April-May Edition of The Middle East in London Hits Newsstands
4 April 2012
The April-May Edition of The Middle East in London, the bi-monthly magazine of the London Middle East Institute, is now available.
The magazine is a leading resource on Middle Eastern communities in London. It includes event, film and book reviews, as well as original articles on cultural, political, economic and other issues that affect these communities.
This issue of the magazine marks the launch of LMEI’s new Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS). The Centre was inaugurated on March 1 as an institutional home for the broad range of work on Palestine and the Palestinians that has long been done at SOAS, and brings together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines.
Most of the articles published here have been contributed by members of the CPS, addressing topics related to their areas of expertise, including Politics, International Relations, History, Development Studies, Economics, Media and Film Studies, Anthropology and Art.
The establishment of the CPS has been widely welcomed. Some of the reasons why are touched on by Haim Bresheeth in his historical reflections opposite. Speakers at the inaugural event also noted the importance of Palestine Studies to understanding the contemporary Middle East, given the Palestine question’s complexity and impact on countries throughout the region.
It has become something of a fad over the past year – in political and media if not academic circles – to talk down the relevance of Palestine and the conflict with Israel to the politics and societies of the Middle East. Pundits assert that the Arab uprisings show that these issues no longer matter to the Arab peoples, and if they ever did it was because dictators and demagogues invoked them.
Clearly, this assertion has more to do with wishful thinking than realities on the ground. The wish that the Palestinians and their cause would simply go away is hardly new. Disengagement from the politics of the region has long been seen as key to compelling the Palestinians to accept their ordained fate.
Yet even when not in the headlines, Palestine continues to impose itself on the issues that are – the ongoing crisis in Syria, for example, or the West’s showdown with Iran. And it is by no means immune to the dynamics of change in the Arab world. These have only just begun to make their effect felt on the Palestinians’ politics, and to open up new possibilities and choices to them as a people – whether currently categorised as West Bank or Gaza Strip residents, Jerusalem ID-holders, citizens of Israel, refugees in the neighbouring states, or members of the Arab and worldwide diaspora.
Information about the Centre for Palestine Studies can be obtained at http://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps/ or by contacting LMEI on Tel: 020 7898 4330 or E-mail: lmei@soas.ac.uk
