Prepared by the Arid Lands Information Center, Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona ; Mark Speece, compiler.

Despite the increasingly common situation of statelessness in the contemporary Middle East, a majority of the theoretical tools used to study nationalism are contingent upon the existence of a sovereign state. As such, they are unable to fully explain the mechanisms of national identity, political participation, and integration in non-institutional contexts, where other social identities continue to play a significant political role. In these contexts, the position of demographic minorities in society is significant, as actors with the most popular support –majorities -- tend to have the strongest impact on the shape of the political field. This thesis demonstrates what we can learn from studying the mechanisms of nationalism and political participation for one such minority group, the Palestinian Christians, particularly with regards to how national identity fails or succeeds in instilling attachment to the state and society. This is accomplished by applying the theoretical framework of social identity theory to empirical field research conducted in the West Bank in 2014, combined with an analysis of election and survey data. It is argued that the level of attachment individuals feel towards the “state” or confessional communities is dependent on the psychological or material utility gained from group membership. If individuals feel alienated from the national identity, they are more likely to identify with their confessional community. If they are alienated from both, then they are far likelier to emigrate. Additionally, I suggest that the way in which national identity is negotiated in a stateless context is important to future state building efforts, as previous attempts to integrate national minorities into the political system through, e.g., devolved parliaments and quotas, have failed to instil a universal sense of the nation.

Bibliography: leaves 176-186 / The relationship between political, religious ideology and the interpretation of archaeological excavation in the Holy Land has faced criticism and has been debated by scholars since the beginning of biblical archaeology in the 19th century and up to the present day. These debates are not just academic but have manifested itself in the public narrative and are alleged to have consequences regarding the history of Israel and the physical space inhabited by both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Some of the current excavations in Jerusalem are viewed with suspicion. Archaeology is singled out to be biased in its interpretation and that it is being used for political ends. An investigation of the point of intersection between archaeology, politics and religion is important for the discourse and question whether archaeology in Israel has become complicit in the establishment and continued maintenance of nationhood and the Zionist project, as alleged by the minimalist scholars and opponents of Israel. Biblical archaeology has been drawn into this debate and its interpretation. The negative externalities of this discipline are the perceived use of the biblical text as a reference document and the subsequent findings of Late Bronze and Iron Age archaeology, which raise questions about the veracity of the biblical text and its impact on biblical scholarship and religion. Archaeologists and their interpretation of these spaces find themselves amid this paradigmatic revolution. The integrity of these scholars, their methodologies and their motivations are interrogated to the point of an ideological debate. The position of Palestinian archaeology hangs in the balance and there is no clear indication as to its future or whether any collaboration with Israeli archaeology is possible due to the politicisation in the region and the distrust that exists between Israel and the West Bank in general. This research reveals the extent in which these externalities of biblical archaeology and its interpretation have had an effect on ideology and its prevalence, and whether the questions and criticisms raised are justified. The views of archaeologists who have been actively involved in the excavation of the region provide these answers. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Phil. (Biblical archaeology)

No description available.

Under what circumstances does foreign donor assistance during war-to-peace transitions contribute to the strengthening of civil society and the deepening of democracy? I answer this question through a comparative study of civil society development in the Palestinian territories and El Salvador, where I conducted 130 interviews with directors of donor agencies, grassroots activists, and directors of NGOs. Divergent civil society developments in the Palestinian territories and El Salvador after the signing of peace accords in the early 1990s present a real puzzle given the pre-accord similarities in civil society organization between the two cases. Both the Palestinian territories and El Salvador had a legacy of rich, vibrant grassroots organization and civil society activity during their protracted conflicts. In both settings, grassroots organizations have played central roles in non-violent resistance, consciousness-raising, and the provision of community services. Moreover, after the initiation of the peace processes in both the Palestinian territories and El Salvador, foreign donors provided substantial assistance to civil society groups. However, their civil society developmental paths diverged sharply during the war-to-peace transition. In the Palestinian territories, existing civil society organizations have engaged less actively with their previous grassroots constituencies since the start of the war-to-peace transition, and the number of grassroots-based civil society organizations has decreased. Moreover, many of these organizations have been limited in their access to institutions that engage the state. In El Salvador, the re-constitution of civil society has led to its broad access to institutions that engage the state and to higher levels of grassroots inclusion in the political transformation process. / I argue that these divergent outcomes in the Palestinian territories and El Salvador reflect the differential effects that foreign assistance has on civil society after more or less inclusive political settlements. I find that in cases like the Palestinian territories, where the political settlement excludes important socio-political groups, foreign donor assistance is less likely to contribute to the strengthening of civil society or the deepening of democracy. Rather, foreign donor assistance to civil society is more likely to exacerbate political polarization and weaken civil society by further privileging those select groups already favored by the terms of the non-inclusive settlement. Conversely, after more inclusive political settlements like in El Salvador, foreign donor assistance can play a more constructive role in developing civil society and contributing to the deepening of democracy by encouraging grassroots organization, and expanding access to political institutions that engage the state.

This thesis argues that the elite and urban women leaders of the Palestinian women's movement neglected to engage rural women and women living in refugee camps as their equals in a women's movement. Further, despite women's active presence in the public sphere, the sphere remained defined in masculine terms. As a result, Palestinian women, as "guests" in the domain of men, were easily pushed out after they had served their purpose in the nationalist crisis. What is remarkable is that even after Palestinian men reclaimed the public sphere, Palestinian women remained politically active in the private sphere. In order to understand how this was possible, we must look more closely at the terms "public sphere" and "private sphere".

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the influence of the settlements on the peace process. It views the settlements as one of the problematic points of the permanent status. It also tries to outline the possibilities of future development of this problem regarding present situation. First part of the thesis presents historic moments that are important for this issue. The second part offers different views of the structure of settlements in the West Bank. The third part deals with the legal dimension of settlements, local administration, and the land-seizure methods. The fourth part is about political representation of the settlers, and also about anti-settler movements. The last part defines settlements as an obstacle in the peace process, and deals with perspectives of future disengagement possibilities.

This research explores the role of co-learning in addressing water issues, being both context sensitive and responsive to the needs, lived experiences and symbolic representations of people at the local level in the case of the West Bank. Water is essential to the wellbeing of all societies, not only due to the necessity of water for life, but because it connects us to stories about place, beliefs and norms, identity and others, through the meanings that it invariably comes to embody. This research critically examines the significance for learning of freshwater: as a physical necessity; as a metaphor; and, as a source of meaning in the context of community-based water interventions. The dominance of particular narratives around water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are discussed, as these have resulted in the acceptance of specific understandings about the problems and solutions to the water shortages that are experienced across the West Bank in differentiated ways. The effects of these narratives on water intervention processes and outcomes are observed, being most adverse in relation to local ownership, agency and identity as well as sustainability. A meaning-based framework is proposed based on an understanding of sense of place and a socio-political perspective of water shortages, as a way to reconnect the discourse with Palestinians' own accounts of water and place, and to provide opportunities to explore NGO engagement with divergent knowledges, perspectives, and priorities during interventions. It is argued that water interventions can be understood as a social learning process, which NGOs may be ideally situated to mediate. A model of learning and sustainable development is revisited and revised in order to consider the relationship between participation, agency and sustainability in relation to community-based water interventions.

<p><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The purpose of this research effort is to contribute to the discussion on consumer indebtedness and poverty, analyse the causes and levels of indebtedness as well as the role played by both the consumer and the credit provider in the growth of consumer indebtedness among the sampled population of the Cape Flats area of West Bank in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The methodology used in this study included both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The research methods comprised of a comprehensive literature study and secondary data analysis, immersion in the case study area in order to observe the consumer credit market dynamics and its trends. In-depth informal and semi-formal interviewing, focus group discussions as well as a questionnaire survey were also used to gather primary data.</p> </font></font></font></font></p>

<p><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The purpose of this research effort is to contribute to the discussion on consumer indebtedness and poverty, analyse the causes and levels of indebtedness as well as the role played by both the consumer and the credit provider in the growth of consumer indebtedness among the sampled population of the Cape Flats area of West Bank in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The methodology used in this study included both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The research methods comprised of a comprehensive literature study and secondary data analysis, immersion in the case study area in order to observe the consumer credit market dynamics and its trends. In-depth informal and semi-formal interviewing, focus group discussions as well as a questionnaire survey were also used to gather primary data.</p> </font></font></font></font></p>