Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-152).

This study seeks to address a gap in the literature with regard to the Christian Palestinians. As members of a very small minority, they are often overlooked by the media and the academic community. While this is changing to some extent for Christian Palestinians in the Middle East, there is scant literature that considers their lives in the ‘West’ and almost none on their experiences in Britain. This thesis considers how Christian Palestinians have adapted to life in London, including an analysis of the individual experiences of both Christian Palestinians and Muslim Palestinians. Interviews with respondents focused on their English language abilities, educational achievements, attitudes to intermarriage, and their sense of belonging. These aspects were chosen because they offer an insight into respondents’ private and public lives, a distinction that is particularly important in the study of integration and assimilation. Through the assessment of these attributes, this research seeks to redefine the way that assimilation has been viewed and argues that a more comprehensive study of assimilation must include not only an analysis of whether migrants have adopted a characteristic of the host nation’s population, but also an analysis of whether they have adopted the sentiments their native born counterparts have attached to them.

Magister Legum - LLM / The Palestinian government made an ad hoc declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in 2009. Three years later, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court rejected the declaration. It decided that it is not within the competence of the Office of the Prosecutor, but up to the United Nations Secretary General or the Assembly of States Parties, to determine the Statehood of Palestine. This research paper analyses the 2009 Palestinian ad hoc declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor. It critically examines the legal basis of the Palestinian ad hoc declaration, the Procedure followed by the Prosecutor and the Statehood issue of Palestine. The study concludes that although there are enough supporting evidences to hold the Palestinian ad hoc declaration acceptable, the approach adopted and the conclusion reached by the Prosecutor are highly questionable in light of the Rome Statute and Conventional law.

This submission for PhD by Publication includes three studies designed to reflect the popular view of ordinary Palestinians regarding events and politics in Palestine throughout modern history. They aim to primarily provide a ‘history from below’ political discourse of the Palestinian people. While the studies do not purport to determine with certainty the exact dynamics that propel Palestinian politics and society - as in where political power ultimately lies - they attempt to present a long-dormant argument that sees ‘history from below’ as an indispensable platform providing essential insight into Palestinian history to explain present political currents. Over the course of 11 years, I conducted three studies which resulted in the publication of the following volumes: The first work, Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion (2003) is centered on the events that surrounded the Israeli siege, invasion and subsequent violence in and around the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jenin in April 2002. The study includes forty two eyewitness accounts, collected from people who witnessed the violence and were affected by it, were recorded and positioned to create a clear and unified narrative. The reality that the refugees portrayed in these accounts was mostly inconsistent with the official Israeli narrative of the violent events that occurred in the refugee camp, on one hand, and that were provided by the Palestinian Authority (PA) or factions, on the other. The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle (2006) shows the impact of the Israeli military policies used against revolting Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and the popular response to these policies during the first five years of the Second Palestinian Intifada (2000-2005). The results of the study also demonstrate the inconsistencies between the views and practices held by the official political representation of Palestinians, and the popular view, as demonstrated in the discernible collective behavior of ordinary Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories. In My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (2010) my research pursues the roots of the current situation in the Gaza Strip – that of siege, political deadlock and violence. The study traces the lives of selected refugees before the Nakba - the Catastrophe of 1947-48 - back in Palestine during the British Mandate in the 1920s and just before the Zionist colonial project went into full swing. In the three studies, the central argument is that historical and political events are best explained through non-elitist actors, who although at times lack political representation and platform, are capable of influencing, if not shaping the course of history, thus the present situation on the ground. The studies also indicate that such notions as popular resistance, collective memory and steadfastness (sumud in Arabic) are not mere idealistic and sentimental values, but notions with tangible and decipherable impact on past events and present realities. The central argument endeavors to demonstrate that although the Palestinian people are divided into various collectives, they are united by a common sense of identity and an undeclared political discourse, and they have historically proven to be a viable political actor that has influenced, affected, or, in some instances, deeply altered political realities. To examine my thesis, my paper will be reviewing several theoretical notions of historiography including the Great Man Theory, which uses an elitist approach to understanding the formation and conversion of history. The Great Man Theory argues that single individuals of importance have made decisions that drive the outcomes of history. This notion is challenged by Group Theories which argue that history is shaped by the outcome of competing interest groups belonging to socio-economic elites, and that multidimensional forces often shape political realities. Furthermore, I examine a third theoretical approach that of ‘history from below’, which argues that history is scarcely shaped by ‘great men’ or socio-economic elites. Such historiography rarely contends with how history is formed; instead, it is mostly concerned with attempting to reconstruct the flow of history. It does so through deconstructing largely collective phenomena that are believed to be responsible for shaping current political movements. I attempt, through these volumes, to present a flow of Palestinian history based on the ‘history from below’ approach. The following paper will attempt to explain the logic behind my choice.

This thesis is an exploratory examination of identity construction and children’s media, with a focus on the Palestinian political groups of Fatah and Hamas. It looks at how children’s media are framed within the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It examines how internal and external social factors contribute to identity formation and the interaction among these elements during times of conflict and war. This thesis hypothesizes that both Fatah and Hamas use various myths to differing degrees in order to frame their conception of a Palestinian identity. Specifically, it explores the use of the Myth of Battle, the Myth of Hero, the Myth of Victim, the Myth of Religion, the Myth of Land and the Myth of Other. It seeks to determine which of these myths each group emphasizes through a qualitative and quantitative visual ethnographic content analysis. The quantitative analysis uncovered interesting, albeit not statistically significant, differences between Fatah’s and Hamas’ use of all of the myths in their videos. Specifically it found that both groups made equal and great use of the Myth of Religion; that Hamas produced the videos with the greatest focus on the Myth of Battle and the Myth of Hero; and that neither group greatly emphasized the Myth of Victim, the Myth of Land or the Myth of Other. Finally, the analysis discovered positive correlations between the Myth of Hero and the Myth of Battle as well as between the Myth of Battle and the Myth of Other.

Research Report submitted for the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Migration African School of Migration and Society (ACMS) University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2018 / This research report examines the everyday effects of Israeli policies and state practices (relating to rights to live in the city) on the lives of Palestinians in Jerusalem. It engages with state policy and practice across three main scales; the larger scale level of rights to the city itself, the closer-to-home scale of bureaucratic threats against the family home, as well as the micro-scale questions of the everyday. In this report I examine empirical evidence – a case study of a house demolition, and ethnographic material from a Palestinian neighbourhood targeted for settlement projects - alongside the policy data that relates to each of these instances- including policy on land-zoning, tenancy, residency and social security. I argue that the cumulative effect of these policies and practices create the unstable conditions, which I refer to as a ‘coercive environment’, which works to indirectly displace Palestinians from Jerusalem. This report shows that the daily uncertainties that Palestinians experience as a result of these policies intensify the precarious conditions of everyday life, and further finds uncertainty as one of the multiple forms of violence present in the coercive environment. Themes including everyday anxiety, security and fear, punishment and criminalization, procedural bare life and emotional violence, arise from the empirical data observed and collected, and are examined for how they create uncertainty and form part of this coercive environment. / XL2019

Intractable conflicts are characterized by their duration, level of violence as well as their attractivity of conflict management and resolution efforts. When mediated, they are most often dealt with coercive tactics designed to pressure the parties to reach an agreement. Despite such adverse context, some third-parties choose to remain mildly involved in the process. This has notably been the case for numerous mediations attempts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The objective of this research is to explore under what conditions can facilitative mediation reach a formal agreement in an intractable conflict? We conduct a structured focused comparison of two mediation episodes, the 1993 Norwegian mediation and 2000 American mediation of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In order to investigate our research question, we employ and articulate the readiness theory elaborated by Dean Pruitt. The empirical findings support our hypothesis that a high level of readiness is necessary for facilitative mediation to result in an agreement. However, some limitations and alternative explanations challenge the explanatory power of our theoretical framework. Further research is necessary to consolidate and precise Pruitt’s model.

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This article charts the development of the Palestinian Authority from its creation as an interim authority under the Oslo Accords towards becoming a failed (quasi-)state. By 2009 ¿ 15 years after its inception and ten years after the proposed final status negotiations ¿ the PA was split between a criminalized isolated entity in Gaza under the control of Hamas and an internationally recognized ¿caretaker government¿ in the West Bank under the control of Fatah and donor-supported technocrats. The role of violence ¿ i.e. the power of ¿shock and awe¿ ¿ in the creation of this failed (quasi-)state is emphasized: Israel's 2002 military campaign, Operation Defensive Shield, the sanctions and blockade imposed after the election of Hamas in January 2006, and the violence on the Palestinian street which split the PA in two. The article concludes by arguing that the PA failed (quasi-)state is presiding over the demise of the Palestinian dream of a viable state comprising both the West Bank and Gaza.