Search

This article discusses the transformations in the Arab and Palestinian vision of Israel in light of the qualitative and significant repercussions of the October 7, 2023 - Al-Aqsa Flood operation and the subsequent aggressive genocidal Israeli war of annihilation against the Palestinian people. The Al-Aqsa Flood operation constituted a qualitative shift in the resistance of the Palestinian people to the Israeli occupation army. It is also considered a military blow that shook Israel's self-confidence and revealed its inability to protect itself. Such a new reality of uncertainty has contributed to a shift in the Arab and Palestinian vision towards Israel politically, militarily, and security-wise. The Palestinian resistance action moved from the theory of pushing aggression to the ability to initiate a defeat for the Israeli army. The myth of brute Israeli power receded, and its inability and failure to subdue the Palestinian will resist became apparent from 1948 until today. The new realities Palestinian resistance could create and sustain Israeli defeat and retreat contributed to the collapse of the marketing arguments for implementing Palestinian and Arab security agreements and normalization processes with Israel. Furthermore, it became clear that the Palestinian resistance act was capable of defeating the Israeli occupation army with will, preparation, planning, and faith despite the lack of capabilities. The Western allies were unable to protect Israel from these resistance attacks, and all forms of support for Israel could not stop the resistance, let alone defeat it. As such, the Arabs and Palestinians are wondering how the U.S. and some European countries could protect Israel when the Arab world's trend moves to support Palestinians in all needed forms of power to fight. However, the October 7 successful operation, on the one hand, and the brutal war of extermination and genocide carried out by the Israeli army in Gaza, on the other hand, constituted a shock to the Arab awareness that the path of normalization and coexistence with Israeli state is not to make peace. It is realized that such a trend is pushing practically to lay the foundations for instability and security in the region and to violate the rights of the Palestinian people under the hegemony of Israel over the Arab world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a widely seen reproductive and endocrinological disorder. PCOS can exert substantial effects on many aspects of an individual's life, including reproductive health and psychological well-being. The objective of this study was to assess the nutritional status, premenstrual syndrome, and mental health of women affected by PCOS in comparison to women without PCOS. Methodology: A case-control observational study in Palestine included 100 PCOS patients and 200 healthy women. The collected data included socio-demographic information, medical history, premenstrual syndrome, mental health, nutritional status, and lifestyle. Anthropometric measurement and the Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) were used to evaluate the nutritional status. The General Health Questionnaire (12-GHQ) was used to evaluate the state of mental health. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) severity was evaluated using a validated Arabic premenstrual syndrome questionnaire. Results: The study's findings indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in the three dimensions of PMS among participants with PCOS, p < 0.05. Similarly, PCOS patients demonstrated elevated ratings across all aspects of mental health, p < 0.05. In terms of the other variables, it has been observed that PCOS patients have a notably greater prevalence of perceived sleep disturbances and decreased adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Regression analysis revealed that PCOS is associated with mental health problems indicated by a higher GHQ score (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.03; 1.16, p < 0.05), lower adherence to the MD diet (OR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.76; 0.98, p < 0.05), and pre-menstrual syndrome, especially the physical symptoms (OR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.003; 1.12, p < 0.05) after adjusting for age, smoking, waist-hip ratio, and body mass index (BMI). Conclusion: The study has linked polycystic ovary syndrome to negative mental health outcomes and an increased severity of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Additional investigation is required in order to establish a causal association between polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and lifestyle behaviors within the Palestinian population. Intervention and instructional studies are necessary to investigate the efficacy of management strategies in alleviating the effects of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) on both physical and mental well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Palestinian minority in Israel has endured sociopolitical stressors (e.g., ethnonational racism, discrimination, oppression, and political violence) throughout the decades, which have adverse psychological and behavioral outcomes. In this study, we examine the association between interpersonal racism (IPR) among Palestinian parents in Israel and their child neglect, the mediating role of psychological distress on this relationship, and the moderating role of perceived social support (PSS) on the mediated effect of psychological distress on this relationship. A systematic sample of 770 parents (500 mothers and 270 fathers) aged 21–66 was recruited to fill out a self-administered questionnaire composed of several instruments. The results indicate that parents' IPR experiences are associated with an increased risk of child neglect, and this relationship is mediated by psychological distress. Results also show that in low or medium levels of PSS, psychological distress reports in relation to racism exposure are the highest. Yet, surprisingly, this effect strengthens at high levels of PSS. In comparison, the positive effect of psychological distress on child neglect strengthens in lower levels of PSS, showing a protective role of PSS. Finally, PSS moderates the mediation model's indirect effect; IPR is related to increased psychological distress, and in turn, to a greater risk of child neglect when perceiving low or medium levels of social support. The study underlines the negative consequences of IPR on child neglect and contributes new knowledge to the literature. Longitudinal research is needed to confirm and extend these findings, which could have important clinical implications for treating parents facing racism and potential child neglect. Highlights: Racism is a sociopolitical problem for the Palestinian minority in Israel. The study emphasizes its adverse psychological and behavioral outcomes on parents and children. Parents who experienced ethnonational racism and perceived having lowered levels of social support were at high risk of psychological distress and child neglect. Practitioners should provide programs that contain different sources of social support (instrumental and psychosocial support) when dealing with people exposed to racism. It is essential that policymakers reconsider combating current policies and rules as well as social exclusions to reduce disparities and barriers to services among minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health challenges are widespread among adolescents undergoing significant physical, emotional, social, and academic changes. However, rates of formal help-seeking remain low, particularly among those from ethnic minorities. Aims: This study investigated the determinants of intentions to seek formal mental health help among Palestinian adolescents in Israel, focusing on mental health literacy (MHL) and trust in formal sources of information. Methods: A total of 178 adolescents (Mage = 16.24 ± 1.24 years, 61.8% female) completed measures assessing intention for formal help-seeking, psychological distress, MHL, trust in formal sources of information, sociodemographic, and clinical characteristics. Results: Findings revealed low levels of intention to seek formal help and psychological distress, alongside average or above-average levels on all MHL dimensions and trust in formal sources for information. Our analysis identified socioeconomic status (β =.17, p <.05), psychological distress (β =.18, p <.05), trust in formal sources of information (β =.28, p <.001), and two MHL dimensions: knowledge of where to seek information (β =.25, p <.01) and attitudes that promote recognition or appropriate help-seeking behavior (β =.16, p <.05) – as the main determinants of intention for formal help-seeking. Conclusions: This study underscores the critical role of trust in formal sources of information and MHL in seeking formal help among adolescents from ethnic minorities. Interventions aiming to improve access to mental health-related information, address and enhance attitudes, and foster trust in formal professionals and institutions may contribute to an increased tendency for formal mental health help-seeking among this population and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into a military court's quest to determine the nature of one Palestinian death by an Israeli soldier as exceptional or banal. The court's rejection of selective enforcement claims in Azaria's trial for Al-Sharif's killing allows unpacking Israeli settler society's indifference to Palestinian deaths. As I show, the logic of open fire regulations strips these deaths of their singularity and political meaning, constructs them as an exceptional repetition, and sets them aside even when soldiers are prosecuted for killing Palestinians. Exploring whether a different epistemology could account for the singular yet repetitive nature of Palestinians' deaths in Israel, I turn to Deleuze. His understanding of repetition as the maximality of differences and reversal of the order of trauma lead me to conclude that the state of Israel does not repeat (killing Palestinians) because it represses (the death of Palestinians). It represses because it repeats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze 391 news reports in Israeli newspapers between 2013 and 2015, covering murders of women and their family members by other family members and intimate partners. We compare articles where the perpetrators and victims are Jewish to those where the perpetrators and victims are Palestinian citizens of Israel (henceforth PCI). We found that articles tend to provide much more details about Jewish culprits than about PCI ones. As for ascribed motives, most murder cases by Jews were framed as an outcome of individual personality or the pathology of the culprit. Conversely, when Palestinian citizens were the killers, culture and tradition were invoked as the main motives. We suggest that the routine work of narration that the Israeli media preform when covering femicide is a case of political use of cultural stereotypes to gain moral ground in the intractable conflict between Jews and Palestinians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Primary brain tumors (PBTs) are uncommon, but they significantly increase the risk of disability and death. There is a deficiency of data concerning the epidemiology and anatomical distribution of PBTs among adults in Palestine. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study in which data were collected from the clinical reports of Palestinian patients diagnosed with PBTs at Al-Makassed Hospital during the period (2018–2023). Results: In Palestinian adolescents and adults, the incidence rate of PBTs was 3.92 per 100,000 person-years. Glioblastoma (18.8%) was the most common type identified, and it was more common in males. Non-malignant tumors were more common than malignant tumors (2.41 vs. 1.52 per 100,000). The mortality rate from PBTs was 4.8%. The most common initial symptom was headaches, and it occurred more with non-malignant tumors (57.28% vs. 42.72%, p-value < 0.001). Cerebral meninges (26.3%) were the most common location for primary brain tumors (p-value < 0.001). Conclusion: This is the first study of primary brain tumor epidemiology in Palestine. The overall incidence of PBTs in Palestinian adolescents and adults was 3.96 per 100,000, which was lower than the incidence rate of primary brain tumors worldwide. More studies on the epidemiology and distribution of PBTs in Palestine are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LGBTQ+ suffer from intolerance everywhere, but in certain conservative minority communities, intolerance is especially high. This study explores how non‐minority organizations—government and nonprofit—might support minority LGBTQ+ individuals on the backdrop of tense majority‐minority relations. While the extension of external support responds to LGBTQ+ plight, it is also likely to provoke community backlash. Research is based on a qualitative case study, which includes document analysis and 17 in‐depth interviews focusing on the institutional support system addressing the plight of LGBTQ+ Palestinian citizens of Israel. The research suggests that an outside‐inside strategy could be effective: A range of services outside of Palestinian spaces is adapted/established to support individual LGBTQ+ and inside Palestinian towns gradual progress is achieved by training local public workers to work with LGBTQ+. This approach contrasts with bottom‐up and straightforward top‐down approaches to intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we explore how people in conflict-affected societies use language to navigate the affective constraints that political conflicts impose. Specifically, we consider the role of multilingualism in enabling sexual and romantic intimacy between Jewish and Palestinian Israelis in Israel/Palestine. Our data are drawn from a close examination of the speech of Fadi Daeem, one of the protagonists in the 2015 documentary Oriented. Building on studies of (in)securitization and everyday bordering, we show how the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Palestine serves to instantiate a regime of affective checkpoints, a space in which sexual and romantic relations between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are discursively blocked. We describe how Fadi and his friends use strategic instances of code-switching between Arabic, Hebrew, and English to navigate this ideologically fraught terrain. Our primary goal is to demonstrate how multilingualism can be employed as a resource for managing affect and desire in a conflict-ridden context like Israel/Palestine. In doing so, we further highlight how the intimate domain of romantic desire is inevitably situated within a broader matrix of power and constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an acutely tragic time for many Jewish people who have for decades shared Eyal Rozmarin's commitment to working for peace in Israel/Palestine. Rozmarin importantly emphasizes the many ties that bind people, often unconsciously, to collectivities, especially the ways in which nation states, or birthplaces, provide identity narratives that unite, or sometimes, discomfort, us. However, it is not so uncommon for people to have fractured belongings, as life experiences complicate our ties to past identifications and attachments. In this essay I discuss the historic complexity of Jewish ties to Israel, including my own. I note that Jewish criticisms of Israel's dispossession of Palestinians, which have always existed from well before the creation of the state of Israel, are continually dismissed by allowing only one narrative to be addressed, that of political Zionism. All other attempts to criticize Israel's refusal to contemplate justice for native Palestinians is spuriously undermined as antisemitism. Yet today, more Jewish people are joining with others who are not only currently devastated by Israel's genocidal aggression in Gaza, but also demanding equal rights and freedom for everyone now residing in Israel/Palestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the book "Decolonizing Palestine" by Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian theologian. Raheb aims to bring colonial theory into conversation with Palestinian theology and develop a contextual and decolonial Palestinian Christian theology. He argues that Western Christianity has supported settler colonialism in Palestine by weaponizing the Bible against the Palestinian people. The book explores the history of imperialism in the Holy Land, the role of Christian Zionism, the theology of land, and the biblical idea of election. Raheb's work offers a Palestinian perspective on the political history of the region and challenges Eurocentric and North American theology. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most widespread cancer among Palestinian patients. As cancer care improves in hospitals across the West Bank, services like palliative care, targeted therapy, bone marrow transplantation, and individualized therapy are still limited. This study aimed to assess the CRC stages, treatment protocols, and survival rates of patients in the West Bank. Methodology: This retrospective study collected data from the medical records of Al-Najah University Hospital (NUH), which specializes in the care of cancer patients. Patients with confirmed CRC (stages I–IV) undergoing surgical or medical treatment were included in the study. Data collection was standardized by using a data collection form to gather information from the medical records included in the study. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (version v27), and survival was assessed using a regression analysis of the number of days from the time of diagnosis to the most recent visit against the type of treatment (e.g., surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy). Results: A sample of 252 patients with CRC from NUH was collected, including 143 males and 109 females aged between 27 and 86 years, with the average age being 60.6 ± 11.4 years. The sample included 183 patients (72.6%) diagnosed with colon cancer only, 29 patients (11.5%) diagnosed with rectal cancer only, and 40 patients (15.9%) diagnosed with both. Diagnosis took place at CRC stage I for 3 patients (1.2%), stage II for 33 patients (13.1%), stage III for 57 patients (22.6%), and stage IV for 159 patients (63.1%). Surgery was the most prevailing mode of treatment for 230 patients (91.3%), while 227 patients (90.1%) received chemotherapy treatment, and 38 patients (15.1%) received radiotherapy. Of the 252 patients, 40 patients (15.8%) received FOLFOX (i.e., folinic acid, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin), and 25 patients (9.9%) received FOLFIRI (i.e., folinic acid, fluorouracil, irinotecan), while the 187 remaining patients (74.2%) were treated with capecitabine, oxaliplatin, bevacizumab, cetuximab, regorafenib, cisplatin, etoposide, gemcitabine, or a combination thereof. The sample was categorized into six outcomes: (1) death, (2) cure, (3) disease progression, (4) disease recurrence, (5) under-treatment, and (6) unknown. Mortality was high, with 104 patients (41.3%) dying within a short time after diagnosis, and may have been attributable to delayed diagnosis. Surgical treatment had a positive impact on increasing the survival years, and it was significant (p = 0.033). Conclusions: A high percentage of patients were diagnosed in advanced CRC stages. The treatment modes were adopted from general international guidelines; however, the cure rates were low, and mortality was high. More studies need to be undertaken to investigate the actual application of chemotherapy protocols, and survival would benefit from the involvement of clinical pharmacists in the chemotherapy protocol selection, dosing, frequency, and follow-up. The present study advocates for greater public awareness of CRC and attests to the merits of screening by primary care professionals, which can help to avoid this serious illness and to promote a better prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the perception and the reaction of Turkish people to Israel's war in Gaza. For this purpose, we utilized a survey involving 1,393 respondents. First, we documented that there is widespread support for Palestinians from both sides of the political spectrum, Second, 94 percent of people do not believe that Israel's public statements about protecting civilians are true. Third, an overwhelming percentage of people also joined the economic boycott by not buying Israeli products. Although young voters are less likely to support the Palestinian cause, this relationship disappears once voting preferences are taken into account. This implies that voting preferences matter for understanding the support for Palestinian cause. Compared to those who do not vote or vote for parties with a small base, AK Party and MHP voters are relatively more likely to support and CHP and HDP voters are relatively less likely to support the Palestinian cause. Overall, these results show that there is a strong pro-Palestine sentiment in Türkiye, and companies that have business ties with Israel are going to be hurt economically by the ongoing war due to consumer boycotts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Israel's continuous war on Gaza turns out to be one of the deadliest genocides in modern world history. Despite the apparent evidence of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, the international community failed to take the necessary steps that would stop Israel from committing crimes against humanity, which include, but are not limited to, killing civilians, forced displacements, attacking educational, religious, and medical institutions, and stopping the entrance of food and water. While only one of these is enough to charge Israeli politicians and officials with crimes against humanity, Israel is protected by some great powers and has been given a blank check on their crimes. As if all of these are not enough, the Israeli illegal settlers are committing more and more crimes against Palestinians in the West Bank, encouraged mainly by the Israeli authorities. Despite all of these attempts at ethnic cleansing, Palestinians demand an independent state within its 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two books published by Oxford University Press in 2023 that shed light on the cross-cultural encounters between Western societies and Palestine. The first book, "Christian Homeland," explores the history of the Episcopalian Church's activities in the Middle East, particularly its debates on Palestine and Zionism. The book reveals a deep solidarity that emerged between American missionaries and Arab Palestinians facing an existential threat from Zionism. The second book, "Russian-Arab Worlds," is an anthology of texts that highlights the Russian infatuation with Palestine, especially during the tsarist era. It discusses the involvement of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in establishing Russian churches, coordinating pilgrimages, and establishing schools in Palestine. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to uncover the rich tapestry of Palestine's international and intercultural relations. [Extracted from the article]

While scholarship on Anglophone Palestinian literature has burgeoned in recent years, there has been no attempt to retrieve and assess the work of Soraya Antonius (1932–2017), author of two remarkable English-language novels depicting British-ruled Palestine from the 1910s to 1948, The Lord (1986) and Where the Jinn Consult (1987). Exploring and contextualising Antonius's contribution to this literary corpus, this article examines the cultural, political and linguistic forces shaping her writings. It begins by tracing the fusion of Anglophile mimicry and anti-colonial resistance typical of her parents – George Antonius, author of The Arab Awakening (1938) and Katy Antonius, Mandatory Jerusalem's leading socialite. While her parents funnelled their Levantine-cosmopolitan options into a distinctive Palestinian identity, the Nakba compelled their daughter to take the opposite trajectory, leaving Palestine to pursue cosmopolitan possibilities elsewhere. The article's second section thus considers her work in 1960s and 1970s Beirut, first as a journalist and editor, committed to developing a critical discourse on Western Orientalism, and subsequently as an activist and spokesperson, advocating the Palestinian cause. Probing how these biographical and professional strands shaped her fiction, the final section demonstrates how the first novel's Anglophile fascination with the coloniser's mindset is replaced, in the second novel, with a decided focus on Palestinians' perspectives. Echoing Albert Hourani's critique of the 'Politics of Notables', Where the Jinn Consult thus offers a loving yet bitter account of her parents' generation, complacent and ineffectual in the face of looming catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featuring narrative argument in Jewish dissent for Palestinians rights, this article examines identity reconstitution and the attunement to being in relationship with the foreign other. The author promotes a critical rhetoric of first-person narrative for the attunement of identity as an ethical practice in relation to alterity. This rhetoric is exemplified in the work of Sara Roy, Jewish American dissenter, and scholar, who speaks out in support of Palestinian rights as a child of Holocaust survivors. In the process of speaking out, Roy reinvents Jewish self-understanding as an alternative to Zionist identity formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of an effort to establish a national identity within the education sector, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) revised its 2018/2019 textbooks. This study seeks to understand the motivation behind the revisions, focusing on how the new content depict 'the self' and 'the other'. Through our analysis, it was discovered that the textbooks should be seen as an extension of the Palestinian struggle for nation‐building and self‐determination. The PNA's strategy to curricula development represents a departure from the previous Oslo framework with a focus on historical Palestine and defining 'the other' on their own terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A land without people for a people without land" was the Zionist slogan used to justify the Jewish settlement in historical Palestine. To prove that historical Palestine was unoccupied, Zionists have attempted to erase its native population from their land and from historical records, through the propagation of the myth that the Jews made "the desert bloom," obliterating the agricultural practices of Palestinian Arabs. This article studies the deliberate attempts to use ecology as a means of cultural amnesia and its resistance by Palestinian writers. By examining the novels of Susan Abulhawa for remembrances that combat the strategy of forced amnesia of Palestinian ecology, this article finds that literature becomes lieux de mémoire that helps to resist erasure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine" critically examines the use of psychology and psychotherapy by the Israeli settler colonial state as tools of oppression against Palestinians. The authors argue that these practices perpetuate Orientalist ideologies and pathologize Palestinian experiences. They also critique the human rights discourse and highlight the challenges faced by Palestinian clinicians. While the authors' anti-Zionist stance is commendable, the concept of a unified and autonomous Palestinian self is questioned, emphasizing the complexity of subjectivity and the limitations of psychoanalysis in achieving liberation and justice. The text discusses the relationship between psychoanalysis, Marxism, and the Palestinian struggle for liberation, and calls for a serious engagement with theory for Palestine. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on Colum McCann's 2020 novel Apeirogon, which tells the stories of an unlikely friendship of two bereaved fathers, a Palestinian Bassam Aramin and a Jew Rami Elhanan. I argue that in its experimental form, the novel comes to imagine a way beyond the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is here shown to be predicated on what Achille Mbembe terms necropolitics. Having discussed Mbembe's idea, I proceed to demonstrate that in its continuous juggling of hope and despair and its use of mathematics to formally structure the novel, McCann rejects the politics of hatred, replacing it with a mind-set of shared suffering and mutual understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first to document the historical significance of the Indianapolis-based Syrian Ark , the official newspaper of the Midwest Federation of Syrian American Clubs from 1936 to 1954. Extant copies of the periodical provide a detailed record of Arab, Syrian, and Lebanese midwestern life in the middle twentieth century. Using elements of Thomas A. Tweed's spatial theory of "crossing and dwelling," author Edward E. Curtis IV analyzes how the newspaper's editor, correspondents, and other contributors moved across and inhabited local, regional, national, and diasporic spaces in their reporting. He argues that the Syrian Ark 's collective mapping of Arab American dwelling or "homemaking" in the shared public culture of the U.S. Midwest and U.S. nation-state was co-constituted through inhabiting the terrestrial space of diasporic Arab nationalist identity and the cosmological aspirations of religious ecumenism. The article illustrates this thesis by showing how the coverage of multiple midwestern locales in the Syrian Ark constructed a sense of Arab belonging to an ideal midwestern "hometown" of economic prosperity and strong civic engagement; how the newspaper's deep U.S. patriotism was joined to grassroots Arab diasporic nationalism, including activism on behalf of Palestinian liberty; and how the periodical created a cosmological home of religious ecumenism that sought to bring Muslims and Christians together across the Arab diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the Nazareth Conferences, which deal with the reconciliation between Germans and Israelis after the Holocaust. Jona M. Rosenfeld, one of the pioneers of the conferences, was born in Karlsruhe in 1922 and emigrated to Jerusalem in 1933. The interview with Rosenfeld is intended to provide insights into the origin and further development of the conferences, as well as personal experiences. Rosenfeld emphasizes the importance of Zionism for him and his family and explains that Zionism is something progressive and humane for him. He also talks about his commitment to the German-Israeli psychoanalytic meetings and his work with Palestinians and settlers. [Extracted from the article]

The report presents the social, economic, cultural, and political reality of the Arab community inside Israel. It is characterized as an “original” minority after it changed from a majority to a minority in 1948. The Arab community inside Israel suffers from obstacles that hinder social development, economic prosperity, cultural mobility, and the possibility of effective participation in political life. Among these obstacles is the Israeli authorities’ policy and behaviors toward the Arab community as a group of hostile masses outside the comprehensive Israeli national consensus. The governments look to the Arab community from racist grounds and perspectives that consider the state of Israel to be purely Jewish. The Arab community lies under laws of racial discrimination, the Judaization of their occupied territories, legitimizing Jewish settlement on Palestinian land and expelling more Palestinians from their lands. Israeli state deprives the Arab community of their human and legal rights. The report concludes that under the current situations and laws, the question of what the future of the relationship between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel will be is currently difficult to answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Said's concept of exile, Camus' 1947 novel The Plague, and testimonies from our students, this paper explores the striking similarities between experiences of exile and the COVID-19 pandemic. Both exile and the pandemic are seen as intrusive forces causing rupture and discontinuity in one's life at the physical, psychological and socio-cultural levels. This paper demonstrates that for many Palestinians – including us and our students – the pandemic manifests what Freud termed 'repetition compulsion'. That is, many of our students interpret the detrimental and precarious impact of the pandemic as a complex form of exile, a nuanced understanding that blends a historical, communal memory of displacement with a present, universal crisis. This paper further explains that the themes of exile and displacement in Camus' The Plague provide us and our students with a focal point to examine the striking, albeit anachronistic, similarities between the pandemic caused by Israeli occupation and the COVID-19 virus. This uncanny relationship between the pandemic and exile is further substantiated by the fact that the pandemic has provided cover, or at least distraction, for the escalation of oppressive political actions, thus deepening the entrenchment of a physical and psychological 'exile' for Palestinians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the legal framework which determines the political rights of women in Palestine and how they are exercised through the quota system. To achieve the objectives of the study, the following questions were asked: What are the national or local laws that regulate the political rights of women in Palestine? The descriptive-analytical method was followed through the analysis of legal texts related to women's political participation and the quota system, and by highlighting the international agreements that have established women's right to political participation. This study found that Women in Palestinian society face a number of obstacles to their political rights, including the view of the male society, the prevailing culture and the unfair laws that discriminate against them? In addition to the Israeli occupation, which is the biggest obstacle to participate in international and local forums. The access of Palestinian women to decision-making positions to change the culture of society takes many years, we need the quota system for a temporary period and not as a permanent solution, as is currently the case, it serves as a tool that provides access to gender justice in all spheres of life. It was concluded that women's right to political participation is guaranteed by local legislation and international agreements, and that the quota system is guaranteed by local legislation. However, there is a deficiency in empowering women politically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Susan Abulhawa is one of the contemporary Palestinian American writers who has adopted the novel to interrogate the Zionist narrative which has established many wrong concepts of Palestine and Palestinians and to draw attention to the many ways in which Zionist texts of derogatory representations have been established as authoritative through the assumption that such narratives offer an accurate and true image of Palestine and Palestinians. The present article explores Abulhawa's novels as counternarratives that challenge and subvert the Zionist dominant narrative and attempt to correct the false image of Palestinians in Western media and canonical works. The article argues that Abulhawa's novels are probable models of the Palestinian writers' historical and political counternarratives which have masterfully broken the silence which has been imposed on Palestinian (hi)stories, and on the persistent effects of silencing Palestinians and shattering their voices. It, further, argues that Abulhawa's novels assert the Palestinian self and articulate Israel as an imperialist and settler entity and provide the possibility of constructing an alternative cultural and national narrative of Palestine's history since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, which will affirm the Palestinians' continuous existence in their land and their forced expulsion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since assuming office in December 2022, Israel’s government has worked to weaken the state’s democratic infrastructure. While this appears to break from a long-standing Israeli consensus on democracy, this article demonstrates that retiring democracy has long been the agenda of the faction of the Israeli right most empowered in Israel’s current government, namely the settler movement. Following the discourse in Sovereignty: A Political Journal, it finds that by recasting ‘sovereignty’ as involving annexation and disenfranchizing Palestinians, the settler right has consistently portrayed democracy—and particularly the Supreme Court that serves as a check on governmental power and protects minorities—as an obstacle to ‘sovereignty.’ Considering the settler right’s political vision, the article claims that defending democracy today will necessarily involve engaging contentious questions of occupation and annexation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the effects of Israel’s democratic backsliding on the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. While research on democratic backsliding focuses on the erosion of liberal democratic features and how this influences democracies’ citizenry, Israel’s composite regime offers a unique setting: an established (albeit weakened) liberal democracy ‘within the Green Line’ alongside an established occupation devoid of democratic features ‘beyond the Green Line.’ Exploring this, I analyze how Israel’s belligerent occupation has at times been restrained by the ‘democratic side’ of the country, resulting in Palestinians indirectly benefiting from Israel’s democracy while not having democratic rights themselves. The article thus demonstrates how Palestinians may be among the first populations to suffer from democratic backsliding while themselves being devoid of democratic rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inherited thrombophilia (IT) has a complex pathophysiology and is associated with recurrent miscarriage (RM) by causing placental insufficiency and inhibiting fetal development. However, thrombophilia screening in unexplained RM cases is still questionable. This study aimed to investigate the association between the common eight IT mutations and their combinations among Palestinian women with unexplained RM. Methods: This is an unmatched case-control study with 200 women (100 unexplained RM cases, 100 controls). Eight common IT mutations namely Factor V Leiden (FVL), prothrombin gene (FII) G202120A, Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) gene (C677T and A1298C), B-fibrinogen gene − 455G > A, FV HR2 A4070G, Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI1) 5G/4G and Factor XIIIA (FXIIIA) V34L; were analyzed. The first five mutations were analyzed by Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism PCR and the other three mutations were analyzed using Amplification Refractory Mutation System PCR. Results: The prevalence of the eight IT mutations among the control group was in the order PAI1 5G/4G (69%), MTHFR C677T (53%) and A1298C (47%), BFG − 455G > A (35%), FVL and FV HR2 (each 18%), FXIIIA V34L (16%) and FII G20210A (3%). Patients had a higher percentage of MTHFR A1298C (heterozygotes and mutant homozygote) compared to controls (p = 0.016). Frequencies of mutant alleles MTHFR A1298C (p < 0.001) and FXIIIA V34L (p = 0.009) were higher among patients compared to controls. No significant differences were observed for all other mutations or mutant alleles. Most patients (75%) and controls (75%) have 2–4 mutant alleles out of 8 mutant alleles studied, while 1% of patients and 2% of controls have zero mutant alleles. None of the combinations of the most often studied mutations (FVL, FII G20210A, MTHFR C1677T, and MTHFR A1298C) showed a significant difference between patients and controls. Conclusions: There was a significant association between unexplained RM and the mutant alleles of MTHFR A1298C and FXIIIA V34L. No significant association was observed between unexplained RM and the combination of both mutant alleles for the mutations studied. This study is the first Palestinian report that evaluates eight inherited thrombophilia mutations and their alleles' combinations in unexplained RM cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Nurses face significant challenges as they attempt to manage an increasing number of complex responsibilities within limited time frames. This article explores the factors contributing to time-wasting behaviors among nurses in Palestine and emphasizes the significance of effective time-management skills in nursing practice. Methods. Surveys were collected from a total of 714 nurses working in multiple healthcare facilities located in the north of the West Bank, Palestine. An 11-item time-wasting scale was developed and validated. Factors influencing time-wasting behaviors among nurses were then investigated using multiple linear regression in SPSS version 25. Results. Attending time management courses significantly reduced time-wasting behaviors. Additionally, factors such as age, gender, and educational level did not appear to correlate with time-wasting behaviors. However, workplace, type of organization, and attendance of time management courses did impact nurses' time management skills. Conclusion. This article underscores the importance of time management skills in nursing practice. Inefficient time management can have detrimental effects on patient care and nursing outcomes. To mitigate these challenges, healthcare institutions and nursing education programs should prioritize time management training for nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the work experience of Israeli-Palestinian women journalists who reside and work in Israel for local news organizations or non-Israeli news agencies. It focuses on their experiences related to the intersected axes of their gender, ethnic, and national identities. Through thematic analysis of narrative interviews with 24 Palestinian women journalists, the study reveals that their work experiences vary between exclusion and inclusion among different news organizations. Israeli-Palestinian women journalists face barriers getting jobs at mainstream news agencies because of their accent; and when they apply to local Arab news organizations, they confront recruiting procedures based on a clan system that discriminates against women. However, a few of them report an advantage when trying to enter mainstream news organizations based on their image as an "authentic Arab woman." Additionally, the study finds that the professional identity of all interviewees is closely connected to their ideological perceptions and political aims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to try to understand how history teachers in Arab high schools in Israel navigate their way between the official curriculum and their Palestinian-Arab identity. I examine how they broach learning material that contradicts their beliefs and their understanding of recent history in the region. To this end I used qualitative research based on interpretative phenomenological analysis. The participants included Arab teachers, both men and women, who we interviewed using in-depth open interviews. In the literature review and from the findings we can see that the state, through the education system in general and through history teaching in particular, tries to disconnect the Palestinian-Arabs from their history, their people, and their national identity. These practices fit the descriptions of settler-colonialists' behavior toward indigenous populations. The findings show that the teachers use one of three approaches to deal with the state's educational policy. One group of teachers focuses on achievement using the material they are given in order to stay out of trouble. Another group finds creative ways to cautiously expose the students to the Arab narrative. The third group faces the challenge head on, presenting the students with the Palestinian narrative in addition to the Jewish Zionist one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel (PAI) on entering Israeli higher education (HE). Adopting a sequential exploratory mixed methods design, seven online focus groups (n = 19) were conducted, followed by an online survey (n = 453). The findings indicate that PAI students experience academic, physical, social and cultural disorientation upon entering HE. This disorientation transforms with time into a persistent feeling of lagging behind others. Three structural barriers appear to impede PAI students' progress in HE: language, age and finances – all manifestations of larger systematic discrimination faced by PAIs in Israel. PAI students deal with these challenges by turning to one another for support and forming groups on campus. Variations across gender, parental education and institution type are explored. The paper concludes by discussing practical implications and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented by Dr. Ahlam Muhtaseb detailing her invitation to deliver a portion of the Presidential Address at the National Communication Association Convention in November 2023 as well as the reasoning behind why she was not permitted to give her portion of the speech. Included in the article is her speech, about genocide in Gaza, presented in Arabic and translated into English as well.

Turkish governments and their actions regarding both Israel and the Palestinians have appeared to tilt in favour of one or the other depending on Turkey's security concerns (both political and economic) and a changing international environment nevertheless they have been consistent in two matters: 1) A preference for a two-state solution to the conflict between the two parties; and 2) Insistence that the old city of Jerusalem should not be under Israeli control. Since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey has been perhaps the most outspoken advocate for the Palestinians, especially for those living in the Gaza Strip under the rule of Hamas, even more so than many Arab states, losing its earlier reputation as a mediator. It is a policy that plays well with Erdoğan's base as since the 1970s many Turks have developed sympathy with the situation of the Palestinians and had an increasing interest in matters regarding Jerusalem. In recent years, given Turkey's economic troubles it has shown some determination to repair relations with Israel, but the Israel-Hamas War of 2023 has damaged those ties politically once again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Jewish-Israeli cultures through the innovative prism of creolization, defined here as the contingent and dynamic process of transculturation between European Jews, Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Similar to the history of ethnogenesis in the Caribbean, Israeli society emerged from a process of colonization and immigration in a setting of geographic isolation, resulting in a contested process of ethnicization and indigenization. Based on case studies of Jewish-Israeli cultures (including food, language, and religious practices), the article argues for a periodization of Jewish-Israeli creolization. After a long period of intense interaction and creolization between Ashkenazi settler-immigrants and native Palestinian Arabs under Ottoman and British rule, Israel's state-founding elites aimed at top-down Europeanization and decreolization after 1948. Since the rise of country's right in the 1970s, Israeli society has been undergoing a process of renewed creolization between Ashkenazi Israeli and Mizrahi Israeli elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For citizens in the Middle East, is wasta an accepted traditional practice or a form of corruption that has harmful effects on society? Scholarship remains divided on how exactly to view wasta, with some scholars pointing to its role in fostering in-group ties and providing a problem-solving mechanism, with others charging that wasta promotes poor governance and weak accountability. What citizens think rarely enters the picture. In this article, I argue that Jordanian citizens consider wasta a negative force in society, one that divides them from each other and makes them feel disengaged from the political life of their country. I use evidence from thirty-seven interviews with Jordanian youth, and data from the Jordanian NGO Leaders of Tomorrow's 'FADFED' initiative, a novel qualitative method for gathering opinion data from citizens. This article challenges scholars to take wasta's role in state-society tensions in the Middle East more seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of military occupation, surveillance is a commonly used tactic to decrease resistance, effectively undermining an oppressed group's sense of solidarity and cohesion. Our study examines how community cohesion—ties to local community—shapes the willingness to engage in nonviolent, civil resistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). We examine the psychological processes underpinning the link between community cohesion and civil resistance, and how these processes are affected by the geography of military occupation—the spatial system of Israeli settlements and surveillance infrastructure (checkpoints, the separation barrier, military installations). We address these questions by combining a representative survey of the adult population (N = 1,000) from 49 communities across the West Bank and Jerusalem with geo-coded data of settlements and the surveillance infrastructure. Our findings show that community cohesion predicts increased willingness to resist directly, and indirectly via perceived community norms of solidarity. Additionally, living in communities closer to settlements or the surveillance infrastructure predicts decreased community cohesion, lower expectations of solidarity with resistance, and less willingness to engage in resistance. Our findings contribute to the literature by demonstrating the role of community cohesion and norms in motivating resistance and depicting how these psychological processes are undermined by the structural conditions of control exercised by military occupation. Public Significance Statement: This article examines how living in the proximity of the built environment of Israeli military occupation, such as checkpoints, the separation barrier and Israeli settlements, shapes community cohesion and civil resistance motivation among Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We find that community cohesion and perceived community norms of solidarity are related to increased willingness to engage in civil resistance, but that these social-psychological resources for resistance are undermined when living near the built environment of military occupation. Our findings suggest that these structures, built in the name of security, may instead pave the way for violence by undermining cohesion and capacity for nonviolent forms of action among Palestinian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]