) identifying alternative strategies for future infrastructure provision beyond planned investments; and 4) analysing the performance of each strategy against a series of key performance indicators. Results from the assessment highlight the magnitude of the current and future need for urgent infrastructure investment in Palestine. The most immediate need is to alleviate the water crises in Gaza Strip, which will require at least twice as much water infrastructure investment over the coming decade than is currently in the pipeline, even if the goal is only to achieve the most basic World Health Organisation water availability requirements. To move beyond this protracted state of crises will then require a doubling of investments across all sectors to bring Palestine up to the standards of services already enjoyed by its neighbours. Such investments can have even greater impact on delivery of infrastructure services through the strategic use of interdependencies between infrastructure sectors, such as water re-use and energy-from-waste. In the pursuit of global sustainable development, the systems-based approach presented here provides an important first step in the assessment of infrastructure needs and opportunities for any country. It is particularly important for states like Palestine where key resources, such as water and energy, are so acutely constrained.

Contested Ground: Disentangling Material and Symbolic Attachment to Disputed Territory

Territorial disputes are prone to conflict because of the value of territory to publics, whether due to its strategic and material worth, or to its intangible, symbolic value. Yet despite the implications of the distinction for both theory and policy, empirically disentangling the material from the symbolic has posed formidable methodological challenges. We propose a set of tools for assessing the nature of individual territorial attachment, drawing on a series of survey experiments in Israel. Using these tools, we find that a substantial segment of the Jewish population is attached to the disputed West Bank territory for intangible reasons, consisting not only of far-right voters but also of voters of moderate-right and centrist parties. This distribution considerably narrows the bargaining space of leaders regardless of coalitional configurations. Our empirical analysis thus illustrates how the distribution of territorial preferences in the domestic population can have powerful implications for conflict and its resolution.

Educational and economic dimensions in the Israeli project against occupied Jerusalem

Emboldened by American partiality for the Israeli occupation and the feeble Arab-Islamic support for the Palestinian cause, Israel has been taking advantage, over the last five years, of the current events and changing conditions prevailing in the regional Arab system. The Israeli occupation authority employs the two contingent devices of education and the economy in occupied Jerusalem as a base for counter-action in its desperate effort to hit the collective political consciousness that demands terminating occupation, liberation and self-determination. The occupation authority in occupied Jerusalem has employed a systematic scheme to isolate the city from the rest of the West Bank territories. Their aim is to destroy its trade movement in order to tighten the loop of hegemony around the vital economic and social sectors, and to deprive the Palestinian Authority from returns of tourism. Life for the residents of the city has become complicated in every possible way, prompting them to abandon their city. All this would be a part of a ‘voluntary immigration’ policy as a prelude to Judaizing the city, evacuating its residents, replacing them with settlers and, ultimately, dropping the city off the partition claims. The measures adopted by the occupation authorities take advantage of the educational and economic dimensions and employ them as leverage for penetrating the articulating points of the resisting Jerusalemite society. This goal is being achieved by shaking the foundations of the educational system and by obstructing endeavours seeking to improve and propagate it. The occupation authority continued to perpetrate its scheme of ‘displacement/settlement’ when it recently expelled 100,000 Jerusalemites from their city. In light of the aforesaid, this research examines, as its main theme, the impact of putting the educational and economic dimensions to use in the Israeli project against occupied Jerusalem, on the fate of the city, and on the equation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The paper also argues that it would be natural that a popular youth movement emerging in the face of Israel’s intransigence will nominate its own political leadership, dissociated from the political leadership of the Palestinian factions, so that insurrection can continue.

Israel's Creeping Annexation

A raft of legislative proposals introduced in the Knesset over the last several years has raised the specter of Israeli annexation of additional West Bank territory. One bill would provide for nearly automatic application of new Knesset legislation to Israelis residing in the West Bank. A second would authorize the expropriation under certain circumstances of privately-owned Palestinian land for incorporation into Israeli settlements, extending the Knesset's reach to the regulation of West Bank land use by non-Israelis. A third, entitled the “Maale Adumim Annexation Law,” provides for the full application of Israeli law in Israel's largest West Bank settlement, as well as in an adjacent twelve square kilometer area called the “E1 Zone,” one of the few remaining land reserves available for the development of Palestinian East Jerusalem.

Loss and Psychosocial Support Among Palestinian Women in the Occupied Territories: An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the “From a Bereaved Woman to Another” Project

Many Palestinian women in the occupied territories face the risk of experiencing incidents of personal loss of their husbands, youngsters, and relatives through death, imprisonment, or deportation due to daily confrontation with the Israeli occupation. In many such incidents, the individualistic focus of psychological therapy renders it less appropriate as a technique to minimize the psychosocial consequences of loss at the population (macro) level. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an alternative approach called “from a bereaved woman to another.” A convenience sample of 94 bereaved women (aged 31–50 years) from West Bank territories took part in this initiative. The results of the study confirmed a statistically significant increase in women's positive self-attitudes and interpersonal skills and a decrease in loss-related symptoms.

On the Fence: Negotiating Israel's Security Barrier

This article examines the issues, conflicts, and negotiations that occurred among Israelis and Arabs that led to Israel's decision to implement a “separation formula” by constructing a security barrier in the West Bank. The structure represents a growing political consensus that in the face of terrorist attacks in the two intifadas, Israeli security requires a policy of “Taking Gaza out of Tel Aviv.” The separation barrier has been successful in thwarting terrorist incursions but has faced international criticism for inflicting hardship on Palestinians in the West Bank and unilaterally imposing an Israeli border on the West Bank side of the 1949 armistice lines. The barrier's effectiveness in reducing attacks against Israel originating from the West Bank has helped move the conflict to a state that is painful but endurable for all parties. Thus, it is unlikely that final status negotiations will include complete Israeli withdrawal from all West Bank territory won in the 1967 War.

The Failures of Liberal Constitutionalism in Israel

Notions of equality have long posed a normative problem for liberal theory. What stance should the liberal take toward the failure of the political system to remedy the seemingly inevitable inequitable distribution of socioeconomic wealth and resources? This question squarely highlights one of the ironic paradoxes associated with the confluence of liberalism and constitutionalism, because both are simultaneously necessary and incompatible with each other for at least one germane reason — collective self-government, representative institutions, and individualism can operate to produce unegalitarian relationships between disparately situated groups in a given society, which can in turn substantially harm the project of political (as well as economic) equality.Israel presents a remarkable examination on the relationship between liberal theory and equality. First, Israel is commonly described as the only democracy in the Middle East. Because the common assumption is that Israel’s political system holds natural affinities with Western democratic tradition, it would seem safe to assume that what is meant is Israel’s liberal democracy. Yet the tension between its contradictory values — a “Jewish” state and a “liberal state — has continue to generate intense controversy. This essay proceeds from the contention that Israel embodies an ethnic “democracy,” in which the dominant Jewish majority control State functions with the aim of advancing peculiar demographic, religious, security and cultural norms, often at odds with the rights and freedoms of its Arab minority population.Second, the status of this Arab minority in Israel continues to present one of the most intense and intricate issues in Israeli society. The reality is that 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel (18.5% of the population) do not enjoy equal access with Jewish citizens to state resources. Geographical inequality in the distribution of services follows ethnic lines, negatively affecting Arab communities which tend to be disadvantaged in relation to the rights and economic security enjoyed by relatively well-off Jewish communities. Governmental policies also continue to offer preferential treatment for residents of some of the Jewish settlements on West Bank territory. Although The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty is widely considered a mini-bill of rights by Israeli legal scholars, it does not enumerate a right to equality; on the contrary, it exclusively emphasizes the character of the state as a Jewish state. This can partly be attributed to the lack of “constitutional” (i.e., legal) guarantees for economic and social rights to minorities in Israel. Part I examines Israel’s democratic and legal structure. Ultimately, the discussion concludes that the idea of a Jewish state is squarely incompatible with protection of minority rights — a central tenet of constitutionalism. This discussion thus suggests why Israel cannot claim to comply with democratic liberal norms while simultaneously privileging one ethic group over another. The pairing “Jewish” and “democratic” both codifies discrimination against non-Jewish citizens and impedes realization of full guarantees for political and socioeconomic equality.The political implications of this argument are substantial. First, as mentioned, it critically calls into question the democratic nature of the State of Israel. Second, it strongly questions popular Western conception that views Palestinians and Israelis as equal, symmetrically balanced parties. To this end, Part II analyzes three important Israeli High Court decisions that grapple with complex issues relating to discrimination and (in)equality. In short, the so-called Israeli “constitutional” structure has largely remained unresponsive to its Arab minority. Because the peculiar “liberal” form of Israeli governance long praised by liberal scholars has not resolved the troubling divergence between a rights-based jurisprudence and continued economic and institutional discrimination against Arab-Israelis,entrenching civil liberties and socioeconomic equality in Israel requires not only formal legal codification but also the creation of the conditions for political willingness.

Assessment of Mobility Conditions Using Geographic Information System in the West Bank Territory: The Case of Bethlehem – Ramallah Route

This research paper analyses and assesses the impacts of the Israeli imposed physical obstructions on the mobility of the Palestinians in the West Bank, using a case study focused on the Bethlehem – Ramallah route. Arguably, the prevailing Israeli imposed physical obstructions, or mobility restrictions, in the West Bank territory have negative implications on the articulation of sustainable Palestinian statehood. The adopted research methodology in this paper is built through deliberations on available data sources in the form of literature reviews, published reports, field work investigations, and mapping interpretations using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The findings shows that the route that Palestinians are forced to take to commute between Bethlehem and Ramallah is double in terms of time and length in comparison with the route that would be possible to take if there were no mobility restrictions. Furthermore, if all checkpoints would be closed, or if the Israeli Plan of E1 will be implemented no travel at all would be possible and the Northern parts of the West Bank would be completely cut-off from the Southern parts. (Less)

Adalah (Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel) and Others v. GOC Central Command, IDF and Others (Early Warning Procedure Case)

407War and armed conflict — Belligerent occupation — Civilians — West Bank territories occupied by Israel since 1967 — Geneva Convention IV respecting the Protection of Civilian Persons, 1949 — Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, 1907 — Prohibition of use of protected residents to assist the war effort of the occupying State — Use of civilian residents to deliver warnings to houses containing suspects — Danger to such civilians — Assistance of consenting local civilian — “Early Warning ”procedure — The law of Israel

Analyzing the semantic content and persuasive composition of extremist media: A case study of texts produced during the Gaza conflict

While terrorism informatics research has examined the technical composition of extremist media, there is less work examining the content and intent behind such media. We propose that the arguments and issues presented in extremist media provide insights into authors' intent, which in turn may provide an evidence-base for detecting and assessing risk. We explore this possibility by applying two quantitative text-analysis methods to 50 online texts that incite violence as a result of the 2008/2009 Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank territories. The first method--a content coding system that identifies the occurrence of persuasive devices--revealed a predominance of moral proof arguments within the texts, and evidence for distinguishable `profiles' of persuasion use across different authors and different group affiliations. The second method--a corpus-linguistic technique that identifies the core concepts and narratives that authors use--confirmed the use of moral proof to create an in-group/out-group divide, while also demonstrating a movement from general expressions of discontent to more direct audience-orientated expressions of violence as conflict heightened. We conclude that multi-method analyses are a valuable approach to building both an evidence-based understanding of terrorist media use and a valid set of applications within terrorist informatics.

Beit Sourik Village Council v. Government of Israel and Commander of the IDF Forces in the West Bank

189War and armed conflict — Belligerent occupation — West Bank territories occupied by Israel since 1967 — Whether the law of belligerent occupation still applicable — Hague Regulations on Land Warfare, 1907 — Whether declaratory of customary international law — Geneva Convention No IV respecting the Protection of Civilian Persons, 1949 — Whether applicable — Powers of occupation authorities — Taking of land — Construction of security barrier — Whether permitted — Whether proportionateRelationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — Customary law — General principles — Proportionality — Whether a general principle of international law — Applicability in Israeli courts — Conditions of proportionality — The law of Israel

Science and war. The conflict in the Middle East has started a discussion in academic circles about the responsibility of scientists in times of political turmoil.

‘The intifada reaches the ivory tower’, proclaimed the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz in its May 15 issue. Indeed it has. The shockwaves from Palestinian suicide bombings and Israel's war against terrorism in the West Bank territory are reverberating through scientific and educational organisations around the world. The trigger for the headline was an open letter, published on April 6 in the British daily newspaper The Guardian and signed by more than 130 scientists from Europe and Israel. It called for a moratorium on further European cooperation with Israeli scientific and cultural institutions ‘until Israel abides by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians […].’ The letter created a flurry of further petitions for and against a boycott as well as articles and editorials in European and Israeli newspapers. The waves of the debate finally reached the secluded shores of various science islands in Europe and the scientific journals at the beginning of May, when Nature devoted its editorial to the topic. The journal has since published correspondence both for and against an academic boycott. The scientists calling for a boycott are dismayed with Israel's incursions into the West Bank and its treatment of the Palestinian population. They think that the political community, particularly the US government and the EU, is not doing enough to restrain either side from further escalating the spiral of violence and thus call for additional pressure on the Israeli government. ‘We view the situation as in the case of the South African boycott,’ explained Steven Rose, a neurobiologist and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University in the UK, and the initiator of the open letter. ‘I feel that the civil society has to stand up and do something about it. […] There are ways in which we …

Human capital and structural upheaval: A study of manufacturing firms in the west bank

Firms in various worldwide locations are repeatedly subjected to radical political, economic, and social upheavals, including changes in administrative governance, new economic paradigms, natural disasters, and warfare. Perhaps because of the difficulty of conducting research in these environments, little is known regarding the unique requirements of entrepreneurs and their business organizations in such troubled locations. Reliable research and information is necessary in order to design and assess methods of providing institutional support both during, and after, such turmoil. Based on data collected from field interviews over a six-month period, this article examines the characteristics of the owners of 64 small manufacturing businesses that have undergone or were experiencing radical political and economic upheaval in the West Bank town of Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories. The objective of the study is to examine characteristics that influence and assist an entrepreneur's resource allocation decision-making processes. This was done by comparatively assessing the effects on profitability of both firm and individual assets in a highly constrained rapidly changing environment. Understanding this allocation process will lead to more effective targeted assistance in regions experiencing or exiting environmental transitions and upheavals. Human capital theory is utilized in this study as a framework for understanding the comparative response of owners to reallocate resources under the stressful environment of the pre- and post-intifada West Bank territories. While human capital has been well studied in literature examining resource allocation in “typical” competitive environments, our understanding of the influence of human capital in transitional environments is quite limited. This study provides some useful, and perhaps surprising results, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Owner's human capital (coded from formal education) was found to impact profitability only with the micro firms studied (those with three or fewer employees), however, it is possible that this finding reflects dilution of human capital in comparatively larger small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One interesting departure from similar studies is that experience was not found to affect the profitability of the firm. Plant capital, on the other hand, was found to be associated with the profitability of only larger SMEs, controlling for business age and experience of the owner. This finding is significant because, presently, institutions such as the World Bank, NGOs and national development agencies focus their efforts primarily on providing credit to small businesses, whereas training and education currently are somewhat out of favor. A model is proposed in this study comparing resource requirements according to both the size and the productivity/technological level of the firm. The object is to explain the reduced importance of human capital and experience in environments of radical transition, specifically the arbitrary nature and lack of predictability of transitional governance, and the increased importance of financial capital only with large SMEs. It is argued that skills acquired in functional expertise do not necessarily prepare an entrepreneur for the abrupt environmental transformations characteristic of tumultuous political events. This research suggests that owners are in a better position to maximize their cognitive skills in decision making within smaller organizations. However, these skills are naturally diffused and so less effective at influencing the outcomes of somewhat larger organizations. Larger SMEs are necessarily more capital intensive and more bureaucratic, and so the cumulative human capital at the organizational level may be more important to allocative efficiency than the human capital of the individual firm owner. Further, larger SMEs require organizational expertise that may not be captured in the individual level characteristics of entrepreneurs. This research suggests that efforts to support such environments should carefully consider the size of the firms in question before designing and implementing programs of assistance, differentiating microenterprises from small businesses. In particular, the findings of this study suggest that smaller firms experiencing rapid environmental upheaval will benefit most from formal education, training and advice. Larger firms, in contrast, appear to benefit most from loans providing traditional capital support, and from advice across the entire firm's human capital base, particularly regarding organizational management and delegation skills.

The Israeli Palestinian Mountain Aquifer: A Case Study in Ground Water Conflict Resolution

The dispute between Israelis and Palestinians over shared water resources of the Mountain Aquifer is one potential obstacle in the path of peace in the Middle East. This aquifer is the only source of water for Palestinians in theWest Bank and the main provider of freshwater to Israelis. The majority of its natural recharge area lies within the West Bank territories with two of its three basins flowing naturally toward Israel. In 1967, Israel occupied theWest Bank and imposed strict control policies over the utilization of the Mountain Aquifer?s water. At present, Palestinians and Israelis are moving toward a political resolution of their more than half a century old conflict. In the Declaration of Principles, Israelis and Palestinians created preconditions for the coming negotiations and the Israelis recognized water rights for Palestinians. There is no clear indication of the extent to which water would be under Palestinian control during the interim period, but there is an implicit recognition of the need to reform the existing water allocation system. In the Final Status Negotiations, the Joint Mountain Aquifer Committee, members from the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority must make decisions regarding the equitable distribution and joint management of the shared water of the Mountain Aquifer. This paper provides a decision case for a course at the graduate or senior undergraduate level based on water resources issues impacting the peace process.