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.

Author: Asya Meytuv Institution: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Nám. Jana Palacha 2, 116 38, Prague 1, Czech Republic Field of Studies: Hebrew Studies, M.A. Study program Title: Gender Themes in Contemporary Israeli Cinema Supervisor: PhDr. Pavel Sládek, Ph.D. Number of pages: 64 Number of attachments: 1 Key words: Israeli cinema, homosexuality, judaism, male character, zionism, Israel Abstract Present thesis analyses the representation of sexual minorities in contemporary Israeli cinematography, concentrating especially on a manner of displaying other than heterosexual character to the audience. The depiction of a male character in early Israeli cinema will be compared to the contemporary production. The phenomenon of male homosexuality and its film representation will be researched in the context of cultural, social and religious aspects of Israeli reality. Original interpretations of several key Israeli films of the last decade pertaining to homosexual issues in specifically Israeli context are included in the present paper.

A sociedade israelense passou por modificações, em especial, na década de 70 que levaram a mudanças políticas e sociais. O escritor Amós Oz, um dos mais destacados do país, aborda em seus textos ficcionais e não ficcionais, as mudanças e alterações refletidas no país. Este trabalho pretende estudar as modificações da década em questão, conforme apresentadas no romance A Caixa Preta de Amós Oz e para isto, são aqui desenvolvidos os seguintes temas: A busca pela identidade nacional, o confronto entre a direita e a esquerda dento do sistema político israelense, o levantamento das semelhanças entre o Estado que busca redefinir sua identidade e o movimento sionista, que procura reencontrar seus objetivos uma vez que o Estado tornou-se realidade, a posição da esquerda israelense e as concepções do grupo pacifista Shalom Achshav, a atuação da direita israelense e a militância do grupo nacionalista Gush Emunim, as diferentes ondas imigratórias para Israel antes e após a proclamação da independência e a absorção das diferentes comunidades de imigrantes, o início dos conflitos étnicos entre as diversas comunidades que formam o mosaico social israelense. Uma análise do livro A Caixa Preta, mostrando como os conflitos étnicos, religiosos e políticos se refletem na obra de Amós Oz, assim como a análise dos personagens e seus comportamentos indicando a ligação entre ficção e realidade no cotidiano israelense completam a segunda parte desta dissertação / The israeli society has gone through some moves, specially on the seventies, that led to political and social changes. The author Amós Oz, a remarkable one in the country, has written in his fictional and non-fictional works about those innovations reflected in the country. This work intends to study the changes in the period above, as shown in the novel Kufsa Chhora (The Black Box) from Amós Oz. Therefore, these themes are here developed: The search for national identity, the confrontation between right and left in the israeli political system, the collecting of the simmilarities between the State, redefining its identity and the sionist movement, that is reshaping its objectives, once the State became a reality, the position of the israeli left wing and the conceptions of the pacifist group Shalom Achshav, the position of the israeli right wing and the militanty of the nacionalistic group Gush Emunim, the different immigratory waves to Israel before and after the proclamation of the State and the absorption of the different communities of immigrants, the beggining of ethnical conflicts among the several communities, which from the israeli social mosaic. We have, here, too, an analisis of the book Kufsa Chhora (The Black Box) showing how ethnical, religious and political conflicts reflect in Amós Ozs work, as well as an analisis of the characters and their behavior to show the liaison between fiction and reality in Israels routine.

This thesis is a critical analysis of the theology and ethics of dispensationalist Christian Zionism in America. Chapter One introduces the thesis and its method, which draws constructively from history, sociology, and anthropology while remaining substantively theological. Chapter Two describes dispensationalism's origins in nineteenth-century Britain and its dissemination and development in America. Chapter Three moves from broad, historical description to the contemporary and particular through an introduction to Faith Bible Chapel (FBC), an American Christian Zionist congregation. This description arises from an academic term spent at FBC observing congregational life and conducting extensive interviews, as well as fieldwork undertaken in FBC's "adopted settlement" in the West Bank, including interviews with Israeli settlers about partnerships with American Christians. The remaining chapters move to more explicitly doctrinal analysis. Chapters Four through Six are shaped by William Cavanaugh's concept of 'theopolitics' (Theopolitical Imagination, 2002): a disciplined, community-gathering common imagination of time and space. Through the exploration of a key historical text (The Scofield Reference Bible, 1917) and its continuing legacies in the life and thought of FBC, these chapters examine the theopolitics of dispensationalist Christian Zionism, demonstrating that it is a complex system of convictions and practices in which the disciplines of biblicism and biblical literalism form an eschatology which subordinates ecclesiology and Christology, nurturing an imagination of the roles of Christ and the church in time and space which sever social ethics from necessary Christological and ecclesiological sources. John Howard Yoder's work is used to bring this system into relief, and to establish that eschatology per se is not inimical to Christian social ethics. Chapter Seven concludes the thesis with a summary of its findings, as well as a discussion of the positive functions of apocalyptic in Christian social ethics, pointing toward the possibility of alternative ecclesial enactments of apocalyptic theopolitics.

O século XX representou para os judeus dispersos pelo mundo uma dupla reviravolta; por um lado, seis milhões deles foram eliminados pela matança ordenada da II Guerra Mundial, na Shoá. Nestes mesmos anos conturbados chegou ao ápice a busca de uma solução territorial e nacional para o povo. Sustentados pelos ideais desenvolvidos e estipulados pelo Sionismo, o movimento que buscou recolocar o povo judeu no antigo solo bíblico e ali tornar a fazer dele uma nação, depois de anos de embates, criou-se o Estado de Israel, o lar nacional dos judeus. A história desta luta e concretização de um sonho foi escrita por autores que baseados em seus ideais e nos da nação, redigiram-na a partir de sua face heróica, conforme o modelo que lhes fora apresentado. Nas décadas de 1980 e 1990, Israel porém presenciou um novo fenômeno cultural e político: o revisionismo histórico. Os historiadores dessa corrente (Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, Simcha Flapan, Benny Morris, Tom Seguev) ao negarem a história oficial que conforme a sua concepção está baseada em mitos sionistas, promoveram uma reescrita da história, o que originou grandes debates na sociedade israelense. Tal fato repercutiu nos mais diversos segmentos do país e, em particular, na literatura, um dos focos desta tese. A obra abordada nesta tese é Roman Russi de Meir Shalev (1988), versão em português A Montanha Azul (2002). No romance A Montanha Azul, o escritor israelense contemporâneo Meir Shalev recria o cotidiano de várias famílias de pioneiros ao longo de três gerações no Vale de Jezreel, na região da Galiléia: a geração dos pais fundadores chegados à Palestina no início do século XX com a 2ª aliá; a geração dos nascidos no ishuv e, portanto, os que ajudaram a fundar o Estado judaico; e a geração nascida após a criação de Israel. A Montanha Azul nos mostra que alguma coisa deu errado, que o sonho não se concretizou em sua totalidade, que tanto esforço em parte desmoronou. A obra sinaliza para o fato de que um povo que renuncia aos seus mitos é responsável por seu próprio declínio. A obra de Shalev foi recebida como sendo anti-sionista, porém na realidade o autor critica às novas gerações que negligenciaram os valores sionistas. Não obstante, o autor aponta uma esperança quando Uri, o sabra rebelde, dá uma nova direção ao Sionismo. Esta tese se propõe a indicar como a reviravolta da história pode ser adequadamente abordada por meio de uma obra ficcional. / The 20th century represented for the Jews scattered around the world a double great change; on one hand, 6 millions of them were killed at the Shoah, the organized II WW massacre. During these same disturbed years, search for a territorial and for a national solution for the Jewish people reached its apex. Supported by ideals developed and stipulated by Zionism, the movement that intended to restore the Jewish people in the ancient biblical soil and transform it into a nation, after years and years of clashes, the State of Israel, Jews’ national home was created. History of this struggle and of the rendering of the dream was written by authors that relied on their own ideals and on those of the nation; they composed it from its heroic face, according to the national model that was presented to them. But in the 80’s and 90’s Israel witnessed a new cultural and political phenomenon: a historical revisionism. These trends’ historians (Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, Simcha Flapan, Benny Morris, Tom Seguev) by denying official history which according to their conception is based in Zionist myths, promoted a rewriting of history, and this caused big debates in Israel’s society. This fact reflected in most sections of the country, particularly in literature, one of the focus of this thesis. The thesis deals with Meir Shalev’s novel Roman Russi (Hebrew original, 1988, Montanha Azul, in the Portuguese version of 2002). In this novel, Israeli writer Meir Shalev (1948) recreates daily life of several pioneers’ families through three generations in Jezreel Valley, Galilee: the generation of founding fathers which arrived to Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century with 2nd aliyah, the generation of native yishuv born, hence those that helped to create the Jewish State and the generation born after the State’s birth. Blue Mountain signalizes that something went wrong, that the dream didn’t come completely true, that such big effort fell partially to pieces. The book points to the fact that a people that renounces to its myths is responsible for its own decline. Shalev’s book was received as an anti-Zionist novel, but as a matter of fact the author censures the new generations that neglected Zionist values. Notwithstanding, the author points to some hope when Uri, the rebel sabra, signals to a new direction in Zionism. This thesis proposes to point out how the complete turning of history can be suitably approached by means of fiction.

“Shattered Communities: Soldiers, Rabbis, and the Ostjuden during Occupation: 1915-1918" addresses the interethnic experience in Poland during the German occupation of 1915-1918. This dissertation demonstrates that the German design for 'modernization' of the East began with the First World War, which envisioned the Jews as a critically vital component, rather than an obstacle to their success. The German military made its connection to the peoples in the East via its own army rabbis and Jewish administrators. This work examines the role of the German Army rabbis, in 1915, in establishing a Jewish press and Jewish schools, along with Jewish relief agencies funded by German Jewish businessmen, in assisting the local Ostjuden communities. By the time the guns stopped firing in 1918, however, the German government had reneged on their promises of recognition and help, and the circumstances of many Ostjuden were as precarious as they had been before the war. Even worse, the experience of war in the East encouraged the rise of racist nationalism in Germany and Eastern Europe. The roots of Nazi policies toward Jews were planted firmly in Poland and Lithuania between 1915 and 1918. But for defeat in the war, it is highly unlikely that the Nazis would ever have risen to power, and in the absence of the German experience of war in the East, the later commitment to a Jewish genocide might never have been imagined. By examining the transnational relationship between the Germans and the Polish Jewish communities during the Great War, I contribute to a better understanding of the complexities leading to the crucial fracture that took place under the pressure of total war in 1917.

This thesis aims at analyzing the reasons for the insoluble nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The reasons behind the continuation of the conflict are various. However, this thesis mainly concentrated on the ones stemmed from the clash of Arab nationalism and Zionism. This clash basically represents the failure of both sides in making any concession from their territorial attachments which resulted from Arab nationalism and Zionism. Though both nationalisms were constructed on the same founding factors such as religion, territory and culture, Arab nationalists and Zionists gained different positions during the conflict. These positions determined the future of all of the peace processes in the near past. All peace processes that had focused on the solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict displayed that any formulation for a last settlement to the conflict should take into consideration the inability of the parties to agree on a territorial compromise and the adoption by both sides of the continuation of the conflict as a political instrument.

This thesis analyzes the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict and the historical evolvement of the Palestinian issue by focusing on the practices during the British mandate period. First and foremost, the factors which transformed the Jewish question into the Palestinian question are elaborated. In this context, the emergence of modern political Zionism is presented as the landmark incident in arousing the interest of the Jews dispersed all around the world in the colonization of their promised lands. Although the motive in initiating the colonizing activities in Palestine came with the advent of political Zionist thought, Jewish settlement in Palestine was materialized as a result of the development of British interests in the Middle East. The contradictory promises given to the Arabs and Jews by the British in the course of World War I are treated as the source of the conflict between them. It is stated that the Balfour Declaration, which is the manifestation of the British-Zionist alliance, is the preliminary step of the project of a Jewish state on Palestinian territories. In order to shed light on the implications of Zionist colonization on the Palestinian Arab society, first the socio-economic and socio-political circumstances in the Ottoman era are discussed. Later, the impact of the exclusivist policies of the Jews on communal relations is handled in detail. Moreover, the ways in which the pro-Zionist stance of the British mandate administration contributed to the nation-building efforts of the Jews are argued. Lastly, the causes and consequences of the sporadic Arab tensions, which broke out in 1920, 1921, 1929 and 1936 as a reaction against the British and Zionist policies, are analyzed.

The study of intractable conflicts has risen in recent years particularly with the work of Daniel Bar-Tal’s work on the ethos of conflict. The ethos of conflict is an original psychological concept that captures the collective societal mindset of cultures locked in intractable conflicts and examines the various factors that keep groups in conflict or help them towards peace. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably the most researched, publicized, and discussed intractable conflict in history. The purpose of this paper is to first examine the foundation of that intractable conflict through the lens of Bar-Tal’s theory and apply it once more how it has changed in the modern day. Particularly, this paper focuses on how the change in power structure in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has prioritized the different elements of the ethos of conflict differently for both sides. In the beginning of the conflict, both groups held equitable power that caused them to have similar manifestations of the ethos of conflict. Working with the foundation of Bar-Tal’s theory, this paper provides an analysis of how Israel’s rise to power in the conflict influences different prioritizations of the ethos of conflict for both parties.

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