Suchergebnisse

This article analyzes the struggle of the Women of the Wall (WoW), a minority group of religious, activist, and feminist women challenging the Orthodox, male, hegemonic status quo at Judaism's holiest site: the Western Wall. Since 1988, the group has been holding prayer services every Rosh Hodesh at the Wall with and without interruptions according to its custom—wrapped in colorful tallitot and reading aloud from the Torah. This article, based on interviews with the major political actors involved and content analysis of primary documents and publications, presents the action strategies of the various parties involved and analyzes the dispute's conflict resolution methods. It explores a series of questions: first, what has enabled legal and public recognition of a minority group's local custom that challenges the hegemonic status quo at the Western Wall? Second, how has a small group of women succeeded over more powerful forces in breaking the status quo in favor of a gender-oriented, pluralistic-religious agenda? Third, what are the implications of these achievements for arrangements at the Wall and other contentious holy places? This case contributes to existing scholarship on religious feminism as well as on shared and divided holy spaces, as the controversy exists not between two religions, but between different streams within Judaism.

The political developments in Jordan since the events of 1970-71 shaped the Palestinian community and Transjordanian society (mostly tribal) into two conflicting ethnic groups. The Jordanian Palestinians are a political minority, while simultaneously constituting a slim demographic
majority yielding economic strength through dominance in the private economic sector, a matter that is a source of heightened inter-communal tensions. Analyzing data on the 500 largest economic concerns in Jordan and on the 173 companies that were traded on the Jordanian stock exchange in
1995-1996 leads to the conclusion that the prevailing image of a dichotomous, sector-based economy grounded in Transjordanian and Palestinian ethnic groups receives empirical corroboration. Following a discussion on the nature of the Jordanian economic élite in terms of the overall
political system, the author concludes that the economic influence of wealthy Palestinians does not extend to the political realm. Thus, even the most prosperous individuals (or family corporations) in Jordan do not constitute a pressure group or a known and particular lobbying force, neither
as businessmen nor as sub-groups on the basis of extraction. The Palestinians' financial activity in Jordan and their control of the banking sector give them, as a group, a special status with inherent political implications. Progress toward economic and political liberalization will enable
the Palestinians to yield more meaningful political influence in the future.

Moshe Ma'oz, Jews, Muslims and Jerusalem: Disputes and Dialogues (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2021), 288 pp. Paperback, $39.95. Kindle, $37.95.Yael Warshel, Experiencing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Children, Peace Communication and Socialization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), 336 pp. Hardback, $99.99. Kindle, $80.00.Shay Hazkani, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021), 348 pp. Hardback, $90.00. Kindle, $21.49.Nitzan Lebovic, Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019), 186 pp. Hardback, $80.00.Ayelet Harel-Shalev and Shir Daphna-Tekoah, Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies: A Gendered Perspective of Women in Combat (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 168 pp. Hardback, $74.00.Anat Y. Zanger, Jerusalem in Israeli Cinema: Wanderers, Nomads, and the Walking Dead (London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2020), 166 pp. Hardback, $89.95.