Suchergebnisse

A memorial tribute to Albert Aghazarian (1950–2020) recalling, often in his own words, how he grew up in the Old City of Jerusalem, his life-long passion for the city as a historian and activist, and his unique contribution to the defense of academic freedom at Birzeit University, including the rights of students and staff during his tenure as director of the Public Relations Office.

In emails from the besieged town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israel's December 2008/January 2009 war on Gaza, Majeda Al Saqqa (2009a), a long-time community and women's activist, describes to friends the shrinkage of her life into the domestic space. She explains the endless strategizing to protect children physically and psychologically and her fears not only for family but for friends all over Gaza, sometimes reachable by mobile phone, sometimes, most terribly, not. In her war diary, there is no mention of Palestinian leaders or governments, neither the Hamas-led de facto government in Gaza nor the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. She offers only bitter asides about the international community. Apart from family, neighbors, and friends, the only agents that offer a modicum of sanity and security are local: the Palestinian health workers risking their lives for the wounded and local radio broadcasters who stay on the air with news, warnings, and encouragement.

Referencing the ''stereotypes of self'' identified by Rosemary Sayigh in the life stories of Palestinian camp women in Lebanon who had lived through the Palestinian resistance, the author focuses on the narratives of two women in Ramallah's Am'ari refugee camp since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa intifada to reflect on the Palestinian present. Though the women——and their goals and struggles——could not be more different, their narratives reveal significant shifts in self-representation that reflect both the impact of post-Oslo political realities and the new (unattainable) aspirations fueled by satellite television images and Ramallah caféé culture. The narratives also reflect, in very different ways, the national crisis, the impotence of Palestinian political groups and institutions, and the erosion of solidarities.