- March 8, 2010 - In the coming two days, this international symposium in the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung will take a close look at the Palestinian history and it significance for today’s politics and life conditions of its people. A distinguished group of Palestinian political representatives, international officials, Palestinian and international researchers, will contribute to an analytical debate of the complexity of historic and current Palestinian existence.
Opening remarks by Barbara Unmüßig more»
- March 12, 2010 - The perception is widely held that Fateh represents secularism, enlightened and modern secularism, open to the West, reformist, capable for democratic transformation and Hamas represents fundamentalism, backward, traditional (if looked at positively), anti-Western, pro-Iran, authoritarian, incapable for democratic transformation, simply using democratic slogans in order to reach power.
By Helga Baumgartenmore»
- March 12, 2010 - While the international community has over the last decade converged around a two-state vision, it has neither worked convincingly to implement this vision nor to prevent or stop processes that have the potential of making a two-state settlement impossible.
By Muriel Asseburgmore»
- March 12, 2010 - Diversity, Unity, and Fragmentation are three terms that have been dominating the Palestinian political discourse since the emergence of the Palestinian National Movement in the twentieth century. The internal Palestinian division since June 2007 has given more intensity to the discussion about Diversity, Unity, and Fragmentation.
By Salah Abdel Shafimore»
- March 12, 2010 - The clash between secularism and Islam in Palestine dates back to the beginning of the Palestinian Israeli conflict more than sixty years ago. The current split between the PA and Hamas will not be resolved in the foreseeable future, and a national unity government reunifying the West Bank and Gaza is not within sight.
By Mkhaimar Abusadamore»
- March 11, 2010 - There is and there cannot be any democracy or the development of a democratic system under occupation. It follows, therefore, that in our discussion today we can only pose the question about the amount of freedom needed to end occupation and build a free society and, perhaps eventually, achieve the “dream” of a democratic state in Palestine.
By Helga Baumgartenmore»
- March 8, 2010 - State-building as an indigenous process in entities emerging from violent conflicts is a growing issue not only in conflict studies, but in Development policy and in Development Economics. There are a growing number of studies related to post-conflict scenarios. The situation in Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) is hardly a “post-conflict” situation with a conflict sensitive economy and economic development.
By Dr. Sabine Hofmannmore»
- March 8, 2010 - What is and where is Palestine? One of the questions of the complex and compacted issues that are sometimes pushed to the margins in any discussion of Palestinian democracy.
By May Jayyusimore»
- March 4, 2010 - The first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 has been the seminal event in the modern history of the Palestinians. The impacts of the 1948 defeat – the Nakba (Arabic: Disaster) – for Palestinians have been profound, for they have shaped the contours of Palestine and Palestinian history in myriad ways.
By Michael R. Fischbachmore»
- March 3, 2010 - We have passed the 60-year mark since the Palestinian nakba, yet the question of Palestine refugees remains unsolved. More than 4.7 million registered refugees continue to live in conditions collectively characterised by uncertainty, injustice and insecurity.
By John Gingmore»
- March 3, 2010 - Refugees under occupation - nowhere else in the world are these three words combined to describe the living reality of nearly two million people. But for Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory, these words have for more than 40 years captured the essence of a doubly deprived existence caught in a political im-passe, denied basic human rights, and largely removed from the international agenda.
By John Gingmore»
- March 3, 2010 - The Palestinian-Israeli conflict was born at the end of last century as a result of "incompatible national aspirations" between the indigenous population of Palestine (the Palestinians) and the Zionist movement over the land of Palestine.
By Dr. Samir Awadmore»
- March 3, 2010 - The Palestinian schism is often referred to as a deep one that pits a secular nationalist movement (centered around Fatah) against a religious movement (centered around Hamas). In his paper, Nathan J. Brown suggests by contrast that the division is not as deep as is often assumed but it is exceedingly wide.
By Nathan J. Brownmore»
- March 3, 2010 - Nicolas Pelham concludes, that an end to western, Palestinian and Israeli isolation of Gaza and an improvement in Gaza’s lot generally, is likely to empower groups with external connections, and impede rather than accelerate Gaza’s Islamisation. By contrast, the alternative - of maintaining the closure - is likely to hasten the application of Sharia norms.
By Nicolas Pelhammore»
- March 3, 2010 - The struggle for Palestine first emerged as a significant issue in the neighboring Arab countries and the wider Arab world in the second half of the 1930s, largely as a consequence of the 1936-1939 Palestinian Arab revolt against the Zionist project and British colonial rule which protected and fostered it.
By Zachary Lockmanmore»
