Suchergebnisse

Originally developed for the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University in 2011, this paper examines the humanitarian assistance that flooded the occupied Palestinian territories after the beginning of the second intifada (2000–2005). It provides a critical analysis of the international development aid that was directed at Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where the Oslo process was territorialized, to the exclusion of the vast majority of the Palestinian people. Today, Palestinians are challenging the dominant development discourse and neoliberal economic model set in place by the Oslo Accords, wherein development recast Israeli settler colonialism as an externality, which the putative Palestinian state-building project would transcend. Returning to Yusif Sayigh's view that development cannot occur under settler colonialism, Palestinians are articulating alternatives to the Oslo post-conflict paradigm that emphasize self-reliance and resistance. The discussion that follows situates itself as a contribution to this process by interrogating the anti-political bias of humanitarianism and charting how indigenous Palestinians are building alternatives to food aid.

UNRWA's reconstruction of Jenin refugee camp following the massive destruction by Israel in April 2002 was the largest humanitarian intervention during the second intifada. This article uses the Jenin project as a lens through which to critically examine the minimalist humanitarian paradigm underwriting the agency's relief-centered mandate. Reviewing the negotiations between UNRWA planners and local refugee committees, the author highlights the tension between the agency's politically "neutral" technical vision and the refugees' needs and wishes. While recognizing UNRWA's crucial role, the author regrets that in expanding its operations beyond relief provision, the agency opted for a more traditional (liberal) community-based development framework rather than a rights-based approach, resulting in a depoliticization that undermines the community's struggle for its rights.

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM) ; The research paper examines the dynamics of Arab diasporan politics and how diaspora communities reconstruct and reinvent their multiple identities and identitarian as well as political allegiances in the origin and sending countries. It specifically tackles political activities and socio-political associations among four basic communities living in Sydney, Australia. These communities are: the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Egyptians and the Iraqis. After shedding light on the various forms of diasporan politics amongst Arab-Australians, it raises theoretical issues about the nation-state and associated forms of political behaviour.

This study investigated the quarrel between the pro-and anti-constitutionalist jurists following the establishment of the first National Consultative Assembly (Majlis) in Iran and the drafting of the first constitution in 1906. A group of shi῾ite jurists launched an attack on Majlis, in addition to the ideas of human legislation, freedom, and equality, by considering the Islamic Sharī῾a law to be a set of perfect and impeccable laws. In response to these oppositions, the pro-constitutional jurists argued in favor of the constitutional movement. In this paper, it is argued that the quarrel could be considered as evidence for the perennial tension between the divine and human law in Islam. It appears that examining this conflict may shed light on incidents shaping the history of contemporary Iran.

The present article attempts to show how the pro-French ele- ments, the afrancesados, viewed the Constitution of 1812: from the moment of its genesis, defending their own political alternative; at its birth, with judgments con- temporary to its promulgation; and their coexistence with this text in the periods in which the Constitution of Cadiz prevailed. The article focuses especially on the successive attempts to reform this Constitution towards moderation, in which the old josefinos played a special leading role. ; El presente artículo pretende mostrar la mirada que los afrancesa- dos dirigieron hacia la Constitución de 1812: desde su propia génesis, defendiendo su propia alternativa política; en su nacimiento, con juicios contemporáneos a su propia promulgación; y su convivencia con este texto en los períodos en los que el código gaditano estuvo vigente. El artículo se detiene especialmente en las sucesivas tentativas e intentos de reforma en un sentido moderador de esta Constitución, en las que los antiguos josefinos tuvieron un especial protagonismo.