Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim, eds., Arab World Beyond the Middle East and North Africa (New Texts Out Now)

Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim, eds., Arab World Beyond the Middle East and North Africa (New Texts Out Now)

Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim, eds., Arab World Beyond the Middle East and North Africa (New Texts Out Now)

By : Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim

Mariam F. Alkazemi and Claudia E. Youakim (eds.), Arab Worlds Beyond the Middle East and North Africa (Lexington Books, 2021).

Jadaliyya (J): What made you edit this book?

Claudia E. Youakim (CY): For me, there was an initial personal connection and family history coupled with my professional interests as a social scientist. First, I am part of the Palestinian diaspora; I was born and raised in Chicago in the United States. I knew that part of my family had ties to, and lived in, Santiago, Chile, but other than discussing this with relatives, I had little to no knowledge about similar trends and larger patterns of emigration from Palestine. I am also a sociologist who focuses on Arab identity and culture, so seeking to know more about emigration and acculturation patterns come as part of my specialization. Additionally, I was not able to pick up a book and read about such patterns. Mariam and I would discuss our frustration with the limited knowledge available in this area of study and so in the end we decided, “maybe we should do this ourselves.” It was a great editorial partnership and collaboration with every author.

Mariam F. Alkazemi (MA): I am an extroverted academic. I love meeting people and always find myself in awe when I bump into an Arab from a different world region like Mexico or take a walk in the Arab district of Singapore. But then, I turn to literature to enhance what I learned by observation. Unfortunately, I did not see a comprehensive, global, interdisciplinary perspective. I am in the communications field and I believe it is important to expand our understanding of the world so that communicators have context and resources.

The chapters also highlight the many challenges that immigrants face in a new space—be it a lack of employment opportunities, raising children, prejudice, and/or cultural differences, among other aspects of social life.

J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures does the book address?

CY: The book touches on “push” and “pull” factors of emigration, which are basically addressing why people leave one place and settle in another. It also unpacks the trends of settlement, which are quite complex; these trends vary depending on the ethnic group members' time of relocation, the national laws intact during that time, and the political and cultural attitudes toward immigrants, to name a few. The chapters also highlight the many challenges that immigrants face in a new space—be it a lack of employment opportunities, raising children, prejudice, and/or cultural differences, among other aspects of social life. Since our authors come from a variety of disciplines, the chapters also reflect many types of literature including history, sociology, social-psych, and communications.

MA: The book brings together various world regions, from Germany to Argentina to Singapore. It also examines various groups of Arabs, including ones who originate in the Levant, in Yemen, and in North Africa. Further, it brings scholars together from a wide range of fields, including two career diplomats. Even the art on the cover is by a Palestinian American artist whose reflection was also included at the end of the book. Thus, the book offers a wide breadth of original research that in itself is a contribution. We hope this makes it enjoyable for academics as well as any reader with intellectual curiosity and an interest in culture. 

J: How does this book connect to and/or depart from your previous work? 

CY: The book overlaps with my work on the Arab diaspora and documenting immigrant family settlement trends. However, most of my research in this area has focused on children of Arab immigrants in the United States, so the scope of the book widens this component. It also connects with my effort in trying to shed light on marginalized groups and the hardship they face, which is largely based on national and institution systems. Although my research is academic, I have a passion for making knowledge accessible to a wide audience—I think this book does a good job in that area as it includes many nation-states, ethnic and religious group members, and new spaces of settlement for those groups. This effort sparks the interest of many readers. This was my first edited volume, so working on that aspect was new to me; Mariam and I were able to be productive during the pandemic—which also kept us busy and accompanied during a dark global time. 

MA: I have conducted studies on willingness to tolerate disagreement about religion as well as the spiral of silence and how Muslim Americans feel when communicating about religion. I have also done some studies looking at media law in the Arab world and examining how media professionals use Twitter differently than the general public in the Arabic language. This study fills a gap I have been observing as I have woven myself inside and outside the Arab world both professionally and personally over the years. The chapters that deal with news, entertainment media portrayals, and the global perspective relate directly to my research interests. However, it is also broader and a product of a cooperative and collaborative process with both Claudia and our authors.

J: Who do you hope will read this book, and what sort of impact would you like it to have? 

CY: This co-edited volume is multidisciplinary, so it would be of value to a wide array of disciplines within the academy, including sociology, political science, ethnic studies, and communications, to name a few. However, I would certainly recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning more about emigration, Arab history, and the acculturation patterns of immigrant communities. I think it is also essential in terms of bringing attention to diversity and inclusion. The readership is broad! The book can be picked up by experts and anyone who wants to learn more about Arabs in general.

MA: The book really sheds light on the positive and negative experiences of immigrants. I really hope that it connects deeply with the readers, allowing them to feel like they are a part of a greater global community. Additionally, I hope that it shines a light on the scholars in various world regions. I hope that the ties that we formed as collaborators can be prolonged.

J: What other projects are you working on now?

CY: I am currently writing a book on the experiences of Arab millennials after 9/11 in the United States. This work is guided by my dissertation, where I interviewed fifty children of Arab immigrants in the Chicagoland area. Interestingly, although I was asking about their ethnic and racial identities, they referenced 9/11 as a defining point. Their stories are deep and include how they grapple with their sense of national identity given the socio-political landscape of a post-9/11 reality. I also work extensively on addressing national and institutional prejudices and discriminatory policies and practices as they pertain to women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups in the United States and in the Middle East and North African region.

MA: During the pandemic, I channeled a lot of my feelings into projects relating to health communication. I have had several articles come out on how Arab ministries of health communicated messages about the coronavirus, and I am excited to finish some of the projects that have started. Next, I want to take some time to focus on the role of media in international affairs and will be taking an educational leave to gain additional training at Princeton University next semester, thanks to a grant funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. 

J: What is your relationship to the Arab diaspora? How might you have connected to this text personally? 

CY: The book made me reflect on my Arab American family and Palestinian ancestral experiences. I think as a child who grew up in the United States, I did not understand why I gravitated towards other children of immigrants or why my Palestinian parents had a different set of social rules for me and my siblings than my friends’ parents had. By learning more about the processes that Arab immigrants faced with settling in a new space, I developed a greater appreciation for the journey my parents and other immigrants underwent. Each author’s contribution was invaluable to producing a more holistic picture of the MENA region in this regard.

MA: I feel deeply connected to both Kuwait and the United States, and I learn from reading about the experiences of others as I try to plan my life. The edited volume also presented an opportunity to bring people together to add nuance and subtlety to the issues discussed, which is an honor and privilege. Finally, I love that we get to respond to criticisms we have heard about academic books by bringing together scholars from different fields and drawing on the experiences of professionals from other fields.

 

Excerpt from the book (from the Introduction, by Alkazemi and Youakim, pp. 1-9)

The roots of globalizations have a rich history, some of which are embedded in migration patterns that impact people and various facets of our society. In this book, we work assiduously and purposefully, alongside authors from various disciplines, to compile stories that span different fields and time periods to examine how Arab communities have settled in nations outside of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and across the globe. What we see are stories of Arab people grappling with quite personal and ancestral ties in these new spaces, facing prejudice and discrimination, and others where they are seated in political positions of power as members of that society. Each chapter illustrates the wide array of migration patterns that have impacted the social, economic, and political spheres for Arab persons who have emigrated from their ancestral homeland and settled in a new nation, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Migration patterns and collective identities of Arabs include a number of factors that result with Arab diasporic communities in nations outside of one’s ancestral homeland. Generally speaking, people have been pushed out of their home country and/or pulled in another for economic, social, political, and environmental reasons, to name a few (IOM 2019). We see some of these migration patterns within the MENA region itself (IOM 2004), however, this compilation focuses on unpacking of the Arab diaspora who have migrated outside of the region.

Rigoberto Menéndez Paredes writes about how Cuba served as an initial destination from which Arabs arriving from the Ottoman Empire would move on to other countries in Latin America. Drawing on historical records, he explains the demographics and professions of those who arrived as well as the factors that led to the decline of the Arab diasporic community in Cuba. Unlike the rest of the chapters, the community in Cuba left during the revolution in 1959. This chapter describes the remnants of the Arab diasporic community in Cuba. The Cuban Arab community can be starkly compared to other Arab diasporic communities that are outlined in Latin America in other chapters.

Jodor Jalit writes a case study about the Arab diaspora in Argentina and its role in the Argentinian response to the Syrian refugee crisis. In doing so, he traces the history of migration from the Ottoman Empire to Argentina, and how the diasporic community influenced the news media. In the process, Jalit argues that the Arab diaspora was unsuccessful in advocating for policy that would have been favorable to the Syrian refugees. This contribution demonstrates that the Arab diaspora and the Argentinian media are both actors that influence Argentina’s response to the dire humanitarian crisis in Syria and around the globe. This chapter pertains to the role of the diaspora in contemporary international affairs, particularly with regard to refugees.

Diogo Bercito describes the strong participation among Brazil’s politicians of Lebanese descent. To unpack this pattern of political representation, the chapter opens with a historic foundation that includes the ability of Lebanese persons to transfer their homeland political engagement to Brazil and the role of social mobility in political life. While supportive socio-political conditions in Brazil induce the process for minority participation, Lebanese immigrants’ geographic spread in the country assisted in gaining support of constituents. Lebanese political presence shaped Brazil’s national and foreign policy decisions as a result, despite the fact that they were and continue to be a minority group.

Bessema Momani and Nawroos Shibili present a case study of Arab youth in Canada to understand their acculturation process as Arab, ethnically and culturally, and as Canadians by means of their community. Using a mixed methods approach to collect data, the authors examine the identity, and the socio-cultural integration and belonging of Arab youth to Canada and their homeland. A number of variables contribute to the complexity of the process, including demographic and socialization factors. This chapter illustrates how the self-identification process as a hyphenated, or hybrid identity, is a result of the acculturation and transnational connections that youth possess. Imène Ajala describes the ethnic and diasporic diversity of Maghrebin in France, which ranks as the second country in Europe to house the largest Muslim population. The author describes Maghrebin as an Arab population whose ethno-political mobilization and acculturation process in France has been impacted by the Islam and its religious understandings of its host society. With religion as an identity marker, the perception and evolution of Arab immigrants in France.

Richard M. Breaux’s chapter celebrates the creative contributions and entrepreneurial spirit of Arab Americans in the United States. He shows that Arab American contributed to the American music scene before the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unlike some of the chapters that focus on some of the challenges facing Arab diasporic communities, this chapter feels very celebratory of the Arab heritage that has seldom been remembered in the United States. He provides the names of streets and neighborhoods in New York City where Arab communities thrived and records of Arabic language music were sold prior to World War II. 

Manal al-Natour and Rita Stephan apply an ethnographic framework to uncover how Syrian refugees, those who have fled from persecution, are adapting to life in Connecticut. Paying particular attention to the role of Syrian refugee women in the family, the authors take into consideration how their gender identity, performances, and norms are applied in navigating economic challenges faced in the United States through various levels of agency: active, ambivalent, or passive. This chapter highlights the conditions and content that shape acculturation patterns. Since the majority of Syrian refugees in the United States are women and children, this chapter is an important contribution because it addresses their sense of empowerment.

As a career diplomat, Aisha Sahar Waheed Alkharusi traces back the migration of an Arab population from Hadhramout, Yemen to Singapore. In her chapter, she points out the long-lasting impact of their settlement in Singapore such as the Arab district that continues to exist today. She also shows how this group eventually integrated into the Malay Singaporean population. Hers is an example of successful integration of an Arab community into an Asian culture. This is the only chapter from the Asian continent, and its inclusion serves as a reminder of the diverse communities that have absorbed Arabs for over a century.

Michael A. Paarlberg focuses on the Palestinian diaspora in Latin America, with the largest concentration in Chile, followed by Honduras and El Salvador. Despite the presence of Palestinians in Latin America, literature on Palestinians has been scarce in comparison to other Arab ethnic migration from the Middle East. Through a comparative analysis, Paarlberg sheds light on this pattern, which began in the mid-to-late 1800s while Palestine was under the rule of Ottoman Empire to date. The chapter captures the historic and socio-political journey with its challenges and successes for Palestinians as they navigate life in Latin America and build a nationalist movement and through socio-political participation in their new Communities. 

In stark contrast to the rest of the chapters, Christine Singer, Jeanette Steemers, and Naomi Sakr focus on children’s media in the diaspora. Their analysis of two television shows that focus on the arrival of Arab children in Germany relies on theory relating to integration. It shows that the diaspora is heterogeneous and reminds us that Syrian refugees are not the first from the Arab world to seek asylum in Germany. This chapter focuses on media representations of children, a vulnerable population, within a vulnerable population, refugees. These media representations are varied, showing different experiences that young refugees may experience and highlighting the range of joyful and difficult emotions that come with them.

New Texts Out Now: Mandy Turner and Cherine Hussein, guest eds. "Israel-Palestine after Oslo: Mapping Transformations in a Time of Deepening Crisis." Special Issue of Conflict, Security & Development

Conflict, Security and Development, Volume 15, No. 5 (December 2015) Special issue: "Israel-Palestine after Oslo: Mapping Transformations in a Time of Deepening Crisis," Guest Editors: Mandy Turner and Cherine Hussein.

Jadaliyya (J): What made you compile this volume?

Mandy Turner (MT): Both the peace process and the two-state solution are dead. Despite more than twenty years of negotiations, Israel’s occupation, colonization and repression continue–and the political and geographical fragmentation of the Palestinian people is proceeding apace.

This is not news, nor is it surprising to any keen observer of the situation. But what is surprising–and thus requires explanation – is the resilience of the Oslo framework and paradigm: both objectively and subjectively. It operates objectively as a straitjacket by trapping Palestinians in economic and security arrangements that are designed to ensure stabilization and will not to lead to sovereignty or a just and sustainable solution. And it operates subjectively as a straitjacket by shutting out discussion of alternative ways of understanding the situation and ways out of the impasse. The persistence of this framework that is focused on conflict management and stabilization, is good for Israel but bad for Palestinians.

The Oslo peace paradigm–of a track-one, elite-level, negotiated two-state solution–is therefore in crisis. And yet it is entirely possible that the current situation could continue for a while longer–particularly given the endorsement and support it enjoys from the major Western donors and the “international community,” as well as the fact that there has been no attempt to develop an alternative. The immediate short-term future is therefore bleak.

Guided by these observations, this special issue sought to undertake two tasks. The first task was to analyze the perceptions underpinning the Oslo framework and paradigm as well as some of the transformations instituted by its implementation: why is it so resilient, what has it created? The second task, which follows on from the first, was then to ask: how can we reframe our understanding of what is happening, what are some potential alternatives, and who is arguing and mobilizing for them?

These questions and themes grew out of a number of conversations with early-career scholars – some based at the Kenyon Institute in East Jerusalem, and some based in the occupied Palestinian territory and elsewhere. These conversations led to two interlinked panels at the International Studies Association annual convention in Toronto, Canada, in March 2014. To have two panels accepted on “conflict transformation and resistance in Palestine” at such a conventional international relations conference with (at the time unknown) early-career scholars is no mean feat. The large and engaged audience we received at these panels – with some very established names coming along (one of whom contributed to this special issue) – convinced us that this new stream of scholars and scholarship should have an outlet.  

J: What particular topics, issues, and literatures do the articles address?

MT: The first half of the special issue analyzes how certain problematic assumptions shaped the Oslo framework, and how the Oslo framework in turn shaped the political, economic and territorial landscape.

Virginia Tilley’s article focuses on the paradigm of conflict resolution upon which the Oslo Accords were based, and calls for a re-evaluation of what she argues are the two interlinked central principles underpinning its worldview: internationally accepted notions of Israeli sovereignty; and the internationally accepted idea that the “conflict” is essentially one between two peoples–the “Palestinian people” and the “Jewish people”. Through her critical interrogation of these two “common sense” principles, Tilley proposes that the “conflict” be reinterpreted as an example of settler colonialism, and, as a result of this, recommends an alternative conflict resolution model based on a paradigm shift away from an ethno-nationalist division of the polity towards a civic model of the nation.

Tariq Dana unpacks another central plank of the Oslo paradigm–that of promoting economic relations between Israel and the OPT. He analyses this through the prism of “economic peace” (particularly the recent revival of theories of “capitalist peace”), whose underlying assumptions are predicated on the perceived superiority of economic approaches over political approaches to resolving conflict. Dana argues that there is a symbiosis between Israeli strategies of “economic peace” and recent Palestinian “statebuilding strategies” (referred to as Fayyadism), and that both operate as a form of pacification and control because economic cooperation leaves the colonial relationship unchallenged.

The political landscape in the OPT has been transformed by the Oslo paradigm, particularly by the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Alaa Tartir therefore analyses the basis, agenda and trajectory of the PA, particularly its post-2007 state building strategy. By focusing on the issue of local legitimacy and accountability, and based on fieldwork in two sites in the occupied West Bank (Balata and Jenin refugee camps), Tartir concludes that the main impact of the creation of the PA on ordinary people’s lives has been the strengthening of authoritarian control and the hijacking of any meaningful visions of Palestinian liberation.

The origin of the administrative division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip is the focus of Tareq Baconi’s article. He charts how Hamas’s initial opposition to the Oslo Accords and the PA was transformed over time, leading to its participation (and success) in the 2006 legislative elections. Baconi argues that it was the perceived demise of the peace process following the collapse of the Camp David discussions that facilitated this change. But this set Hamas on a collision course with Israel and the international community, which ultimately led to the conflict between Hamas and Fateh, and the administrative division, which continues to exist.

The special issue thereafter focuses, in the second section, on alternatives and resistance to Oslo’s transformations.

Cherine Hussein’s article charts the re-emergence of the single-state idea in opposition to the processes of separation unleashed ideologically and practically that were codified in the Oslo Accords. Analysing it as both a movement of resistance and as a political alternative to Oslo, while recognizing that it is currently largely a movement of intellectuals (particularly of diaspora Palestinians and Israelis), Hussein takes seriously its claim to be a more just and liberating alternative to the two-state solution.

My article highlights the work of a small but dedicated group of anti-Zionist Jewish-Israeli activists involved in two groups: Zochrot and Boycott from Within. Both groups emerged in the post-Second Intifada period, which was marked by deep disillusionment with the Oslo paradigm. This article unpacks the alternative – albeit marginalized – analysis, solution and route to peace proposed by these groups through the application of three concepts: hegemony, counter-hegemony and praxis. The solution, argue the activists, lies in Israel-Palestine going through a process of de-Zionization and decolonization, and the process of achieving this lies in actions in solidarity with Palestinians.

This type of solidarity action is the focus of the final article by Suzanne Morrison, who analyses the “We Divest” campaign, which is the largest divestment campaign in the US and forms part of the wider Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Through attention to their activities and language, Morrison shows how “We Divest”, with its networked, decentralized, grassroots and horizontal structure, represents a new way of challenging Israel’s occupation and the suppression of Palestinian rights.

The two parts of the special issue are symbiotic: the critique and alternative perspectives analyzed in part two are responses to the issues and problems identified in part one.

J: How does this volume connect to and/or depart from your previous work?

MT: My work focuses on the political economy of donor intervention (which falls under the rubric of “peacebuilding”) in the OPT, particularly a critique of the Oslo peace paradigm and framework. This is a product of my broader conceptual and historical interest in the sociology of intervention as a method of capitalist expansion and imperial control (as explored in “The Politics of International Intervention: the Tyranny of Peace”, co-edited with Florian Kuhn, Routledge, 2016), and how post-conflict peacebuilding and development agendas are part of this (as explored in “Whose Peace: Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding”, co-edited with Michael Pugh and Neil Cooper (PalgraveMacmillan, 2008).  

My first book on Palestine (co-edited with Omar Shweiki), Decolonizing Palestinian Political Economy: De-development and Beyond (PalgraveMacmillan, 2014), was a collection of essays by experts in their field, of the political-economic experience of different sections of the Palestinian community. The book, however, aimed to reunite these individual experiences into one historical political-economy narrative of a people experiencing a common theme of dispossession, disenfranchisement and disarticulation. It was guided by the desire to critically assess the utility of the concept of de-development to different sectors and issues–and had a foreword by Sara Roy, the scholar who coined the term, and who was involved in the workshop from which the book emerged.

This co-edited special issue (with Cherine Hussein, who, at the time of the issue construction, was the deputy director of the Kenyon Institute) was therefore the next logical step in my research on Palestine, although my article on Jewish-Israeli anti-Zionists did constitute a slight departure from my usual focus.

J: Who do you hope will read this volume, and what sort of impact would you like it to have?

MT: I would imagine the main audience will be those whose research and political interests lie in Palestine Studies. It is difficult, given the structure of academic publishing – which has become ever more corporate and money grabbing – for research outputs such as this to be accessed by the general public. Only those with access to academic libraries are sure to be able to read it – and this is a travesty, in my opinion. To counteract this commodification of knowledge, we should all provide free access to our outputs through online open source websites such as academia.edu, etc. If academic research is going to have an impact beyond merely providing more material for teaching and background reading for yet more research (which is inaccessible to the general public) then this is essential. Websites such as Jadaliyya are therefore incredibly important.

Having said all that, I am under no illusions about the potential for ANY research on Israel-Palestine to contribute to changing the dynamics of the situation. However, as a collection of excellent analyses conducted by mostly early-career scholars in the field of Palestine studies, I am hopeful that their interesting and new perspectives will be read and digested. 

J: What other projects are you working on now?

MT: I am currently working on an edited volume provisionally entitled From the River to the Sea: Disintegration, Reintegration and Domination in Israel and Palestine. This book is the culmination of a two-year research project funded by the British Academy, which analyzed the impacts of the past twenty years of the Oslo peace framework and paradigm as processes of disintegration, reintegration and domination – and how they have created a new socio-economic and political landscape, which requires new agendas and frameworks. I am also working on a new research project with Tariq Dana at Birzeit University on capital and class in the occupied West Bank.

Excerpt from the Editor’s Note 

[Note: This issue was published in Dec. 2015]

Initially perceived to have inaugurated a new era of hope in the search for peace and justice in Palestine-Israel, the Oslo peace paradigm of a track one, elite-level, negotiated two-state solution is in crisis today, if not completely at an end.

While the major Western donors and the ‘international community’ continue to publicly endorse the Oslo peace paradigm, Israeli and Palestinian political elites have both stepped away from it. The Israeli government has adopted what appears to be an outright rejection of the internationally-accepted end-goal of negotiations, i.e. the emergence of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. In March 2015, in the final days of his re-election campaign, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the Jewish settlement of Har Homa in Palestinian East Jerusalem, which is regarded as illegal under international law. Reminding its inhabitants that it was him and his Likud government that had established the settlement in 1997 as part of the Israeli state’s vision of a unified indivisible Jerusalem, he promised to expand the construction of settlements in East Jerusalem if re-elected. And in an interview with Israeli news site, NRG, Netanyahu vowed that the prospects of a Palestinian state were non-existent as long as he remained in office. Holding on to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), he argued, was necessary to ensure Israel’s security in the context of regional instability and Islamic extremism. It is widely acknowledged that Netanyahu’s emphasis on Israel’s security—against both external and internal enemies—gave him a surprise win in an election he was widely expected to lose.

Despite attempts to backtrack under recognition that the US and European states are critical of this turn in official Israeli state policy, Netanyahu’s promise to bury the two-state solution in favour of a policy of further annexation has become the Israeli government’s official intent, and has been enthusiastically endorsed by leading ministers and key advisers.

[…]

The Palestinian Authority (PA) based in the West Bank also appears to have rejected a key principle of the Oslo peace paradigm—that of bilateral negotiations under the supervision of the US. Despite a herculean effort by US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to bring the two parties to the negotiating table, in response to the lack of movement towards final status issues and continued settlement expansion (amongst other issues), the Palestinian political elite have withdrawn from negotiations and resumed attempts to ‘internationalise the struggle’ by seeking membership of international organisations such as the United Nations (UN), and signing international treaties such as the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court. This change of direction is part of a rethink in the PA and PLO’s strategy rooted in wider discussions and debates. The publication of a document by the Palestine Strategy Study Group (PSSG) in August 2008, the production of which involved many members of the Palestinian political elite (and whose recommendations were studiously discussed at the highest levels of the PA and PLO), showed widespread discontent with the bilateral negotiations framework and suggested ways in which Palestinians could ‘regain the initiative’.

[…]

And yet despite these changes in official Palestinian and Israeli political strategies that signal a deepening of the crisis, donors and the ‘international community’ are reluctant to accept the failure of the Oslo peace paradigm. This political myopia has meant the persistence of a framework that is increasingly divorced from the possibility of a just and sustainable peace. It is also acting as an ideological straitjacket by shutting out alternative interpretations. This special issue seeks a way out of this political and intellectual dead end. In pursuit of this, our various contributions undertake what we regard to be two key tasks: first, to critically analyse the perceptions underpinning the Oslo paradigm and the transformations instituted by its implementation; and second, to assess some alternative ways of understanding the situation rooted in new strategies of resistance that have emerged in the context of these transformations in the post-Oslo landscape.

[…]

Taken as a whole, the articles in this special issue aim to ignite conversations on the conflict that are not based within abstracted debates that centre upon the peace process itself—but that begin from within the realities and geographies of both the continually transforming land of Palestine-Israel and the voices, struggles, worldviews and imaginings of the future of the people who presently inhabit it. For it is by highlighting these transformations, and from within these points of beginning, that we believe more hopeful pathways for alternative ways forward can be collectively imagined, articulated, debated and built.