Suchergebnisse

This book analyzes the process of national development in Saudi Arabia through the use of the SWOT model, which examines the kingdom's strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in internal and external arenas. This book combines a historical and contemporary analysis of Saudi politics and society.

Using a balanced approach, this study provides a comprehensive picture of the Arab sector over six decades. It examines what, when, and why the Arab minority in Israel chooses to either negotiate with the government or turn to protest or violence in order to change the status quo.

This study seeks to understand what was behind the May 2021 violence of the Arab minority in Israel, particularly in mixed cities: was it national, religious or civic motives, or a combination of them? Historically, relations between Jews and non-Jews (mostly Muslims) in Israel circle around three axes: religious, national, and civic. While the fragile relations between the parties enjoy a quiet routine, a serious escalation is recorded from time-to-time, leading to a crisis between the parties. This was the case in May 2021, when an outbreak of severe Arab violence was recorded in mixed cities in Israel that resulted in three victims (two Jews, one Arab), dozens of injuries, and heavy damage to Jewish property. This qualitative research, based on interviews with Arab residents in mixed cities and media reports during the clashes and afterward, concludes that despite all three components having a significant contribution to May 2021 violent conflicts, civil affairs were the main reason for riots in mixed cities; however, the outbreak has a national and religious historical background.

Since its establishment as an independent state, Israel has witnessed waves of protests, sometimes violence, from the Haredi (ultraorthodox) community. Focusing on clashes between Haredi protesters and the police from 2000 onward, this study suggests a new theoretical explanation for Haredi protests and violent activities. By using a mixture of the following three major theories—primordial, constructivism, and contingency—the article provides a new model for analyzing Haredi patterns of confrontation with the Israeli authorities. It concludes, inter alia, that the Haredi community is a permanent passive protest movement that responds, usually immediately, to official initiatives to change the status quo involving the state, politics, society, and religion in Israel.

AbstractThis study asks a simple question: Has there been any upgrading in the status of women in Tunisia in the years following the Jasmine Revolution of December 2010? Based upon a comparative analysis of the Tunisian constitutions of 1959 and 2014, this paper argues that Tunisian women have, in fact, experienced a real change in their status within Tunisian society. Through a combination of their strong collective identity and a self‐initiated process of political opportunity, the popular protest in Tunisia led to legislative changes which were supported by the long history of women's presence in the Tunisian social‐public sphere, together with helpful secular‐oriented political forces. The new constitution of 2014 took steps to attain real gender equality in Tunisia; several Tunisian laws have been changed in favor of women since 2014 as well. The implementation of gender equality has, however, still been too slow and faces obstacles, mainly from Islamist groups — including Salafis who have been exerting pressure to impose a religious character on Tunisian society based upon the Shari'a.

AbstractFor many scholars, the Arab Spring was actually an Islamic Winter, especially when ISIS rose up in Iraq and Syria, and the Muslim Brotherhood won democratic elections in Egypt and took control over the state. But in other unshaken regions in the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia and the GCC states, the Arab Spring or the Islamic Winter led to something different, which I will call "rethinking nationalism."This article asserts that since Saudi Arabia's independence in 1932, the royal family has succeeded in forming Wahhabi nationalism, meaning that despite the fact that all Saudi civilians enjoy Saudi citizenship, only those who ascribe to the Wahhabism creed can be part of the nation in terms of political participation and policy decision‐making. Although some steps in affirmative action have been taken in recent years — also as a Saudi response to the Arab Spring — toward women and the Shi'a minority, these groups or sectors still are not perceived by the royal family as part of the nation, and probably not as equal citizens, for religious reasons that over the years have distinguished between real Saudi nationalist groups and Saudi civilians.