This thesis analyzes the issue of terrorism regarding the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process. The role of two sides on the ongoing violence and terrorism will be discussed comparatively. Focusing on the Peace Process, the thesis will trace whether terrorist activities had an impact on the collapse of the Peace Process and also will demonstrate how a peace process produced an Israeli state more militarized and a Palestinian society more radicalized and religious than ever before.

Many contemporary states and historic political entities walled their borders stressing the idea that these barriers would protect their homelands from external threats and thus, achieve security. Although this security argument has prevailed, the political science literature fails to offer a systematic empirical examination of the relationship between barriers and cross-border threats. This research attempts to bridge this gap by answering the question: What are the actual security outcomes of physical barriers on borders? And thus, under what conditions do barriers succeed/fail to achieve security? This paper posits that, in some cases, building barriers on borders to stop non-state actors’ attacks escalate conflict. It demonstrates that when militants have supply institutions, they will manage to increase their attacks and shift to new tactics despite the barrier. It also studies the Israeli Gaza Strip Fence and offers an analysis based on patterns of the relationships between features of the barrier and the Gaza attacks. these patterns are derived from a quantitative dataset built by the researcher and are also supplemented by qualitative data about the case. / text

This study explores the historical evolution of the water situation in Palestine at a local level in the West Bank village of Zababdeh. The thesis examines Palestine's geography and the historical relationship of Zababdeh's people with this environment. A sudden shift in this relationship took place during the second half of the 20th century, particularly after the advent of Israeli occupation. The thesis also addresses the Palestinians' involvement, or lack thereof, in water politics of the West Bank during the 20th century. The pattern of neglect has left Palestinians in a weak position to secure safe and reliable water supplies for villages like Zababdeh. Though some have speculated that the water situation in Palestine will one day lead to violent conflict, the example of Zababdeh's water history shows that such conflict has not yet occurred because the village's inhabitants experienced many new water-related conveniences under Israeli occupation. The new conveniences left Zababdeh's people relatively contented and without incentive to fight over water. The study finds that water is an underlying, and sometimes overt stress that has been exacerbating the conflict in Palestine for decades and will continue to foster instability in the region until the people of Palestine all have safe, consistent, and sufficient supplies of water for their needs.

One of the most controversial wars in contemporary history, both in terms of the ideological powers behind it and its continued struggle for over 60 years, is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The most recent outburst of the conflict, commonly known as the Gaza War, has attracted extensive global media coverage. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis incorporates an extensive content analysis, to chart patterns and regularities within a large corpus of four broadcast media (namely BBC Arabic, BBC World, Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Jazeera English). It then integrates a more interpretative discourse analysis, to investigate the cultural ideas evoked linguistically and, to a lesser extent, visually throughout the coverage. Assuming a qualitative stance, it also draws upon focus groups conducted in Jordan and England to examine the public s knowledge and understandings of the events on the ground, in addition to their evaluation of both organisations levels of objectivity and impartiality. To allow for a comparative dimension, the thesis develops two frames of analysis that systematically looks at two recurring themes and scrutinises their discursive strategies and functions in the construction of meaning and ideology. These include Provocation, which examines questions of responsibility and culpability; and Proportionality which embraces matters of legitimacy and authority in relation to the humanitarian aspect of the war. The findings indicate that the actions of a protagonist may be deemed legitimate with regard to provocation, but illegitimate with regard to their proportionality. The peculiar circumstances of the war pushed the media in the direction of greater separation from the predominant ideologies ensued by the Israeli Army. It suggests that both networks lack a coherent discursive strategy at the level of the lexical in their reporting of Gaza. The empirical findings also confirm that meanings devised by viewers are pertinent to their behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. This conceptualisation formulated three readings shaped by political, cultural and social formations: an oppositional (counter-hegemonic) reading, a dominant reading and a subliminal (sub-conscious) reading.

This thesis aims at analyzing the reasons for the insoluble nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The reasons behind the continuation of the conflict are various. However, this thesis mainly concentrated on the ones stemmed from the clash of Arab nationalism and Zionism. This clash basically represents the failure of both sides in making any concession from their territorial attachments which resulted from Arab nationalism and Zionism. Though both nationalisms were constructed on the same founding factors such as religion, territory and culture, Arab nationalists and Zionists gained different positions during the conflict. These positions determined the future of all of the peace processes in the near past. All peace processes that had focused on the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict displayed that any formulation for a last settlement to the conflict should take into consideration the inability of the parties to agree on a territorial compromise and the adoption by both sides of the continuation of the conflict as a political instrument.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2006-06Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:07:18Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_apm_me_mar.pdf: 1002714 bytes, checksum: 30b20f4c9ac2422cdf0ecbd31456274e (MD5) / O discurso norte-americano (governo Bush) a respeito da reforma democrática nos territórios palestinos autônomos - Faixa de Gaza e Cisjordânia - identifica a ausência da democracia como uma das causas centrais no impedimento à paz entre palestinos e israelenses. Nesta perspectiva, os Estados Unidos colocam como condição primária ao seu auxílio na constituição do Estado Palestino, a realização de reformas democráticas. Esta pesquisa problematiza os fundamentos deste discurso a partir de uma análise das origens do conflito palestino-israelense e de suas principais implicações para a comunidade palestina. A partir daí, fazemos um contraste entre os diagnósticos acerca do conflito apresentados pelos Estado Unidos e as reais condições sócio-econômicas e políticas dos territórios palestinos, evidenciando os principais impedimentos à constituição do Estado Palestino e ao equacionamento do conflito. / The north-american discourse (Bush government) related to democratic reform in the Palestinian Territories - Gaza Strip and West Bank - identifies the lack of democracy as one of the main causes that obstructs peace between Palestinians and Israelis. In this way, United States, establish as the basic condition in their support in the construction of the Palestinian State, the implementation of democratic reforms. This research analyses the foundations of this discourse by an analysis of the roots of the israeli-palestinian conflict and their main implications to Palestinian community. From that, we do a contrast between the north-american diagnostic about the conflict and the real social-economic and politics conditions of the Palestinian Territories, emphasizing the principal obstacles to the construction of the Palestinian State and to the conflict resolution.

Orientador: Tullo Vigevani / Banca: Nizar Mesari / Banca: Mamede Mustafa Jarouche / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas". / Resumo: O discurso norte-americano (governo Bush) a respeito da reforma democrática nos territórios palestinos autônomos - Faixa de Gaza e Cisjordânia - identifica a ausência da democracia como uma das causas centrais no impedimento à paz entre palestinos e israelenses. Nesta perspectiva, os Estados Unidos colocam como condição primária ao seu auxílio na constituição do Estado Palestino, a realização de reformas democráticas. Esta pesquisa problematiza os fundamentos deste discurso a partir de uma análise das origens do conflito palestino-israelense e de suas principais implicações para a comunidade palestina. A partir daí, fazemos um contraste entre os "diagnósticos" acerca do conflito apresentados pelos Estado Unidos e as reais condições sócio-econômicas e políticas dos territórios palestinos, evidenciando os principais impedimentos à constituição do Estado Palestino e ao equacionamento do conflito. / Abstract: The north-american discourse (Bush government) related to democratic reform in the Palestinian Territories - Gaza Strip and West Bank - identifies the lack of democracy as one of the main causes that obstructs peace between Palestinians and Israelis. In this way, United States, establish as the basic condition in their support in the construction of the Palestinian State, the implementation of democratic reforms. This research analyses the foundations of this discourse by an analysis of the roots of the israeli-palestinian conflict and their main implications to Palestinian community. From that, we do a contrast between the north-american diagnostic about the conflict and the real social-economic and politics conditions of the Palestinian Territories, emphasizing the principal obstacles to the construction of the Palestinian State and to the conflict resolution. / Mestre