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The paper traces the origin of the Middle East conflict and discusses the gradual evolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict from a historical perspective. The paper discusses the peace negotiations undertaken for the region during different periods and the contribution of the international community in reaching a compromise formula. The paper discusses the emergence and the role of Hamas and how it gained political legitimacy. The paper concludes with the views of Israel and India perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the gap between Jewish and Arab students in Israel in the context of learning in informal environments. I attempted to understand whether the difference is a matter of inequity in terms of resource allocation and opportunities provided to the schools. I present the socio-historical-political context and the current situation, based on formal documents. To gain an insiders' views, I interviewed five Arab science educators and an Arab superintendent. These conversations highlighted the cultural aspect of the gap and a cultural change toward integrating more learning opportunities in out-of-school environments. Using Gutiérrez and Rogoff (2003), rather than taking a deficit view, repertoires of practice is suggested to understand differences. Several implications relevant to other places where different cultural groups live and where educational and social practices affect the ways people use out-of-school time and resources are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Arab ethnic minority makes up 21% of Israel's population, yet comprised just 8.8% of confirmed cases and 3.6% of deaths from COVID-19, despite their higher risk profile and greater burden of underlying illness. This paper presents differences in patterns of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in the Arab, ultra-Orthodox and overall populations in Israel, and suggests possible reasons for the low rates of infection in the Arab population. Methods: Data were obtained from the Israeli Ministry of Health's (MOH) open COVID-19 database, which includes information on 1270 localities and is updated daily. The database contains the number of COVID-19 diagnostic tests performed, the number of confirmed cases and deaths in Israel. Results: In the first 4 months of Israel's COVID-19 outbreak, just 2060 cases were confirmed in the Arab population, comprising 8.8% of the 23,345 confirmed cases, or 2.38 times less than would be expected relative to the population size. In contrast, the ultra-Orthodox made up 30.1% of confirmed cases yet just 10.1% of the population. Confirmed case rate per 100,000 was twice as high in the general Jewish population compared to the Arab population. The Arab mortality rate was 0.57 per 100,000, compared to 3.37 in the overall population, and to 7.26 in the ultra-Orthodox community. We discuss possible reasons for this low morbidity and mortality including less use of nursing homes, and effective leadership which led to early closure of mosques and high adherence to social distancing measures, even during the month of Ramadan. Conclusions: Despite a disproportionate burden of underlying illness, the Arab population did not fulfil initial predictions during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and maintained low numbers of infections and deaths. This contrasts with reports of increased mortality in ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged populations in other countries, and with high rates of infection in the ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel. Effective leadership and cooperation between individuals and institutions, particularly engagement of community and religious leaders, can reduce a group's vulnerability and build resilience in an emergency situation such as the current pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reflects on works chosen from the Sonnenfeld Collection at the Katzen Gallery at American University in Washington, DC—it originally accompanied an exhibition at that gallery in early 2021—to comment on the observations of several generations of Israeli artists on the land and its meaning for the culture and politics of Israel's coming into existence and evolution during the first 70 years of its existence. Beginning with a pair of photographs of pioneers in the land in the fifteen years before statehood—and conceptually re-purposed by a contemporary Israeli artist in 2008—and moving through decade after decade of engagement with the landscape of Israel in both figurative and abstract modes, with and without humans present within these contexts, veering from brightly colored to virtually colorless images, including paintings and photographs, the essay traces a distance between earlier assertions of presence and the gradual emergence of questions regarding presence, absence, and identity. Israel, in its internal development, is both visually and thus verbally interwoven with the issue of its external relationship with its immediate neighbors and to the shifts between what comprises "internal" and "external"—"this" and "other"—as the context has metamorphosized from the 1930s to the 1950s to 1967 to 1993 to 2000 and to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Israel's containment of the first wave of Covid-19 was relatively successful. Soon afterwards, however, in the summer months, a harsher pandemic wave developed, resulting in many more seriously ill and dead Israelis. Israel was the world's first country to impose a second general lockdown. The present study outlines the early months of Israel's second pandemic wave, until the imposition of the second general lockdown, and their impact on various communities. The investigation is conducted in conjunction with five sociodemographic variables: population density, socioeconomic status, rate of elderly population, minority status (Jewish / Arab identity) and religiosity (Ultra-Orthodox vs. other Jewish communities). Methods: The analysis is based on a cross sectional study of morbidity rates, investigated on a residential community basis. Following the descriptive statistics, we move on to present a multivariate analysis to explore associations between the five aforementioned sociodemographic variables and Covid-19 morbidity in Israel in the early second pandemic wave vs. the first Covid-19 outbreak. Results: Both the descriptive statistics and regressions show morbidity rates to be significantly and positively associated with communities' population density and significantly and negatively associated with socioeconomic status (SES) and the size of elderly population. These results differ from Wave I morbidity, which was not significantly associated with SES. Another difference vis-a-vis Wave I is the rise of morbidity in Arab communities that led to the disappearance of the previously observed significant negative association of morbidity with minority (Arab) status. Exceptional morbidity was found in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities. Conclusion: The second wave of Covid-19 in Israel has profoundly affected marginalized communities characterized by high residential density, low SES and minority status. Other marginalized and disempowered communities have also been badly hit. While acknowledging the potential contribution of various possible causes, we highlight the policy response of Israel's government during the early weeks of the second Covid-19 outbreak, suggesting that the severe second wave might possibly be associated with belated, undecided government response during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit Israel in late February 2020. The present study examines patterns of the first wave of Covid-19 morbidity in Israel at the macro level, during the period of late February to early June 2020, when the first wave has faded out. The analysis focuses on the significance of four sociodemographic variables: socioeconomic status, population density, rate of elderly population and minority status (Jewish / Arab identity) of the population in cities with 5000 residents or more. Additionally, we take a closer look into the association between morbidity rates and one SES component – home Internet access. Methods: The article is a cross sectional study of morbidity rates, investigated on a residential community basis. Following the descriptive statistics, we move on to present multivariate analysis to explore associations between these variables and Covid-19 morbidity in Israel. Results: Both the descriptive statistics and regressions show morbidity rates to be positively associated with population density. Socioeconomic status as well as the size of elderly population were both significantly related to morbidity, but only in Jewish communities. Interestingly, the association was inverse in both cases. i.e., the higher the SES the lower the morbidity and the larger the elderly population, the lower the community's morbidity. Another interesting result is that overall, morbidity rates in Jewish cities were consistently higher than in Arab communities. Conclusions: We attribute the low morbidity rates in communities with relatively small elderly populations to the exceptionally high fertility rates in ultra-orthodox communities that sustained increased rates of morbidity; the lower morbidity in Arab communities is attributed to several factors, including the spatial Jewish-Arab segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of Israel's declared permanent state of exception, this article focuses on the legal protection awarded to the Palestinian populations under Israeli control. To broaden the discussion over Palestinian people's rights, which generally focuses on the confiscation of land and the right to return, the author consciously focuses on anti-terrorism and security measures, which contribute to the creation of what the International Court of Justice has defined as an 'associated regime' of occupation. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author discusses Israel's domestic obligations towards Palestinians (arguing the case of both Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Palestinian residents) and their de jure and de facto discrimination. The second part discusses the applicability of humanitarian law, specifically the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This section discusses the applicability of the Convention to both territories and people under Israeli control. The third part discusses the applicability of international human rights law to all territories under Israeli control and delves into the issue of the mutual relationship between the two international legal regimes in the territories under occupation. The article posits that Israel's rationale for the non-applicability of such legislation to the Palestinian territories and populations it controls constitutes a form of 'alternative legality'. The article concludes that Israel's disproportionate application of security practices and anti-terrorism measures to the Palestinian segment of its population violates Palestinian rights protected under Israel's domestic and international legal obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Extreme and acquiescence biases are the tendency to give a positive or extreme answer regardless of the ‘true’ answer. These biases may compromise comparisons of attitudes regarding health between population groups. The aim of the study was to measure the extent of extreme and acquiescence biases and identify factors associated with them in two ethnic groups: Jews and Arabs in Israel. Methods: A random telephone survey was conducted during 2006, interviewing 2322 Jews and 809 Arabs. Three attitude questions were presented twice with opposite wording to measure extreme and acquiescence biases in these two groups. Results: Extreme bias ranged from 2 to 14% among Jews and from 6 to 29% among Arabs, depending on the question. Acquiescence bias ranged from 2 to 10% among Jews and 5–19% among Arabs. The less educated respondents gave more extreme biased responses for all items. The older respondents gave more extreme answers for two out of the three questions tested. After adjusting for age and education the odds ratio (OR) of giving more extreme biased answers was higher among Arabs compared with Jews for all three questions [OR = 2.49, confidence interval (CI) = 1.87, 3.31; OR = 2.33, CI = 1.75, 3.10; and OR = 2.94, CI = 1.83–4.71, respectively, for each question]. Conclusions: Levels of response biases are higher in the Arab minority population compared with the majority Jewish population and depended on the subject, age and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]