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Hotter and dryer than most parts of the world, the Middle East
could soon see climate change exacerbate food and water shortages,
aggravate social inequalities, and drive displacement and political
destabilization. And as renewable energy eclipses fossil fuels, oil
rich countries in the Middle East will see their wealth diminish.
Amidst these imminent risks is a call to action for regional
leaders. Could countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the
United Arab Emirates harness the region's immense potential for
solar energy and emerge as vanguards of global climate action? The
Power of Deserts surveys regional climate models and identifies the
potential impact on socioeconomic disparities, population movement,
and political instability. Offering more than warning and fear,
however, the book highlights a potentially brighter future-a recent
shift across the Middle East toward renewable energy. With his deep
knowledge of the region and knack for presenting scientific data
with clarity, Dan Rabinowitz makes a sober yet surprisingly
optimistic investigation of opportunity arising from a looming
crisis.
Modern urban spaces are, by definition, mixed socio-spatial
configurations. In many ways, their enduring success and vitality
lie in the richness of their ethnic texture and ongoing exchange of
economic goods, cultural practices, political ideas and social
movements. This mixture, however, is rarely harmonious and has
often led to violent conflict over land and identity. Focusing on
mixed towns in Israel/Palestine, this insightful volume theorizes
the relationship between modernity and nationalism and the social
dynamics which engender and characterize the growth of urban spaces
and the emergence therein of inter-communal relations. For more
than a century, Arabs and Jews have been interacting in the
workplaces, residential areas, commercial enterprises, cultural
arenas and political theatres of mixed towns. Defying prevailing
Manichean oppositions, these towns both exemplify and resist the
forces of nationalist segregation. In this interdisciplinary
volume, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian scholars come
together to explore ways in which these towns have been perceived
as utopian or dystopian and whether they are best conceptualized as
divided, dual or colonial. Identifying ethnically mixed towns as a
historically specific analytic category, this volume calls for
further research, comparison and debate.
Modern urban spaces are, by definition, mixed socio-spatial
configurations. In many ways, their enduring success and vitality
lie in the richness of their ethnic texture and ongoing exchange of
economic goods, cultural practices, political ideas and social
movements. This mixture, however, is rarely harmonious and has
often led to violent conflict over land and identity. Focusing on
mixed towns in Israel/Palestine, this insightful volume theorizes
the relationship between modernity and nationalism and the social
dynamics which engender and characterize the growth of urban spaces
and the emergence therein of inter-communal relations. For more
than a century, Arabs and Jews have been interacting in the
workplaces, residential areas, commercial enterprises, cultural
arenas and political theatres of mixed towns. Defying prevailing
Manichean oppositions, these towns both exemplify and resist the
forces of nationalist segregation. In this interdisciplinary
volume, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian scholars come
together to explore ways in which these towns have been perceived
as utopian or dystopian and whether they are best conceptualized as
divided, dual or colonial. Identifying ethnically mixed towns as a
historically specific analytic category, this volume calls for
further research, comparison and debate.
"A fascinating work. Rabinowitz and Abu-Baker succeed not only in
challenging many basic assumptions and stereotypes about the
victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also in undermining much
of the public discourse on the Palestinian minority inside Israel.
An outstanding work of scholarship combining social science
research tools with [auto-] biographic intimacy." --Salim Tamari,
Director, The Institute of Jerusalem Studies
""Coffins on Our Shoulders" is a profound, worrying, and insightful
excursion into the lives and times of a new generation of young
Palestinians in Israel. This unusually impressive volume makes it
clear how deeply a politics of difference, mounted in the name of
collective entitlement, calls into question the limits of liberal
democracy. "--John L. Comaroff, Professor, University of Chicago,
Research Fellow, American Bar Foundation
""Coffins on our Shoulders "is an absorbing portrait of
contemporary life in Israel. Rabinowitz and Abu-Baker give us a
thoughtful, multi-vocal chronicle about Jewish majority, and
Palestinian minority relations in Israel."--Susan Slyomovics,
Professor of anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
and author of "The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the
Palestinian Village"
"Rabinowitz and Abu-Baker examine the making of a new generation of
Palestinians in Israel who are challenging the basic ideological
core of Israel as a self-defined Jewish state and redefining the
asymmetrical power configuration that governs the relationship
between the Jewish majority and the Palestinian minority within
Israel. This bifocal look, based on a very well-informed and
perceptive reading of the current scene in Israel, iscomplemented
by the personal narratives of the two authors, giving us an
illuminating and rare glimpse into the juxtaposed lives of real
people, across the divide."--Anton Shammas, professor of modern
Middle Eastern literature, University of Michigan
"The lucid sociological analysis of recent transformations in
patterns of political behavior and conceptions of self identity
among Israeli Palestinians becomes an opportunity for both authors
to reflect upon their own identity and personal history. The
juxtaposition of their two life stories, which have thrown them so
far apart yet kept them so close together, and the integration of
these stories into the theoretical analysis makes this book truly
moving and exceptional."--Adi Ophir, professor, The Cohn Institute
for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv
University
A sophisticated and engaging ethnographic account of the
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the first since the 1970s,
Overlooking Nazareth examines specific situations of friction,
conflict and co-operation in Natzerat Illit. This Israeli new town
is built on formerly Palestinian land, just outside the biblical
town of Nazareth, and has a population of 25,000 Jewish Israelis
and 3,500 Palestinians. Dr Rabinowitz has written widely on the
current political situation in Israel and has conducted extensive
fieldwork in Galilee, and he describes his study as a guided walk
along a border, a sketch of interfaces 'where the complex, often
paradoxical aspects of the border situation are negotiated and
acted out most vividly'. He highlights the extent to which
anti-Palestinian sentiments for which the town is known actually
reflect widespread views of most Israelis. This is a major
contribution to our understanding of the confrontation between
Israelis and Palestinians. It offers powerful critique of reflexive
anthropology and offers fresh insights into notions of ethnicity
and identity, nationalism and liberalism.
The Strashun Library was among the most important Jewish public
institutions in Vilna, and indeed in Eastern Europe, prior to its
destruction during World War II. Mattityahu Strashun, a man
descended from a long and distinguished line of rabbis, bequeathed
his extensive personal library of 5,753 volumes to the Vilna Jewish
community upon his death in 1885, with instructions that it remain
open to all. In the summer of 1941, the Nazis came to Vilna,
plundered the library, and shipped many of its books to Germany for
deposition at a future "Institute for the Study of the Jewish
Question." When the war ended, the recovery effort began. Against
all odds, a number of the greatest treasures of the library could
be traced. However, owing to its diverse holdings and its many
prewar patrons, a custody battle erupted over the remaining
holdings. Who should be heir to the Strashun Library? This book
tells the story of the Strashun Library from its inception through
the contentious battle for ownership following the war. Pursuant to
a settlement in 1958, the remnants of the greatest prewar library
in Europe were split between two major institutions: the secular
YIVO in the United States and the religious library of the Chief
Rabbinate in Israel, a compromise that struck at the heart of the
library's original unifying mission.
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