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This paper attempts to highlight the significant role of knowledge management practices (KMP) and competencies in improving the performance and efficiency of public sector organizations. It appears that public sector organizations in developing countries have not received much attention in the research literature of knowledge management and competencies. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the role of KMP and competencies in achieving superior performance among public sector organizations in Malaysia in the broader perspective. Survey questionnaires were distributed to all Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADS) from 28 ministries located in Putrajaya, Malaysia. This paper also examines preliminary empirical results on the relationship between support for knowledge management practices, competencies, and orientation in Malaysia-s public organizations. This paper supports the notion that the practices of knowledge management at the organizational level are a prerequisite for successful organizational performance. In conclusion, the results not only have the potential to contribute theoretically to both management strategy and knowledge management field literature but also to the area of organizational performance.

A poignant, incisive meditation on Israel's longstanding rejection of peace, and what the war on Gaza means for Palestinian and Israeli futures. When apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994, dismantled by internal activism and global pressure, why did Israel continue to pursue its own apartheid policies against Palestinians? In keeping with a history of antagonism, the Israeli state accelerated the establishment of settlements in the Occupied Territories as extreme right-wing voices gained prominence in government, with comparatively little international backlash. Condensing this complex history into a lucid essay, Raja Shehadeh examines the many lost opportunities to promote a lasting peace and equality between Israelis and Palestinians. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe, each side's perception of events has strongly diverged. What can this discrepancy tell us about Israel's undermining of a two-state solution? And will the current genocide in Gaza finally mark a shift in the world's response? With graceful, haunting prose, Shehadeh offers insights into a defining conflict that could yet be resolved.

"The Handbook of Palmyra comprises 37 chapters written by specialists, ancient and global historians, archaeologists, epigraphers, and philologists, working on the ancient world, all of them with a particular interest in Palmyra, ancient Tadmor, the famous oasis city in the Syrian steppe desert. The handbook covers the site's archaeology and history from its pre-Roman phases, from the time of its deepest prehistory, until the recent destruction of many of the city's monuments and the looting that it has seen during the devastating conflict in Syria, which broke out in 2011. Numerous of the authors have conducted fieldwork in Palmyra prior to the 2011 conflict, and others have collected large corpora of evidence from the site or specialized in particular themes concerning the site and its relations across the ancient world. The handbook is structured in five main sections, proceeded by an introductory chapter and concluded with a postludium chapter that focuses on the time from the conflict in Syria broke out in 2011. A broad range of themes are covered in the book, which do not only relate to the development of the site, its archaeology, and history, but just as much to its position and networks throughout the ancient world from Antiquity until modern times. The chapters hold firsthand expert knowledge that is condensed for the readership in an easily accessible manner with updated bibliographies, making this the ideal place to begin research on this important location in the ancient world"--

"A subtle psychological portrait of the author's relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rights. Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognize his father's courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja's own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably. This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians, but a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship"--

"Critically examines the role of humanitarian aid and disaster reconstruction"--

Cover -- Author Biography -- Title Page -- Imprint Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Epigraph -- I: Names -- II: Magical Shoes -- III: The Immigrants -- IV: Cosmopolitan -- V: Ojos del Salado -- VI: Transformers -- VII: Foreign Novelties -- VIII: Becoming an Aussie -- IX: Grand Days -- X: Extinctions -- XI: A Classless Society -- XII: Keysborough -- XIII: Gisele -- XIV: Crime and Punishment -- XV: Interest Rates -- XVI: Four Quartets -- XVII: Sunday -- XVIII: Peregrinations -- XIX: Necropolis -- XX: Pyramus and Thisbe -- XXI: Existence -- XXII: Spirit in Exile -- Acknowledgements.

Award-winning author Raja Shehadeh explores the politics of language and the language of politics in the Israeli Palestine conflict, reflecting on the walls that they create - legal and cultural - that confine today's Palestinians just like the physical borders, checkpoints and the so called 'Separation Barrier'. The peace process has been ground to a halt by twists of language and linguistic chicanery that has degraded the word 'peace' itself. No one even knows what the word might mean now for the Middle East. So to give one example of many, Israel argued that the omission of the word 'the' in one of the UN Security Council's resolutions meant that it was not mandated to withdraw from all of the territories occupied in 1967. The Language of War, The Language of Peace is another important book from Raja Shehadeh on the world's greatest political fault line