No description available.

This study examines Palestinian theatre practices in the West Bank and East Jerusalem within their spatial contexts, analysing how theatre responds to its geopolitical environment as an act of cultural resistance. It argues that space in Palestine is not monolithic, and is subjected to three main structural forces – the Israeli military occupation, international neoliberal humanitarian regime and the Palestinian Authority – which influence Palestinian space at different levels depending on the specific location. As there are multiple spaces in Palestine, I use a number of complementary theories to explain each site, utilizing Sari Hanafi’s composite theoretical framework of ‘spacio-cide’ as an ‘umbrella’ theory, the different components of which are applied to the relevant space whilst bearing in mind its overall conceptualisation. I suggest that the ‘urbicidal’ policies of the Israeli military executed during the second intifada is no longer a relevant theoretical framework, particularly for the main urban sites; however, contentious areas exist in a ‘post-urbicidal’ state. I argue that Palestinian theatre practices respond to the particular spatial condition in which it is being performed. I analyse three particular spaces in Palestine: the mainstream non-refugee urban space which is under the international humanitarian regime; the refugee camp located within the ‘state of exception’; and the site of extreme contention, which is located at the peripheries of Palestine, and which is being subjected to ‘post-urbicidal’ actions by the Israelis. I examine a number of plays and theatre practices in relation to these spaces, to argue that Palestinian cultural resistance through theatre is a tactic through which Palestinians can challenge the conditions under which they live, whilst promoting the continuation of non-violent resistance and Palestinian culture.

Through the reading of several novels and movies produced in Arabic, French, and Italian between the 1980s and the 2000s, in this dissertation I provide a literary and transmedia contribution to the field of Mediterranean studies. Responding to the challenge brought by the regional category of Mediterranean to singular national and linguistic understandings of literature and cinema, I employ a comparative and multidisciplinary methodology to read novels by Baha’ Taher, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Abdelmalek Smari, and movies by film directors Merzak Allouache, Abdellatif Kechiche, and Vittorio De Seta. I define these works as “harboring narratives,” as they engage with the two shores of the Mediterranean in a complex process of interiorization and negotiation, opening routes of meaning across languages, societies and cultures. As they challenge constructions of otherness that materialize in present-day conflicts in the region, the works of these novelists and filmmakers give voice to a perspective on the Mediterranean radically different from that upheld by the “paradigms of discord.” Whereas according to these paradigms there is nothing in the Mediterranean but an iron curtain, these works present migration and conflict, historiography and religion, intimacy and translation as experiences shared across countries and societies in the region. By following routes of meaning that draw together the linguistic, the geographical, the economic, the historical, and the religious, I study how these novelists and filmmakers establish relationships between “horizons of belonging” and “elsewhere,” selfhood and otherness. In so doing, I respond to Kinoshita and Mallette’s call for challenging the “monolingualism” inherent in our contemporary ways of reading linguistic and literary traditions. As I show how the routes of meaning opened by these novelists and filmmakers across the region lead to hope that one day we will rejoice in sharing a common Mediterranean shore, however, I caution against easy enthusiasms. These novelists and filmmakers urge us to respond to the challenge of the present-day conflicts they address in their works, and a shared Mediterranean shore will eventually appear on the horizon only after we overcome monolingual conceptions of selfhood and otherness, setting sail towards a shore we have never seen.

Denna uppsats Judehatet i Sverige - en undersökning om hur antisemitism kommer till uttryck i Malmö handlar om hur antisemitismen har utvecklats och fått ett starkt fotfäste i den svenska staden Malmö. Genom en teoretisk provtagning har jag valt antale intervjuade personer utifrån deras möjlighet att bidra med relevant kunskap. Jag har även använt mig utav en kvalitativ intervjumetod med tre informanter från den judiska församlingen i Malmö och jag har haft för avsikt att undersöka hur antisemitismen har utvecklats i Malmö och hur detta upplevs av judar. Genom olika artiklar och annan relevant litteratur har jag försökt utvidga det judiska perspektivet om hur stämningen i Malmö upplevs. Analysen belyser hur judar i Malmö upplever att antisemitismen kommer till uttryck och hur judefientligheten ökat i staden samt hur den pågående Israel-Palestinakonflikten påverkar de fientliga stämningarna i staden. Analysen lyfter även fram vilka eventuella orsaker som ligger bakom denna utveckling och på vilket sätt mina informanter tror att man kan arbeta bort antisemitismen i staden. / This thesis "Jew-hatred in Sweden - a study on how anti-Semitism is manifested in Malmö" is about how anti-Semitism has been developed and gained a strong foothold in the Swedish city of Malmö. Through a theoretical sampling I selected the number of interviewed persons based on their ability to contribute with relevant knowledge. I have also used a qualitative interview method with three informants from the Jewish community in Malmö and my intention has been to explore how Anti-Semitism has evolved in Malmö and how it affects Jews. Through various articles and other relevant literature I have tried to expand the Jewish perspective on how the mood in Malmö is experienced by them. The analysis highlights how the Jews in Malmö feel that anti-Semitism is expressed and how hostility against Jews has increased and hos the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affects the hostile atmosphere in the city. The analysis also highlights possible reasons behind this development and the way in which my informants believe that they can work against anti-Semitism in the city.

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.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a critical evaluation of the neorealist theory of international relations and its soft balancing variant through the use of case studies referring to transatlantic relations in the post-Cold War era. Each case study indicates a specific category of power. These are: i) Military - the European attempt to create a common military arm from 1991 to 2003. ii) Diplomatic - the EU's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 1991 to 2003. iii) Economic the EU-USA steel dispute in 2002/03. In particular, the thesis undertakes to analyse whether the EU balanced the USA in the post-Cold War period either as a result of the altered structural distribution of capabilities within the international system (unipolarity) or of a set of deliberate plans to do so. After introducing the concepts of unipolarity, hard and soft balancing, the thesis outlines three comprehensive answers that neorealist scholars have generated as to whether the USA can or cannot be balanced in the post-Cold War international system, namely the structural, the soft balancing, and the alternative structural options. Then, drawing on a defensive realist perspective, this research goes on to consider the creation of the EU as a great power in the post-Cold War era. In light of this, the thesis aims to find out whether the rise of the EU as a great power has had an impact upon unipolarity either because of structural incentives or because of a predetermination to frustrate the aggressive policies of the unipolar state. The thesis then proceeds to investigate whether throughout the case studies series the EU has balanced the USA. The case studies highlight that the EU, freed from the rigid bipolar stalemate it had been locked into during the Cold War, undertook to exert greater influence on the world stage in the post-Cold War period. To some extent the EU has accomplished this in all of the power dimensions analysed in this thesis. Nevertheless, the EU's efforts to hold sway within the international system were not aimed at addressing the relative power imbalance created by unipolarity, and there were no deliberate plans harboured by the EU to frustrate the influence of any aggressive unipolar state. Overall, this thesis found the causal logic outlined by neorealism to be convincing to the extent that the EU emerged as a great power in the post-Cold War era and had greater freedom of action under unipolarity. However, with the partial exception of the economic dimension of power, there was no persuasive evidence uncovered to support the anticipated outcome of the neorealist theoretical slant, namely that great powers tend to balance each other. Moreover, while the soft balancing claim is considered to have promise as an attempt to understand how the EU can respond to US power under unipolarity, this study did not find sufficient evidence of the EU's deliberate intentions of doing so.

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...

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.