This texts in about my thesis show; Modular envelopes which was presented in the Anderson gallery at may 2013. The text speaks about my individual process of making both this particular work and art in general.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict brings up many questions considering and reaching into several different spheres, including the spheres of law. This thesis focuses on the question of the organized resistance movement against occupation and on its legal status. It is known that the inhabitants of every occupied territory are allowed to protect themselves and their territory from the occupier, thus they are allowed to resist the occupation and to claim a recognition of their resistance movement and of its acts as legal acts. Although the resistance movement is a well known term, there is no official definition of this movement and its legal framework is quite narrow; it only establishes the characteristics needed in order for its members to gain a status and a legal protection similar to the regular combatants. It is limited from its name that the resistance movement against occupation may only exists in the territory where an actual occupation takes place. In order to characterize the organized resistance movement against occupation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is necessary for this thesis to first answer several supporting questions concerning the actual status of the specific conflict and look closer whether or not is the concerned territory actually occupied. After reaching a...

The Israel/Palestine question, and its resonance for international peace and security, has turned into a central interest of the modern world. It also raises much controversy in the academic community. The Western support for Israel, a key factor in Israel's survival, is a significant feature of this issue. It has been revealed, through preceding studies, that Western policies towards Israel, foreign human rights policy for instance, are biased. The West appears biased, also, in what it produces about the question. Western products in the cinema and the mass media examined in this regard. How knowledge produced in the West is influenced by the pro-Israeli environment has been an academic concern. No empirical investigation, at the same time, has been made into how academic knowledge at university level treats the Israel/Palestine question. The popular belief about the scientific and impartial characteristics of Western knowledge has probably contributed to such a state of affairs. A sample of the most popular college level textbooks on the history of the Israel/Palestine question has been selected, through an extensive survey, to represent relevant Western knowledge. The selected textbooks have been analysed through a method of 'Historical Narrative Analysis' against a Zionist/pro-Israeli structure of Israel's history. The immediate context of the histories produced, the relevant historians and their background, are analysed to answer the second part of the key question of the research: ‘How the knowledge of history of the Israel/Palestine question is presented in Western academia, and why it has been presented in that particular way. The results of the first analysis, a textbook analysis, support the claim that textbook knowledge on the question is mainly pro-Israeli in bias. In relation to the question 'why', the analysis offers the 'Jewish pro-Israeli producer' as the main factor that can explain that bias in the products. Another factor is identified in this analysis as well; the relevant knowledge has been produced in a certain, American or Israeli, national and educational environment.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyse the business relations between the Czech Republic and Israel, and to suggest other possible perspectives of mutual cooperation. This thesis is devoted to both basic characteristics of Israel in terms of geographic, demographic and political, and to the current state of the Israeli economy. It provides information on history of mutual relations, their legal framework and development of the Czech-Israeli trade. The great emphasis is placed on tourism. One part of this thesis is processed as a questionnaire survey among Czech companies generally and the performance of the Czech company Ammann Czech Republic, a.s., which is one of the successful exporters to the Israeli market. The final part describes Czech institutions that support development of the Czech-Israeli relations, and the bilateral programme GESHER/MOST. The activities of these institutions are evaluated and then further opportunities of deeper cooperation are suggested.

Thesis advisor: Seth Jacobs / U.S. President Jimmy Carter's handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Middle East can only be properly understood in the context of his religious beliefs. Carter pursued what amounted to a faith-based foreign policy. Guided by the Christian concepts of justice, forgiveness, humility, and an emphasis on the importance of individuals, Carter attempted to make policy conform to the standards set by his faith. Viewing the Arab-Israeli conflict through this lens, he committed to advancing the Middle East peace process out of a Christian sense of duty. Religious belief caused Carter to champion the Palestinians' cause since he believed that the Palestinian people were suffering grave injustices under the Israeli occupation of the West Banka and Gaza. Ultimately, his faith-based approach proved unable to resolve the many diplomatic challenges facing his administration in the region. Fearing that any chance for peace might be lost, he invited Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt to Camp David for substantive talks in September 1978. Only when Carter abandoned his religiously grounded policy orientation and embraced a coldly calculating approach did he succeed in getting the Israelis and Egyptians to agree to a deal. With the conclusion of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in March 1979, Carter effectively removed himself from any further involvement in the process. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: Seth Jacobs / The Middle East was a tense place in 1976. In the past thirty years, Israel had fought four wars with its neighbors. President Richard Nixon and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger helped negotiate three partial settlements, two between Egypt and Israel and one between Syria and Egypt. But Israel maintained control of most of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and most of the Sinai when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. One of his first actions as president was to embark on a course to attempt to bring peace to the region. He began with a plan for a comprehensive settlement between Israel and all its neighbors, but left office after only achieving a single peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. This thesis will examine the successes and failures of Carter’s foreign policy to bring peace to the Middle East. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: History Honors Program. / Discipline: History.

O presente estudo tem por objetivo caracterizar as Guerras do Líbano (1975-90) como resultantes do processo de desintegração do Império Otomano no quadro definido pela aceleração histórica de acordo com Yves Lacoste. Ela evidencia o processo/projeto balcanizador, ou seja, de divisão territorial em base étnica, do Líbano e do Oriente Médio iniciado com o expansionismo europeu a partir do séc. XIX e a continuidade dada a tal processo pelas modernas geoestratégias israelenses, as quais, com suas rupturas, logram imprimir moto próprio à sua operação na Região. Desta forma, traçamos um painel histórico da evolução do Líbano dentro do quadro de tensões geopolíticas regionais e internacionais, como a queda do Império Otomano, a fundação de Israel e os movimentos nacionalistas árabe e judeu, os refugiados palestinos e as crises no Golfo Árabe-Pérsico (as Guerras do Iraque de 1980 e 1991), que se constituíram em fatores de instabilidade para o território libanês. Assim, as Guerras do Líbano (1975-90) permitiram que o território libanês passasse a servir como campo de batalha para as guerras do Oriente Médio, nas quais se insere as invasões israelenses do Líbano, em 1978 e em 1982, com seus intentos balcanizadores. / This study aims to characterize the Lebanon War (1975-90) as a result of the process of disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the framework defined by historical acceleration according to Yves Lacoste. It shows the process / project balkanizing, i.e., territorial division based on ethnic, Lebanon and the Middle East started with the European expansion from the Nineteenth century and continuity to this process given by modern geo-strategic Israelis, which, with its ruptures, manage to print their own motto accord to its operation in the region. Thus, we draw a historical overview of developments in Lebanon within the framework of regional and international geopolitical tensions, as the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the founding of Israel and the Arab and Jewish nationalist movements, Palestinian refugees and the crisis in the Gulf Arab Persian (Iraq wars of 1980 and 1991) that formed factors of instability for the Lebanese territory. Thus, the Lebanon War (1975-90) allowed the Lebanese territory passed serve as the battleground for wars in the Middle East, which falls in the Israeli invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, with its attempts balkanizing.

Thesis advisor: William A. Gamson / This work presents a longitudinal study of greater than 10 years, of all the major peace-building initiatives with an educational encounter-based approach in Israel and Palestine, during times of relative peace and times of acute violence (1993-2008). Interestingly, my results indicated that when the environment became more tumultuous and hostile, the effectiveness and even survival of these organizations depended to a significant degree on the ability of the organizations to manage the power asymmetry between the two sides and work as equally as possible. Organizations which failed to deal effectively with matters of equality, and the needs and desires of both sides, ended up struggling to maintain commitment, or were doused in conflict that could have been tempered if they strived for more equality. This study, which involved fieldwork, participant observation, and interviews with Palestinian and Israeli peace-builders prior to, during, and post-the 2nd Intifada, is in many ways a natural experiment of peace-building organizations operating in radically different contexts. Involving various fields, this research contributes to the broad fields of conflict resolution, peace studies, and organization studies. It offers critical insight into how organizations adapt in radically changing environments, what is problematic, what are their possibilities, and what allows some to survive while others do not. Practically speaking, this study also has political import as it suggests ways to strengthen and sustain peace-building efforts in different contexts and strengthen peace-building's symbolic, cultural, and political worth and value. In addition, it has significance for building sustainable coalitions across an arena of inequality, asymmetry, and difference. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / This study focuses on Seeds of Peace, a peace education program whose purpose is to bring together teenagers from conflict regions, train them to be future leaders, and promote conflict resolution, reconciliation, and coexistence. The experiences of the Palestinian, Israeli-Jewish, and Israeli-Palestinian participants at the summer camp, during re-entry, and in subsequent years, particularly during the second intifada, are portrayed using qualitative methods. The study also describes and analyzes the Seeds of Peace program from 1993–2004, highlighting the implementation of the follow-up program in the home region. Theories from the field of social psychology, including social identity theory and the contact hypothesis, and literature on peace education interventions conducted in the context of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, are employed to explain sources of intergroup conflict and models of how they can best be addressed and overcome. Data collection consisted of interviews of participants and staff members, observations of the camp and follow-up program, and written documentation produced by the participants. The participants' journeys were fraught with difficulties, particularly during re-entry and periods of violent conflict. Following the onset of the second intifada, external asymmetric power relations had a greater impact on the functioning of the program and tendencies to revert to previously-held negative attitudes became more pronounced as each group faced increasingly negative messages from their communities regarding the other side. Furthermore, participants grappled with what they referred to as the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) dilemma' as Israeli-Jews approached the age of mandatory military service. However, despite these challenges, according to many of the participants interviewed for this study, contact with the ‘enemy’ group promoted greater understanding of the conflict and its various narratives, humanization of the other side, increased self-concept, and enhanced communication and leadership skills. The use of a mixed model with multiple categorization strategies and a follow-up program enhanced positive outcomes. The findings of this study, presented through a narrative format, should provide many insights into designing and implementing peace education programs between teenagers from groups involved in intractable conflict, particularly during a period characterized by acute violence and a lack of top-down peacemaking initiatives.

This is an ethnographic study of the fraught and complex cultural politics of music making in Palestine-Israel in the context of the post-Oslo era. I examine the politics of sound and the ways in which music making and attached discourses reflect and constitute identities, and also, contextualize political action. Ethical and aesthetic positions that shape contemporary artistic production in Israel-Palestine are informed by profound imbalances of power between the State (Israel), the stateless (Palestinians of the occupied Palestinian territories), the complex positioning of Israel's Palestinian minority, and contingent exposure to ongoing political violence. Cultural production in this period is also profoundly informed by highly polarized sentiments and retreat from the expressive modes of relationality that accompanied the 1990s peace process, strategic shifts in the Palestinian struggle for liberation, which is increasingly taking place on the world stage through diplomatic and cultural work, and the conceptual life and currency Palestine has gained as an entity deserving of statehood around the world. The ethnography attends to how the conflict is lived and expressed, musically and discursively, in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) of the West Bank, encompassing different sites, institutions and individuals. I examine the ways in which music making and attached discourses reflect and constitute identities, with the understanding that musical culture is a sphere in which power and hegemony are asserted, negotiated and resisted through shifting relations between and within different groups. In all the different contexts presented, the dissertation is thematically and theoretically underpinned by the ways in which music is used to culturally assert or reterritorialize social and spatial boundaries in a situation of conflict. Beginning with cultural policy promoted by music institutions located in Israel and in the West Bank, the ethnography focuses on two opposing approaches to cultural interventions in the conflict: music as a site of resistance and nation building amongst Palestinian music conservatories located in the oPt, and music is a site of fostering coexistence and shared models of citizenship amongst Jewish and Arab citizens in mixed Palestinian-Jewish environments in Israel. This follows with the ways in which music making is used to re-write the spatial and temporal boundaries imposed on individuals and communities by the repressive regime of the occupation. The ethnography also attends to the ways in which the cultural construction of place and nation is lived and sounded outside of institutional frameworks, in the blurry boundaries and `boderzones' where fixed ethno-national divisions do not align with physical spaces and individual identities. This opens up spaces for alternative imaginings of national and post-national identities, of resistance and coexistence, of the universal and the particular, that musically highlight the daily struggles of individuals and communities negotiating multiplex modalities of difference.