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This thesis examines nationalism and colonialism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and asks the questions: What is the relationship between these ideologies and "national narratives" constructed of collective historical memory? How do these ideologies produce recognizable, sexualized, national bodies? What are the defining characteristics of these national bodies and how do they perform roles from the national narratives? These questions are addressed through a discussion of the role of masculinity in modern Zionism and the state of Israel, in particular how it relates to the land of Palestine and the Palestinian "other". This thesis also addresses anti-colonial resistance movements in Palestine and argues that performative nationalism produces a fetishized commodity that can me labeled "militancy". This militancy is found institutionalized in the popular culture of everything from poetry to political posters. Finally, Palestinian female suicide bombers, like women nationalists before them, do little to challenge how specific nationalist acts of resistance are defined by patriarchal nationalists and sexualized within a "gendered space of militancy".

The ideology of jihad as propounded by the Islamic Resistance Movement of Palestine (H&dotbelow;amas) is the subject of this thesis. It examines what this organization specifically means by jihad. To properly ascertain this meaning, the ideology of jihad from two different time periods has been examined. In the first period, the "classical" age, the ideology of several jurists concerning jihad is introduced. It can be seen that during this period jihad was applicable to both the expansion and protection of Islamic social/political hegemony. In the second, or modern period, the interpretations of jihad by four thinkers commonly known as "Islamic revivalists" are presented. The definitions of jihad in this era were mostly responses of defending and liberating land from colonialism and imperialism; however, in some cases it was also understood as a means to implement the shari'a in Muslim societies. The jihad of H&dotbelow;amas can, for its part, be seen as an amalgam of these ideologies, in that it is largely connected to liberating the land of Palestine from Israeli rule, establishing an Islamic state, and continuing to assist in struggles in other areas beyond the borders of Palestine.

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Magister Philosophiae - MPhil

My thesis focuses on modern Palestine and the role of nationalism and fundamentalism in the construction of Palestinian national identity. H&dotbelow;amas provides a case study of Islamic fundamentalism in Palestine. The movement developed during the late 1980's as a reaction to the failures of the secular project. H&dotbelow;amas is a reflection of a region-wide phenomenon. It is not solely a reaction to modernity. Rather, H&dotbelow;amas is the result of specific condition that led to the politicization of Islam after the Intifad&dotbelow;a . Today the nationalist PLO and H&dotbelow;amas struggle to define Palestinian identity and to shape the emerging Palestinian state. / Palestinian national identity like that of other modern nations has been constructed. Nation-building or identity construction in Palestine can be divided into four historical stages. Each stage is characterized by overlapping and competing identities: Ottoman, Arab, religious, local and kinship. These identities are not mutually exclusive and often a combination of identities became prominent historically depending on the internal and external forces pressuring society. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / South Africa

This study is an attempt to understand how PNGO’s are impacted as a result of the Israel- Palestine conflict today, while touching upon issues such as the Gaza blockade, relief aid, political participation, Hamas and the PA, and the occupation. I have had the opportunity of coming into contact with four different PNGO workers based in the Gaza Strip, and conducted qualitative structured interviews with each of them. They possess key insights as they exist at the center of the research problem. Through the theoretical lens of Paul Lederach (1997) and the utilization of the Directed Content Analysis (DCA) method, the structured interviews were analyzed in order to explore both the factors that Gazan PNGO workers identified as having an effect on their organization, as well as how it affects their organizational capacity and peace work.

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