Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 274-290). Also available on the Internet.

On October 7th, the over 75-year-long Israel-Palestine conflict escalated into an ongoing war,extensively covered by traditional and social media, global demonstrations, and politicalresponses. While previous research within library and information science regarding socialmedia has focused on information evaluation and media and information literacy, this studyaims to investigate students' digital and physical information practices in relation to theIsraeli-Palestinian war. Empirical data were collected through four semi-structured interviewswith Swedish students, resulting in two main themes and nine sub-themes. Using McKenzie'smodel of everyday information practices and Zimmerman's model of social noise, thethematic analysis reveals that passive forms of seeking and receiving information are muchmore prevalent on social media, whereas information sharing, regardless of context, can belinked to social noise, such as conflict management or cultural commitments. In physicalencounters, active seeking, receiving, and sharing of information are more common, alongwith passive forms like scanning. The conclusions show that passive information practicesdominate in digital contexts, while active practices balance passive ones in physicalencounters. Information practices are therefore context-bound, and social noise influenceswhat students share in both digital and physical environments. / Den 7 oktober eskalerade den över 75 år långa Israel-Palestina-konflikten ut i ett pågåendekrig, demonstrationer och politiska reaktioner har fått omfattande täckning i traditionella ochsociala medier. Medan tidigare forskning inom biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap omsociala medier har fokuserat på källkritik och medie- och informationskunnighet, ämnardenna studie undersöka studenters digitala och fysiska informationspraktiker i relation till detIsrael-Palestina-kriget. Empiriska data har insamlats genom fyra semistrukturerade intervjuermed svenska studenter, där resultatet gav två huvudteman och nio underteman. Med hjälp avMcKenzies modell innehållande vardagliga informationspraktiker och Zimmermans modellom socialt brus visar den tematiska analysen att passiva former av sökning och mottagandeförekommer i mycket större utsträckning på sociala medier, medan informationsdelning påoavsett kontext kan kopplas till socialt brus, som konflikthantering eller kulturella åtaganden.I fysiska möten är aktivt sökande, mottagande och delande av information vanligare,tillsammans med passiva former som skanning. Slutsatserna visar att passivainformationspraktiker dominerar i digitala kontexter, medan aktiva praktiker balanserar dessai fysiska möten. Informationspraktiker är alltså kontextbundna och socialt brus påverkar vad studenter delar i både digitala och fysiska sammanhang.

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 applies securitisation theory to the Israeli-Palestinian case with a particular focus on the potential for desecuritisation processes arising from Israeli-Palestinian cooperation/coexistence efforts in peace education and water management. It aims to apply securitisation theory in general and the under-employed concept of desecuritisation in particular, to explore the limits and prospects as a theoretical framework. Concepts, arguments and assumptions associated with the securitisation theory of the Copenhagen School are considered. In this regard, the thesis makes a contribution to Security Studies through its application of securitisation theory and sheds light on a complex conflict situation. Based on an analytical framework that integrates the concept of desecuritisation with the concepts of peace-building and peace-making, the thesis pays attention to desecuritisation moves involving Israeli and Palestinian civil societies through peace education and water management. The thesis contributes to debates over the problems and prospects of reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, so making a significant empirical and theoretical contribution in the development of the concept of desecuritisation as a framework for analysing conflict resolution. The thesis develops an analytical framework that combines political level peace-making with civil society actors' peace-building efforts. These are seen as potential processes of desecuritisation; indeed, for desecuritisation to occur. The thesis argues that a combination of moves at both the political and societal levels is required. By contrast to securitisation processes which are mainly initiated by political andlor military elites with the moral consent of society (or 'audience' in Copenhagen School terms), processes of desecuritisation, especially in cases of protracted conflicts, go beyond the level of elites to involve society in cultural and structural peace-building programmes. Israeli-Palestinian peace education and water management cases are employed to illustrate this argument.

This dissertation focuses on the 'theo-political' core of US Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism. The political militancy characterizing two Millenarian/Messianic movements such as Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism constitutes a still under-researched and under-theorized aspect that, at present, is paramount to address for its immediate and long terms implications in the highly sensitive and volatile Israeli-Palestinian issue, in the US and Israeli domestic domain, and in the wider international community. Although processes of the 'sacralisation of politics' and 'politicisation of religions' have already manifested themselves in countless forms over past centuries, Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism are unprecedented phenomena given their unique hybridized nature, political prominence and outreach, mobilizing appeal amongst believers, organizational-communicational skills and degree of institutionalization.

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.

Although academic interest in TQM increased substantially in the last decade, still the gap in the literature is hardly surprising given that research and theory in TQM implementation are still at a very early stage in the West. To-date, there are only a handful of empirical researches reported in the literature that have attempted to identify what constitute as constructs of TQM that can be manipulated to effectively implement TQM. All but very few are studies done in developed economies. Moreover, knowledge of TQM in developing economies is almost totally lacking. Against this backdrop, this researcha ddressesth e identified gaps in the literature on TQM. Thus this thesis focuses on the effective implementation of total quality management in Palestine, a developing economy, through an empirical investigation of critical quality factors. The research methodology involves combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the key quality factors cited in the literature and considered by consultants and experts as essential to successful TQM implementation. The research design also included: Lan empirical investigation to assessth e level of TQM awarenessa nd understandingi n the Palestinian context, 2. determining which key quality factors are critical to successful implementation using a survey questionnaire, 3. determining what tactics and techniques are used in addressing and implementing these critical quality factors by Palestinian organisations, using semi-structured interviews, 4. determining the prerequisites of effective TQM implementation in the pre-launch stage using in depth interviews. By complementing and integrating the findings, an implementation framework was constructed with the support of the knowledge acquired from the literature review. A simple and practical step by step with implementation guidelines framework aiming at assisting Palestinian organisations in planning on effective implementation of TQM was constructed. The research findings indicate that top management commitment and involvement, employee commitment and involvement, managing by customer-driven system and processes and continuous performance improvement, are essential to effective implementation of TQM. This implies that Palestinian organisations recognise and implement the same critical quality factors found in Western countries. The proposed framework is built around four major constructs that relate to top management commitment, employee commitment, customer-driven system and processes, and continuous improvement. It emphasises an implementation approach of top-down deployment and bottom-up participation focussing on businessp rocessesth at add value to customers atisfaction. In conclusion, this empirical research revealed that TQM could be implemented in the developing economies (such as Palestine) as Palestinian organisations subscribe to the same quality factors as those found in the developed economies.

Since the 1990s, Palestinian theatrical activities in the West Bank have expanded exponentially. As well as local productions, Palestinian theatre-makers have presented their work to international audiences on a scale unprecedented in Palestinian history. By tracing the history of the five major theatre companies (Al-Kasaba Theatre, Ashtar Theatre, Al-Harah Theatre, The Freedom Theatre and Al-Rowwad) currently working in the West Bank, this groundbreaking project examines the role of theatre-makers in the formation of ‘abject counterpublics’. By placing theories of abjection and counterpublic formation in conversation with each other, this dissertation argues that theatre in the West Bank has been regulated by processes of social abjection and, yet, it is an important site for counterpublic formation. In this way Palestinian theatre has played an integral role in the formation of an abject counterpublic, a discursive and performative space in which theatre-makers contest Zionist discourse and Israeli state practices. What tactics, I ask, do theatre-makers use to disrupt, subvert and/or bypass the Zionist public sphere? What counter-discourse emerges from this site? How is such a counter-discourse articulated in performance spaces? And how does Palestinian theatre, in the logistical sense, work against a dominant discourse of erasure as well as continue to operate under conditions of settler-colonialism? This dissertation is the first major account of Palestinian theatre covering the last thirty years. Taking the end of the first intifada (1993) as its point of departure, and using original field research and interviews, this project fills a major gap in our knowledge of contemporary Palestinian theatre in the West Bank up to the present. The original contribution of my research to the fields of theatre studies and Palestine studies are twofold. Firstly, Reuven Snir’s Palestinian Theatre (2005) is currently the only book-length study up to the end of the first intifada. Whereas Snir’s book is limited to archival sources, my arguments rest upon original fieldwork (interviews, participant observation, performance analysis and case studies) carried out in the West Bank in 2014 and 2015. As such, it provides a richer, bottom-up analysis of theatre-making. Secondly, by introducing the term abject counterpublics and by placing the voices of theatre-makers at the centre of its enquiry, this study broadens discussions on abjection and counterpublic formation in Palestine.

Tesis para obtener el grado de Magíster en Estudios Internacionales / El movimiento ciudadano internacional Boicot, Desinversiones y Sanciones Contra Israel – BDS surge como respuesta frente a la persistente pasividad de la comunidad internacional respecto de la insostenible y desastrosa situación que vive el pueblo palestino ya sea en el exilio o bajo la discriminación, segregación y represión institucional, una realidad que se ha mantenido así por siete décadas. Los tres únicos objetivos de su campaña están basados en el Derecho Internacional y en resoluciones de Naciones Unidas, resoluciones que hasta la fecha no han sido cumplidas por el Estado Israelí. Se trata de una forma de lucha no violenta cuya estrategia de desinversión y boicot económico, académico y cultural a empresas e instituciones vinculadas a la ocupación han generado la presión suficiente para provocar cambios en la política exterior israelí, presentando una nueva imagen al exterior. La presente investigación tiene por objeto analizar el poder de atracción o Soft Power del BDS y su capacidad de empujar al Estado Israelí hacia la reconfiguración de su propaganda política o “hasbara” la cual constituye el núcleo de su diplomacia pública. / The Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions Against Israel campaign or BDS is an international social movement which emerges as a response to the international community’s persistent lack of determination regarding the unsustainable and devastating situation of the Palestinian people, who are living either in exile or under discrimination, segregation and institutional repression, situation they have been going through for seven decades. The three objectives of the BDS campaign are based on international law and on United Nations resolutions which, to date, have not been met by the Israeli State. BDS is a non-violent struggle whose divestment strategy and economic, academic and cultural boycott of companies and institutions linked to the Israeli occupation have produced enough pressure to make Israel change its foreign policy introducing a whole new image abroad. The purpose of this research is to analyze the power of attraction or Soft Power of the BDS and its ability to push the Israeli State towards the reconfiguration of its political propaganda or "hasbara" which constitutes the core of its public diplomacy. / 2018.01.01

Este trabalho consiste na análise do romance Aravim Rokdim (Árabes Dançantes), do escritor árabe israelense muçulmano Sayed Kashua, e tem como foco central a questão identitária que envolve o árabe israelense conforme visto nessa obra. Publicado em 2002, o romance conta em hebraico, idioma que tem como leitor majoritário o judeu, a história de uma família de árabes israelenses. Este estudo é desenvolvido com base nas teorias provindas dos Estudos Culturais e Pós- Colonialistas, segundo as quais no ser humano coexistem múltiplas e antagônicas identidades. Esse fato é exponencialmente visto nesse árabe cidadão israelense apresentado no romance de Kashua, que convive com sentimentos de culpa devido à sua dupla-lealdade e conflitantes fidelidades: por um lado, ele aceita sua cidadania israelense; por outro, além de ser membro de um povo cujas muitas nações se opõem à existência do Estado de Israel, ele possui parentes nos territórios ocupados por Israel na Guerra dos Seis Dias (1967) que não tiveram direito àquela cidadania. Esses sentimentos complexos e ambivalentes são intensificados devido ao contexto sociopolítico do romance: a Segunda Intifada (2000-2006). Nesse período da moderna história de Israel, a desconfiança do judeu e do Estado de Israel em relação à fidelidade do cidadão árabe israelense para com seu Estado foi exacerbada. Surge dessa combinação um romance político inusitado, que se utiliza do humor e da autoironia para contar ao seu leitor a história do árabe israelense que vive preso entre duas sociedades, que se sente um estrangeiro em seu próprio meio e, mesmo assim, não desiste de buscar um novo lugar identitário para si próprio. / This work consists of an analysis of the novel Aravim Rokdim (Dancing Arabs) by Arab-Israeli Muslim writer Sayed Kashua, which focuses on the identity issues surrounding Arab-Israelis portrayed in the work. Published in 2002, the novel is written in Hebrew and recounts the history of an Arab-Israeli family. This study is based on the theories derived from the Cultural and Post-Colonial Studies, according to which human beings simultaneously experience multiple and antagonistic identities. This fact can be observed exponentially in this Arab citizen of Israel introduced by Kashua, as he lives with feelings of guilt due to his twin-loyalties and conflicting allegiances: if, on one side, he accepts his Israeli citizenship, on the other, he is not only a member of a people whose many nations oppose the existence of the State of Israel, but has relatives living in territories occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War (1967) who were denied the right to that citizenship. These complex and ambivalent feelings are intensified by the social-political context of the novel: the Second Intifada (2000-2006), a period in modern Israeli history when the distrust of Jews and the State of Israel regarding the allegiance of Arab-Israeli citizens to the State was exacerbated. These circumstances result in a unique political novel that uses humor and self-irony to tell the reader the story of an Arab-Israeli that lives trapped between two societies, that feels like a foreigner among his own people and that tirelessly seeks a new place to call his own.