Khamsin no.6 (1978): Women in the Arab World
Editorial
Critical marxist evaluation of women's situation in the Middle East is almost non-existent... In this issue of Khamsin we make an attempt to remedy these deficiencies.
Nigel Disney
The members of the Khamsin collective announce with deeply-felt grief the sudden death of Nigel Disney, a dedicated member of our collective. Nigel, born in Nottingham, died at the age of 26 on the 24 June 1978 in a London hospital.
Women and politics in Lebanon – Yolla Polity Sharara
Article by a Lebanese woman describing the position of women in both Muslim and Christian communities as the country slid into civil war.
Changes in Palestinian society – Ehud Ein Gil and Aryeh Finkelstein
A look at the changes in Palestinian society since the beginning of zionist expansion in the region and its affect on the position of women.
Arab Women – Magida Salman (Mai Ghoussoub)
Legislation dealing with marriage, divorce, and the status of women (inferior in all cases) is still based on, or directly inspired by, Koranic law in all the Arab-Islamic states. What role is played by Islam, what is its influence, and how is it used in the oppression of Arab women.
Zionism and its scarecrows ‒ Moshé Machover and Mario Offenberg
This article aims to show how the objective and subjective henchmen of Zionism in the West, in their attempt to fluster the critics of Zionism, present ‘leftist’-tinged arguments in support of the Israeli state, but especially directed against its Jewish opponents of the anti-Zionist socialist movement inside Israel.
National formation in the Arab region: a critique of Samir Amin ‒ Mohammad Ja’far [Kanan Makiya]
Text criticising Samir Amin's view on the formation of Arab nations, analysing from a Marxist perspective the construction of Arab nationalism, Islam and the need for working class internationalism in the Middle-East.
Israel and the new order in the Middle East ‒ Moshe Machover
A powerful and confident Israel is an essential linchpin in the new American hegemonic structure in the Middle East. American policy must therefore heed the very deep-seated zionist rejection of the idea of creating even a small Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan.
Ideology without revolution: Jewish women in Israel ‒ Dina Hecht and Nira Yuval-Davis
The myth of the supposed liberation and equality of Israeli women, while perhaps gratifying a deep-seated need for feminists in search of identity, cajoles most Israeli women into a state of spirited resignation – content with a public image that bears little or no resemblance to their actual situation.
Book review: The Palestinian Arab National Movement ‒ Musa Budeiri
Yehoshua Porath of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has written what will undoubtedly become the standard reference work of the history of the Palestinian national movement, and deservedly so: this despite the fact that at times he seems unable to free himself from his political prejudices, and abdicates his professed role of detached historian to don the mantle of the partisan adversary.
Reply to Ja’far ‒ Salim Tamari
Salim Tamari responds to Mohammed Ja'far's article on the PLO and the Palestinian national liberation movement: Only in the occupied territories (and Israel) do Palestinians have a 'proper' (though dislocated) and differentiated class structure. But there all forms of class consciousness are being submerged by the realities of national oppression in the daily confrontation with the occupier.