The main aim of this master thesis is analyze role of UNRWA in the Middle East in 1950- 2010 based on the collected data. The main focus is on the population growth tendencies which are often criticized as the result of the UNRWA politics and which might be prolonging the conflict in the area. Second part of this thesis focuses on the elementary and preparatory education at UNRWA schools. Based on the research done, it was concluded that UNRWA isn't responsible of Palestinian refugee growth as it is the result of population growth in region and the result of foreign events. In question of elementary and preparatory education, the decreasing percentage tendencies in attendance at UNRWA run schools have been observed despite multiplication of the refugee population. This might be a result of failing to accommodate to the needs of Palestinian refugees.

Recognising water as a central relational location of the asymmetric Israel- Palestinian conflict, this study critically analyses the peacebuilding significance of Israeli, transboundary water and peace practitioner discourses. Anchored in a theoretically-constructed framework of hydropolitical peacebuilding, it discursively analyses the historical, officially-sanctioned, as well as academic and civil society water and peace relations of Israelis and Palestinians. It responds to the question: How are Israeli water and peace practitioners discursively practicing hydropolitical peacebuilding in the Middle East? In doing so, this study has drawn upon a methodology of interpretive practice, combining ethnography, foucauldian discourse analysis and narrative inquiry. This study discursively traces Israel¿s development into a hydrohegemonic state in the Jordan River Basin, from the late-19th century to 2011. Recognising conflict as a power-laden social system, it makes visible the construction, production and circulation of Israel¿s power in the basin. It examines key narrative elements invoked by Israel to justify its evolving asymmetric, hydrohegemonic relations. Leveraging the hydropolitical peacebuilding framework, itself constituted of equality, partnership, equity and shared ii sustainability, this study also examines the discursive practices of Israeli transboundary water and peace practitioners in relationship with Palestinians. In so doing, it makes visible their hydrohegemony, hydropolitical peacebuilding, and hydrohegemonic residues. This study¿s conclusions re-affirm earlier findings, notably that environmental and hydropolitical cooperation neither inherently nor necessarily constitute peacebuilding practice. This work also suggests that hydropolitical peacebuilding may discursively be recognised in water and peace practices that engage, critique, resist, desist from, and practice alternative relational formations to hydrohegemony in asymmetric conflicts. / British Council/Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Fonds québecois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC).

The justification of war is a central issue in international relations, and the characteristic political response to war is to adopt a story that offers a degree of explanation. Narratives play a central role in garnering public support for wars to be seen as legitimate. Soft power, which includes sociocultural factors such as the state's image, credibility, shared values, and moral authority, also plays a crucial role. In the digital age, with the rise of social media, diplomacy has transformed and become a primary source of news with unparalleled global reach. Consequently, digital diplomacy has become essential for states to communicate their policy objectives directly to their audience through compelling social media narratives, especially during times of war. There have been few studies examining the relationship between soft power, digital diplomacy, and strategic narratives during wartime. This study uses visual narrative analysis (VNA) to address this gap by analysing eight video tweets published by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) during the Israeli-Hamas war from October 7, 2023, and the six months after. The results show that the Israeli MFA used strategic narratives to legitimise the war. Notably, they used visual representations to emphasise Israel’s right to self-defence and its proximity to Western ideals, to garner support. Strategic narratives provide a storytelling which invoke the past to illuminate the present and future and create a shared identity in the context of the Israel-Hamas War.

En géographie, les représentations permettent d’analyser la façon dont les individus appréhendent le monde, ou une partie du monde, à partir d’espaces expérimentés ou envisagés à travers leur dimension idéelle. Dans cette perspective, cette thèse traite de la question des représentations du conflit israélo-palestinien vu de France. Il s’agit de s’intéresser à un territoire complexe, morcelé, cadre d’un conflit territorial et d’examiner la façon dont les représentations de cet espace, obtenues par une expérience indirecte, peuvent être abordées. Ce travail s’appuie sur l’analyse du discours des médias –intermédiaires essentiels dans la construction des représentations – à travers notamment le traitement par la presse écrite de la conférence d’Annapolis (novembre 2007). Ce travail se base également sur une enquête par questionnaires menée auprès d’une population d’étudiants afin de déterminer leur perception du conflit par l’utilisation de la cartographiementale. Les résultats mettent à jour un certain nombre de représentations collectives qui s’apparentent alors à des déformations partagées. En dépassant le simple constat du niveau de connaissances, cette étude met en évidence la façon dont les individus appréhendent un territoire, objet d’une médiatisation importante, de représentations contradictoires, soumis ainsi à de multiples déformations. Cette approche du conflit israélo-palestinien par le biaisdes représentations constitue une échelle d’analyse originale dans l’appréhension de la construction des rapports de l’individu au monde. / In geography, representations allow an analysis of the way people represent the world, or a part of it, from experienced spaces to those apprehended only through their ideational dimensions. From this perspective, this PhD deals with the issue of representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at it is perceived in France. The purpose is to consider here acomplex and fragmented territory, which is the context of a territorial conflict and to consider how representations of this territory – provided by an indirect environmental experience - can be apprehended. This study is based on the analysis of media discourses – key link in the construction of representations – particularly through the coverage of the Annapolis conference by the press (November 2007). This study is also based on a questionnaires survey conducted among a population of undergraduates in order to specify their perception of the conflict, in particular through the use of mental maps. The results reveal a number of collective representations, which are then rather similar to shared distortions. Beyond the observation of the level of knowledge, this study highlights the way people apprehend a territory, subject to significant media coverage, to contradictory representations and thus submitted to several distortions. This approach of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict trough representations constitutes an original scale of analysis of the construction of the relationship of the individual to the world.

Este trabalho analisa a criação e manutenção dos espaços de diálogo não oficial entre as sociedades israelense e palestina após o fracasso do Processo de Paz de Oslo. Sendo que a atuação da sociedade civil foi considerada fator fundamental para o início das negociações na década de 1990, a pesquisa investiga como a falência das conversas oficiais afetou o movimento pela paz. Em particular, foca nos desafios enfrentados por organizações da sociedade civil - OSCs, que promovem diálogo em vistas à resolução do conflito e nas estratégias que usam para lidar com eles. Os resultados apresentados são produto de uma pesquisa qualitativa, conduzida durante dez semanas em Israel e na Cisjordânia, com oito organizações locais. Os desafios levantados pela pesquisa são: 1) senso de desesperança de que o conflito ainda possa ser resolvido leva a um alcance mínimo de pessoas pelo movimento pela paz; 2) barreiras físicas e psicossociais tornam escassos os espaços compartilhados e os indivíduos mais resistentes ao diálogo; 3) debate sobre antinormalização na sociedade palestina vê diálogo como normalização e ativistas pela paz como \"agentes do inimigo\"; 4) pressão a OSCs e ativistas pela paz em Israel por meio de leis e propostas de leis, desacreditando-os e rotulando-os como \"agentes estrangeiros\", trabalhando por interesses contrários aos do Estado. Diante das dificuldades, conclui-se que o papel do diálogo não oficial é marginal e praticamente irrelevante para a retomada de negociações. No entanto, as estratégias usadas pelas OSCs mostram que o diálogo possui enorme potencial diante do atual impasse político, como espaço derradeiro em que as sociedades podem se encontrar e estabelecer relações de confiança, tolerância e respeito mútuo, primordiais para qualquer processo de paz. / The present study analyzes the creation and maintenance of spaces for unofficial dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian societies after the failure of the Oslo Peace Process. Civil society was considered a key factor in starting negotiations in the 1990s. From that, the research investigates how the crash of official talks affected the peace movement. In particular, it focuses on the challenges faced by civil society organizations - CSOs, promoting dialogue in order to solve the conflict and the strategies they use to deal with them. The findings are the result of a qualitative research conducted over 10 weeks in Israel and the West Bank with eight local organizations. The main challenges pointed by the research are: 1) a sense of hopelessness that the conflict can still be solved leads to a minimum reach of people by the peace movement; 2) physical and psychosocial barriers make shared spaces scarce and individuals more resistant to dialogue; 3) the anti-normalization debate in Palestinian society sees dialogue as normalization and peace activists as \"agents of the enemy\"; 4) pressure on CSOs and peace activists in Israel through laws and bills, delegitimizing them and labeling them as \"foreign agents\", working for interests contrary to the State. In the face of difficulties, it is concluded that the role of unofficial dialogue is marginal and practically irrelevant for the resumption of negotiations. However, the strategies used by the CSOs shows that dialogue has enormous potential in the face of the current political impasse, as the ultimate space in which societies can meet and establish relationships of trust, tolerance and mutual respect, which are paramount to any peace process.

A presente dissertação de mestrado tem por objetivo traçar uma história da ideia de um Estado binacional para árabes e judeus na Palestina histórica. O estudo busca, após definir as especificidades de um Estado binacional, compreender a circulação da ideia binacional no período anterior à criação do Estado de Israel, em 1948, entre judeus e árabes-palestinos progressistas, dentro do movimento sionista e em organizações de esquerda da Palestina. Em um segundo momento, busca-se entender como o período compreendido entre a criação do Estado de Israel e o processo que levou aos Acordos de Oslo, nos anos 90, ao mesmo tempo silenciou o ideal binacional e criou as bases para seu ressurgimento na virada do século. Por fim, são analisadas, frente ao contexto israelo-palestino na atualidade, as perspectivas do ressurgimento de propostas binacionais, mais nítido entre jornalistas de esquerda, algumas figuras que fizeram ou fazem marginalmente parte da política institucional, intelectuais e acadêmicos adeptos de perspectivas críticas, assim como entre ativistas e movimentos sociais por direitos humanos envolvidos na região. / This Masters thesis aims to trace a history of the idea of a bi-national state for Arabs and Jews in historical Palestine. After laying out the specificities of a binational state, it reconstructs the circulation of the binational idea in the period before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, among progressive Jews and Palestinian Arabs, in the Zionist movement, and among left-wing organizations in Palestine. In a second step, we we analize how the period between the establishment of the State of Israel and the peace process that led to the Oslo Accords, in the 90s, was marked by silence around the binational ideal while all the same laying the foundations for its revival at the turn of the 21st century. Finally, regarding todays Israeli-Palestinian context, we analyze the prospects of revival of binational proposals, focusing on left-wing journalists, a number of more or less marginal participants in institutional politics, some critical intellectuals and academic supporters, and among activists and social movements for human rights.

The aim of this thesis is to look at all the factors that affect not only the course of the Middle East conflict, but also internal and foreign policy of the United States. The aim is to describe the situation of the Middle East conflict and its links to the unflagging efforts and policies of the United States, especially in the last few years by U.S. President Barack Obama. The term Middle East conflict was for the purpose of this thesis reduced to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Obama administration's role in the peace process.

Nous mettons en exergue dans cette thèse le concept de système européen en politique étrangère (SEPE) comme outil pertinent afin d’analyser la politique étrangère européenne telle qu’elle fonctionne, et non pas telle qu’elle devrait fonctionner. Le SEPE – composé des politiques étrangères des États membres et de l’action extérieure de l’UE – met en valeur le dynamisme de la gouvernance européenne, issu des interactions entre ses différents agents et leur utilisation des normes européennes. A travers le SEPE, nous démontrons que la politique étrangère commune face à la solution de deux États s’explique par les usages que fait l’UE3 – la France, l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni – de l’UE en politique étrangère. Ces usages sont au nombre de trois : fonctionnel, réaliste et normatif. Nous montrons que l’adoption puis la promotion de la solution de deux Etats résultent de la manière dont ils se saisissent de l’UE afin de répondre à un contexte international difficile, de la Déclaration de Copenhague de 1973 au vote à l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies de 2012 concernant le statut de la Palestine. Le déploiement et test de divers outils de politique étrangère, tels que la position d’envoyé spécial en 1996, illustrent l’usage fonctionnel de l’UE. Les usages normatif et réaliste de l’UE envers les Palestiniens rendent compte de l’adoption de normes financières et politiques très contraignantes, reflétant les intérêts communs de l’UE3. Ces mêmes usages leur permettent de promouvoir la reconnaissance de l’Etat d’Israël, et d’autre part, de privilégier leurs intérêts stratégiques avec Israël au niveau bilatéral grâce à l’expression d’un linkage politique au niveau communautaire. / In this thesis we bring up the concept of European System in Foreign Policy (ESFP) as a pertinent tool to analyze the European Foreign Policy as it actually functions rather than as it should function. The ESFP – composed of the Member States’ foreign policies and the External action of the EU – highlights the dynamism of the European governance in foreign policy, which arises from the interactions between the agents of this system and their use of the European norms. Through the ESFP, we demonstrate that the EU’s common policy towards the two-State solution can be explained by the usages of the EU in foreign policy by France, Germany and the United-Kingdom – the EU3. These strategic usages are threefold: a functional or reflexive, a realist and a normative usage. We show that the adoption and the promotion of the two-State solution result from the way they seize upon the EU in order to cope with a difficult international context, since the Declaration of Copenhagen in 1973 to the vote at the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2012 concerning the new status of Palestine. The introduction and test of several foreign policy tools, as the position of special envoy in 1996, illustrate the functional usage of the EU. The normative and realist usages of the EU towards the Palestinians explain the adoption of constraining financial and political norms reflecting the common interests of the EU3. These same usages allow them to promote the recognition of the State of Israel on the one hand, and on the other hand, to privilege their strategic interests with Israel at the bilateral level through the expression of a political linkage at the community level.

Diante de um conflito que se estende por muitas décadas, como é o caso do israelense-palestino, um rastro de dor marca vidas e parece não deixar muito espaço para a esperança. Ao registrar o testemunho de mães a respeito de sua história de vida e experiência emocional diante da realidade violenta em que vivem, busquei, a um só tempo, lhes escutar a voz, tantas vezes silenciada e, da humanidade de seus relatos, extrair uma centelha que fosse de possibilidade de transformação. No campo da Psicologia Política, é da intersecção entre a Teoria Feminista e o Estudo das Emoções que desenho meu olhar e na História Oral traço o caminho. Mas esta jornada teve início muito antes, e é nos registros pessoais de mulheres que busco preencher espaços vazios das narrativas históricas tradicionais. E, contrariamente à lógica do conflito que não vê lugar para mais de uma perspectiva, exploro, apesar das assimetrias, todos os pontos de vista que consigo alcançar, a fim de propor, não uma solução, pois esta não me caberia, mas um meio fértil para seu desenvolvimento. / Faced with a conflict that extends itself for many decades, as is the case of the Israeli- Palestinian, a trail of pain marks lives, and does not seem to leave much room for hope. By recording the testimony of mothers about their life history and emotional experience in face of the violent reality in which they live, I sought, at one and the same time, to listen to their, so often silenced voice and their stories\' humanity, to draw a spark of possibility of transformation. From the intersection between Feminist Theory and the Study of Emotions in the field of Political Psychology, I draw my gaze, and in Oral History I trace the path. But this journey began much earlier, and it is on women\'s personal records that I seek to fill empty spaces of traditional historical narratives. And contrary to the logic of conflict that sees no place for more than one perspective, I explore, despite the asymmetries, all the points of view that I can attain, in order to propose, not a solution, for it would not be up to me, but a fertile environment for its growth.

Wind resource assessment studies have been conducted in the Israeli side and the Palestinian side before; however, the previous studies were restricted with the political border either Palestinian or Israeli except one of them that was based on measurements dated to 1940-1983 (R. Shabbaneh & A. Hasan, 1997). Moreover, the studies were performed years ago, with simple techniques and based on old data (R. Shabbaneh & A. Hasan, 1997). Hence, the needs for a new study that is based on updated data, and using updated model is highly demanded. This study is intended to perform wind resource assessment in Palestine/Israel; the study has used two stages of assessment, primary one based on reference station data on both sides, Israeli and Palestinian. The second stage of wind resource assessment is based on WindPRO software. The wind resource assessment ends up with identifying sites with higher potential that are situated in four selected sites, North of Palestine/Israel, North of West-bank, Jerusalem, and Eilat, the higher potential was in Eilat area bearing mean wind speed of 9.88m/s at 100 m hub height.Moreover, the study recognized the importance of political situation assessment due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Based on conducted survey, the political situation assessment concluded that international non-governmental organizations seem to be most capable of starting up wind power project in Palestine/Israel. Furthermore, the study concluded that supportive policies from both the Israeli and Palestinian governments are crucial to promote wind power projects in the region.