Monthly Archives: April 2012

From the archives: Qaryut

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This is the second of three entries that look back on my reflections of time spent researching in the West Bank between 2007-2012. This post has also been published on Palestine Remembered. 

For the previous entry in this group of three: Inshallah  ان شاء الله  please click here.

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Qaryut

Qareoot (or Qaryut, or Karyut) has about 2,500 inhabitants and is surrounded by three Israeli settlements, two of them pretty big ones. Its just less than 20 miles from Nablus (where I’m based now) and about 15 mins from Ramallah on ‘Route 60’ (the main road for both Palestinians and settlers that runs north-south through the West Bank). A big problem recently has been that the settlements surround the village have grown very large, very fast taking up a lot of Palestinian land… they also employ a private security firm that operates with virtual impunity. Last year one of the settlements built a ‘settler only road’, upon which it is a crime for Palestinians to drive or walk connecting it to ‘Route 60’. As a ‘security measure’ they decide to block the dirt road that is used by villagers to gain access to ‘Route 60’. You can see how and where things are on the map here.

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From the archives: Inshallah ان شاء الله

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Over the next few days I am going to post three articles I wrote during my earlier periods of research in the West Bank. The reason for this is twofold: first, I want to have all the work I’ve done to detail my experiences of Palestine all in one place. Second, through so doing I hope to give anyone who reads my later articles with the chance to look back at my earlier discussions of events that helped shape my understanding of the current situation and my more recent analyses. Of course these do not comprise an exhaustive account of what I did and what I learned. However, I hope that this opportunity to look back will help in providing context for what has come after.

I wrote this first post during my first research trip to the West Bank in 2007. It is reposted here with some minor tweaks fro the sake of clarity. 

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Inshallah  ان شاء الله

inshallah [in shállə]

or insh’allah [in shállə] 

interjection:

if God wills: an expression meaning ‘if God wills’, used to suggest that something in the future is uncertain

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Boy playing football in the village of Bil'in

[Mid-19th century. šā ‘Allāh ] 

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It’s a simple word, and it’s used here a lot. I’d heard it before I arrived here, and then, and until perhaps recently, the real significance of its meaning hadn’t hit me. As the definition states, it is an expression of human fallibility in relation to higher power.

This, I’m afraid isn’t a post relating my conversion to any particular religion or even to any kind of deistic philosophy either, I’m afraid there is a lot more convincing left to be done to this particular religious sceptic before I’m ‘saved’ by anyone or anything.

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Protesting in the rain outside the Moqata'a, Ramallah, in January 2012

Re-reading the Myth of Fayyadism: A Critical Analysis of the Palestinian Authority’s Reform and State-building Agenda, 2008-2011

Published by the The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), Doha, Qatar on 11th April 2012.

Abstract

Fayyadism is a term coined by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman that has gained widespread usage in the media and the quasi-academic literature emanating from various high-profile English-language think tanks. The term is named after the current prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Dr. Salam Fayyad, formally an economist at the IMF, and is used to describe the raft of political and economic reforms that have been central to the PA’s state-building agenda. Supporters of this agenda from all sides have promoted it in orientalist terms (i.e., as a reasonable method for Palestinians to achieve their national goals), in contrast to uncivilized armed resistance and/or Islamism. This paper argues that Fayyadismdoes not, in fact, constitute a radical new approach to ending the occupation or liberating Palestinians. Rather, Palestinian agency remains contingent on the same basic dynamics as it has since the beginning of the Oslo process. If Fayyadism has had any effect at all on this arrangement of power, it has been to entrench the occupation rather than to end it.

To read the full article click here.

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Draining the hourglass: Iraqi refugees in Jordan

In Jordan, Iraqi refugees are commonly referred to as ‘brothers’ yet at the same time also suffer a variety of social stigmas. But do Ali and his family have a better chance, having worked for the coalition forces?

From OpenDemocracy 11th April, 2012

To read the full article click here.

 

IMPORTANT UPDATE (8 April 2013). Ali’s application has finally been processed and he will be moving to the US Next Month! This is a great relief and I’m extremely happy that this has finally worked out for a wonderful friend.  

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Balata Camp nr NablusMearsheimer, Walt and the missing Palestinians

The two famous American realists argue that the US should stop pandering to Israel over Iran and get serious about the peace process. That’s all well and good, but isn’t their analysis missing something? Published on ThinkIR on the 22nd of March, 2012.

To read the full article click here.

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Fayyadism’s end? It is time to return to first principles

It seems like Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s reform and state-building plans for Palestine have just about run out of steam. Isn’t it time to think again – what’s this fight really all about? Published on ThinkIR 17th January, 2012.

 

To read the full article click here.