Israel's Materialist Militarism

Israel's Materialist Militarism
Author: Yagil Levy
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780739119082

Israel's Materialist Militarism examines the decade of fluctuations in Israel's military policies, from the peace period of the Oslo Accords to the al-Aqsa Intifada, when the military's use of excessive force led to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and on to the Second Lebanon War of 2006, which reversed the moderating tendencies of the withdrawal from Gaza a year earlier. These dynamics of escalation and deescalation are explained in terms of materialist militarism, the exchange between social groups' military sacrifice and their social rewards, which in turn increases or decreases the level of militarism in society. Levy thus lays down a theoretical framework vital to tracing the fluctuating levels of militarism in Israel and elsewhere. Israel's Materialist Militarism is recommended for those interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict and military-society relations in general.

The Everyday Life of the State

The Everyday Life of the State
Author: Adam White
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2013-07-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0295804637

Today there are more states controlling more people than at any other point in history. We live in a world shaped by the authority of the state. Yet the complexion of state authority is patchy and uneven. While it is almost always possible to trace the formal rules governing human interaction to the statute books of one state or another, in reality the words in these books often have little bearing upon what is happening on the ground. Their meanings are intentionally and unintentionally misrepresented by those who are supposed to enforce them and by those who are supposed to obey them, generating a range of competing authorities, voices, and allegiances. The Everyday Life of the State explores this "everyday" transformation of state authority into multiple scripts, narratives, and political activities. Drawing upon case studies from across the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, the chapters in this book investigate the many ways in which those subjects traditionally regarded as being weak, passive, and obedient manage not only to resist the authority of state actors but to actively subvert and appropriate it, in the process making, unmaking, and remaking the boundaries between state and society over and over again. Collectively, these chapters make an important contribution to the expanding literature on "everyday politics." The "state in society" concept used in this volume has been developed by political scientist Joel S. Migdal, the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Wielding Nonviolence in the Midst of Violence

Wielding Nonviolence in the Midst of Violence
Author: Ellen Furnari (editor)
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3837096513

Unarmed civilian peacekeeping or protection (UCP) is a generic term that gives recognition to a wide range of activities by unarmed civilians to reduce violence and protect civilians in situations of violent conflict. There are many non-governmental as well as governmental organisations that engage in UCP, using a variety of methods and approaches. This study examines UCP in four conflict-affected regions: Colombia, Mindanao (Philippines), Palestine/Israel, and South Sudan. It focuses on what is emerging as good practice in these varied contexts and whether any commonalities can inform the expanded use of UCP.

The Israeli Peace Movement

The Israeli Peace Movement
Author: Tamar S. Hermann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2009-09-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139483447

This book discusses the predicament of the Israeli peace movement, which, paradoxically, following the launching of the Oslo peace process between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993, experienced a prolonged, fatal decline in membership, activity, political significance, and media visibility. After presenting the regional and national background to the launching of the peace process and a short history of Israeli peace activism, the book focuses on external and internal processes and interactions experienced by the peace movement, after some basic postulates of its agenda were actually, although never explicitly, embraced by the Rabin government. The book concludes that, despite its organizational decline and the zero credit given to it by the policy makers, in retrospect it appears that the movement contributed significantly to the integration of new ideas for possible solutions to the Middle East conflict in the Israeli mainstream political discourse.

Sustaining Conflict

Sustaining Conflict
Author: Katherine Natanel
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2016-03-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520285263

Sustaining Conflict develops a groundbreaking theory of political apathy, using a combination of ethnographic material, narrative, and political, cultural, and feminist theory. It examines how the status quo is maintained in Israel-Palestine, even by the activities of Jewish Israelis who are working against the occupation of Palestinian territories. The book shows how hierarchies and fault lines in Israeli politics lead to fragmentation, and how even oppositional power becomes routine over time. Most importantly, the book exposes how the occupation is sustained through a carefully crafted system that allows sympathetic Israelis to “knowingly not know,” further disconnecting them from the plight of Palestinians. While focusing on Israel, this is a book that has lessons for how any authoritarian regime is sustained through apathy.

Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance

Trust and Transparency in an Age of Surveillance
Author: Lora Anne Viola
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000488446

Investigating the theoretical and empirical relationships between transparency and trust in the context of surveillance, this volume argues that neither transparency nor trust provides a simple and self-evident path for mitigating the negative political and social consequences of state surveillance practices. Dominant in both the scholarly literature and public debate is the conviction that transparency can promote better-informed decisions, provide greater oversight, and restore trust damaged by the secrecy of surveillance. The contributions to this volume challenge this conventional wisdom by considering how relations of trust and policies of transparency are modulated by underlying power asymmetries, sociohistorical legacies, economic structures, and institutional constraints. They study trust and transparency as embedded in specific sociopolitical contexts to show how, under certain conditions, transparency can become a tool of social control that erodes trust, while mistrust—rather than trust—can sometimes offer the most promising approach to safeguarding rights and freedom in an age of surveillance. The first book addressing the interrelationship of trust, transparency, and surveillance practices, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students of surveillance studies as well as appeal to an interdisciplinary audience given the contributions from political science, sociology, philosophy, law, and civil society. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Language and Identity in the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Language and Identity in the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Author: Camelia Suleiman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2011-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857720368

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is, and remains to be, one of the most widely- and passionately-debated issues in the Middle East and in the field of international politics. An important part of this conflict is the dimension of self-perception of both Israelis and Palestinians caught up in its midst. Here, Camelia Suleiman, using her background in linguistic analysis, examines the interplay of language and identity, feminism and nationalism, and how the concepts of spatial and temporal boundaries affect self-perception. She does this through interviews with peace activists from a variety of backgrounds: Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, Jewish Israelis, as well as Palestinians from Ramallah, officially holders of Jordanian passports. By emphasizing the importance of these levels of official identity, Suleiman explores how self-perception is influenced, negotiated and manifested, and how place of birth and residence play a major role in this conflict. This book therefore holds vital first-hand analysis of the conflict and its impact upon both Israelis and Palestinians, making it crucial for anyone involved in Middle East Studies, Conflict Studies and International Relations.

Struggling for a Just Peace

Struggling for a Just Peace
Author: Maia Carter Hallward
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2011-08-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 081304071X

Almost invisibly, numerous activists are presently engaged in ongoing, nonviolent efforts to build peace and bring about an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Beginning in 2004, after the mainstream peace movement collapsed, Maia Hallward spent most of a year observing the work of seven such groups on both sides of the conflict. She returned in 2008 to examine the progress they had made in working for a just and lasting peace. Although small, these grassroots organizations provide valuable lessons regarding how peacebuilding takes place in times of ongoing animosity and violence. By raising awareness of these groups’ existence, Hallward provides a much richer investigation of available options for peacemaking in Israel, which is otherwise dominated by violence and armed strategies. Challenging the official diplomatic presumption that peace is about working out lines on a map, she relocates the question into social, cultural, political, and geographic contexts that affect people’s daily lives. In the end, Struggling for a Just Peace offers a critical look at the realities on the ground, focusing on what has been successful for groups engaged in working for peace in times of conflict and how they have adapted to changing circumstances.

The Weaponized Camera in the Middle East

The Weaponized Camera in the Middle East
Author: Liat Berdugo
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2021-01-14
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1838602739

Drawing on unprecedented access to the video archives of B'Tselem, an Israeli NGO that distributes cameras to Palestinians living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, Liat Berdugo lays out an argument for a visual studies approach to videographic evidence in Israel/Palestine. Using video stills as core material, it discusses the politics of videographic evidence in Israel/Palestine by demonstrating that the conflict is one that has produced an inequality of visual rights. The book highlights visual surveillance and counter surveillance at the citizen level, how Palestinians originally filmed to “shoot back” at Israelis, who were armed with shooting power via weapons as the occupying force. It also traces how Israeli private citizens began filming back at Palestinians with their own cameras, including personal cell phone cameras, thus creating a simultaneous, echoing counter surveillance. Complicating the notion that visual evidence alone can secure justice, the Weaponized Camera in The Middle East asks how what is seen, but also who is seeing, affects how conflicts are visually recorded. Drawing on over 5,000 hours of footage, only a fraction of which is easily accessible to the public domain, this book offers a unique perspective on the strategies and battlegrounds of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Issues in Sociology and Social Work Research and Application: 2013 Edition

Issues in Sociology and Social Work Research and Application: 2013 Edition
Author:
Publisher: ScholarlyEditions
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1490110771

Issues in Sociology and Social Work Research and Application: 2013 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ book that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Social Work. The editors have built Issues in Sociology and Social Work Research and Application: 2013 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Social Work in this book to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Sociology and Social Work Research and Application: 2013 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.