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This paper investigates the short and long-term pernicious impact of armed conflicts on education and educational agents (students, teachers and students' parents), using a multivocal review by means of the integration and qualitative analysis of 60 research reports (voices) found in two databases: Web of Science and PROQUEST in the period between 1995 -date of the first founding paper- until 2014. Through the analysis of source data (voices) and taking the "multivocal review" as a method, the voices have been combined in nine categories, namely: a) Refusal and impediments to a return to education; b) Educational infrastructure damaged or destroyed; c) Cuts in or withdrawal of spending on education; d) Loss of the educational and protective functions of the family; e) Loss of the academic community; f) Non-qualified teaching staff; g) Drastic loss of skills; h) Abandoning school (population movements, destruction of networks and social environment); i) Behavioural problems: traumas, pedagogical roles and self-victimization. These categories have highlighted the serious consequences arising from conflicts, infringing as they do the most basic human rights and in particular the right to a sound education during childhood.

The article discusses the author's research which explored the Palestinian refugee women's memories of home and exile, the effects of memory on identity and how women make use of these attributes to construct and enact resistance. Topics discussed include several key aspects of Palestinian identity, the recollection of life before 1948 and how women live at present in the inadequate camps of Lebanon and the West Bank where many of the refugees spent their entire lives.

Media framing of foreign conflicts determines the way in which the public and policy-makers perceive the causes, consequences and importance of those conflicts and where diplomatic and material resources are committed. Framing is manifested in, among other things, the amount of media coverage of a particular conflict and the language used to describe the actors and events in that conflict. The type of framing employed determines whether the public will empathize with one of the sides involved or feel detached from events taking place far from them. This article builds on earlier research on media framing through a study of two foreign conflicts that had a number of key similarities but were framed very differently. Framing is analysed through a comparison of New York Times coverage of army sieges of two Palestinian refugee camps: the first in the town of Jenin in theWest Bank in 2002 and the second in Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon in 2007. The research examines the depth of coverage and the language used to portray the context of events, the two armies, combatants within the camps, civilian casualties, damage to property and the effectiveness of the military operations. Analysis of differences in the reporting of these two conflicts expands on existing literature on media framing, discusses causes of inconsistent framing and elucidates the effect of framing on perceptions of reality in foreign conflict and the subsequent effect on policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's perspective on the Gaza war during the winter of 2008-2009. The discussion focuses on the political and military context of the war, especially the disengagement policy of Israel after 2005, Israel's initiatives regarding Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and the implications of these policies for the West Bank. Israel's war on Lebanon in 2006 is discussed. A strategy of deterrence based on targeting the civilian population instead of seeking victory on the battlefield is mentioned. The author says that the Gaza war achieved nothing and violated the laws of war.

The article considers the quality of education that Palestinian refugee children receive in UNRWA schools in the five areas of operation in which they are to be found, namely the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The challenges that UNRWA and its staff have to face are outlined in the context of the UNESCO definition of what constitutes ‘quality education.’ In this article the present and emerging challenges for UNRWA in delivering sound education are organised around four inter-related categories, namely ‘human resource issues’, ‘learning issues’, ‘systems issues’, and ‘physical infrastructure issues’. The claim is made that despite important achievements, there are important shortfalls and gaps in UNRWA services to Palestinian refugee children, and that UNRWA schools are losing ground increasingly in danger of lagging behind host countries. Reasons for this state of affairs are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors explored death obsession level and correlates among a sample ( N = 601) of Palestinians living in the city of Beit Jala, the village of Al-Khader, and the Aida refugee camp in the Bethlehem area. They live in war conditions; the houses of half of them have been demolished. The Death Obsession Scale (DOS) was administered. Its alpha reliability was .92, denoting high internal consistency. Among women, it yielded 1 factor, (General Death Obsession), whereas among men it yielded 3 factors: Death Rumination, Death Dominance, and Death Idea Repetition. Palestinian men and women attained significantly lower DOS mean scores than participants from 4 Arab countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, and Lebanon in 7 out of 8 comparisons. However, Palestinian women had significantly higher DOS mean score than their Spanish, American and British counterparts, whereas Palestinian men had significantly higher mean DOS score than Spanish peers. The low DOS scores of Palestinians, in proportion to other Arab samples, may reflect their adaptation to strife and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the current state of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon as of December 2005. Among the estimated 25,000 Palestinians who took refuge in Lebanon from the West Bank and Gaza after the 1967 war, there was a positive response to the Israeli evacuation of Gaza. Young Palestinians are having a hard time believing in a peace process that ignores refugees from Israel proper. These young Palestinians have started to rebel against the poverty of the camps. Palestinians in Lebanon are collectively unhappy and do not want to be settled where they are.

This article argues that securing water use and supply from the West Bank aquifers and from the Jordan River and its tributaries contributed to Israel `s decision to occupy the West Bank and the Golan Heights during the 1967 June War, and the security zone in south Lebanon during the 1978 invasion of Lebanon. There is overwhelming support for this argument, despite the varying levels of attribution with respect to its causality. In light of the increasingly intense competition for water resources in the Middle East, being clear about the historical contributors to these wars may help in speeding the successful completion of the negotiations over the Golan Heights, south Lebanon, and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]