State Attitudes towards Palestinian Christians in a Jewish Ethnocracy

This thesis challenges the assumption of Israeli state bias in favour of its Palestinian Christian population. Using ethnocratic and control theories it argues instead that the Palestinian Christians are inextricably associated with the wider Arab “problem” and remain, as a result, permanently outside the boundaries of the dominant Jewish national consensus. Moreover, this thesis argues that state attitudes towards the small Palestinian Christian communities are quite unique and distinguishable from its attitudes towards other segments of the Palestinian Arab minority, whether Muslim or Druze. Despite being considered a relatively modern and secular community, its small size, weak electoral power, extensive external links and its central role in Palestinian Arab national politics have resulted in a basic level of ambivalence towards them on the part of the authorities. This is compounded by Jewish memories of Christian persecution in Europe which have come, to some extent, to be redirected at disconnected local Christian communities and churches. At the same time, the growth of Jewish religious politics in society and particularly within the Israeli political establishment has resulted in a noticeable rise in previous levels of anti-Christian religious antipathy. These factors have combined to produce a visible pattern in the manner in which the state engages with its Palestinian Christian citizens today. This thesis concludes through the use of recent case-studies and a series of semi-structured interviews that Israeli state attitudes towards its Palestinian Christian population are, in fact, best described as being based on indifference and neglect rather than on any other single factor

Higher Education under Siege: Attacking Spaces of Hope in Palestine

This paper examines attacks on higher education in Palestine through the lens of siege warfare. Focusing on attacks directed against Kadoorie campus in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, it argues that the combination of military, infrastructural, industrial and administrative tactics which have been used to isolate and enclose the campus; raid, injure, maim and kill people and animals; destroy property and key physical defences; degrade natural resources vital to its survival; disrupt university life and educational routines; and erode the physical and mental capacities of its students and staff over time, are not only illustrative of siege warfare but of ongoing and continuous attacks on Palestinian futures in the present. In so doing, this paper seeks to advance cross-disciplinary conversations on the spatial-temporal dynamics of modern siege warfare, and to draw more direct attention to the strategic confluence that exists between settler colonial violence and siege warfare in practice

The Practice of Siege Warfare: Reckoning with War, Genocide and Settler Colonialism in Palestine

This paper centers the practice of modern siege warfare in the study of war, genocide and settler colonialism. Identifying the siege as a form of totalizing warfare that is fundamentally colonial and genocidal in nature, it asks what new or alternative understandings of the genocidal war on Gaza might be revealed if we take the longer history of siege warfare in Palestine more seriously? Examining the role of the siege in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestine during the wars of 1947-49, it argues that siege warfare cannot be considered as “old” or “new,” “small” or primarily “urban” in nature, and that – then as now – it played, and continues to play, a key strategic role in escalating the eliminatory logic of settler-colonial projects. Building on recent scholarship that accepts the general hybridity of war and genocide, and which see attempts to distinguish “ethnic cleansing” from genocide as fundamentally misguided, this paper seeks to advance new directions in the study of war, genocide and settler colonialism by demonstrating how siege warfare is not only immanent to settler-colonial projects but is, like settler colonialism itself, inescapably genocidal

Preface

PREFACE These stories grew in the mind and in the many workings of the material, but often began from as little as the sound of a chainsaw working in the evening, an overheard conversation about the price of cattle, thistledown floating by the open doors of bars on Grafton Street on a warm autumn day, an old gold watch spilling out of a sheet where it had been hidden and forgotten about for years. Others began as different stories, only to be replaced by something completely unforeseen at th..

Comparative genetic diversity in a sample of pony breeds from the UK and North America:A case study in the conservation of global genetic resources

Most species exist as subdivided ex situ daughter population(s) derived from a single original group of individuals. Such subdivision occurs for many reasons both natural and manmade. Traditional British and Irish pony breeds were introduced to North America (U.S.A. and Canada) within the last 150 years, and subsequently equivalent breed societies were established. We have analyzed selected U.K. and North American equivalent pony populations as a case study for understanding the relationship between putative source and derived subpopulations. Diversity was measured using mitochondrial DNA and a panel of microsatellite markers. Genetic signatures differed between the North American subpopulations according to historical management processes. Founder effect and stochastic drift was apparent, particularly pronounced in some breeds, with evidence of admixture of imported mares of different North American breeds. This demonstrates the importance of analysis of subpopulations to facilitate understanding the genetic effects of past management practices and to lead to informed future conservation strategies