O conceito de cidade internacional aplicado à Jerusalém: questões históricas e correntes

Como parte do Plano da Organização das Nações Unidas para Partilha da Palestina, Jerusalém se tornou uma cidade internacional em 1947, sendo eventualmente anexada por israelenses. A iniciativa de Trump, em seu primeiro ano de governo, de mudar a embaixada dos Estados Unidos em Israel, de Tel Aviv para Jerusalém, não apenas agravou o conflito árabe-israelense que se mantém desde o Plano da ONU, como também deu início a uma disputa acerca da legalidade da decisão à luz do Direito Internacional, inclusive, diante da Corte Internacional de Justiça, especialmente, em função do statusde Jerusalém. Nesse passo, visando apontar a ilegalidade nas ações de Trump e seus impactos na condição de corpus separatum de Jerusalém é que se desenvolve a presente pesquisa. Entende-se que, por meio da Convenção de Viena sobre Relações Diplomáticas, a transferência estadunidense então almejada é ilegal visto que Jerusalém não pertence oficialmente a algum Estado. Apesar disso, consoante o histórico da região, nota-se que o direito internacional e suas instituições mostram-se enquanto verdadeiras ferramentas de dominação dos países centrais, como os EUA, incentivando a adoção de medidas semelhantes por Estados periféricos. Portanto, a partir deste estudo, conclui-se que não apenas o governo Trump agiu de forma ilegal, como contribuiu para desestabilizar as frágeis relações entre Israel e Palestina. Ademais, que mesmo após a sua saída, a situação permanece inalterada pelo que se observa do governo de Joe Biden, porquanto as políticas segregacionistas do governo israelense contra palestinos persistem sendo apoiadas, sendo possível afirmar que Trump deixa como legado a impossibilidade de um processo de paz benéfico para ambas as partes no Oriente Médio.

Donald Trump y Jimmy Morales

En el otoño de 2015, un año antes de que Donald Trump se convirtiera en el presidente de Estados Unidos, Jimmy Morales, un cristiano evangélico, ganó las elecciones presidenciales en Guatemala. Este artículo examina el activismo político-religioso, las redes transnacionalmente activas y el impacto de la derecha cristiana entre los dos países. Además, se analiza la influencia del sionismo cristiano dentro de este activismo y estas redes. Tres ejemplos sirven para ilustrar las complejidades en juego. Primero, se analiza el impacto de la “Mexico City Policy” en Guatemala, una directiva estadounidense también llamada por sus críticos “ley Mordaza Global”. El segundo ejemplo aborda la Iniciativa 5272, que busca aprobar la “Ley Para la Protección de la Vida y la Familia”. El tercer ejemplo abarca la decisión de Morales de trasladar la embajada guatemalteca de Tel Aviv a Jerusalén, poco después de que los Estados Unidos lo hiciera. El artículo concluye que con las administraciones Trump y Morales la separación Iglesia-Estado se disuelve y la llamada “guerra cultural” es introducida en el ámbito político y legislativo a través de actores evangélicos en ambos países, un fenómeno que significa graves retrocesos para los derechos humanos, especialmente para las mujeres y las personas LGTBQIA+.

Hasidic Leaders in the Streets of Tel Aviv, 1940-1965

From the late thirties to the mid-sixties of the twentieth century, Tel Aviv was the seat of dozens of Hasidic courts creating Hasidic precincts in the southern and central parts of the city. The article explores the reason for the Hasidic leaders’ choice to settle in the city with their followers and offers a glimpse of their courts. Hasidic communities distributed throughout the city filled the streets of Tel Aviv with a Hasidic atmosphere. Daily life brought different segments of the population into frequent contact, and generated a unique inter-sectoral mosaic, primarily around special calendar occasions. In the early sixties, the Haredi community in Bnei Brak began to expand and establish educational institutions for the Litvishe and Hasidic communities. As a result, Haredi and Hasidic families slowly moved away from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak. This trend led, inter alia, to the transfer of several Hasidic courts to Bnei Brak and Jerusalem during the sixties and seventies. The article concludes with a discussion of the diverse reasons for the departure of the Hasidic courts from Tel Aviv and addresses the impact of various processes on Haredi society in the course of the second half of the twentieth century.

The Sephardic Labor Organization and the Status of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the Yishuv

The article discusses the Sephardic Labor Organization in Palestine which was active from 1940 through 1946 as the roof organization of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Tel Aviv and the Organization of Sephardi and Oriental Workers in Jerusalem. The aim of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Palestine as a whole and in particular, of the Sephardic Labor Organization in Tel Aviv was to improve the economic conditions of Sephardi and Mizrahi workers and to enhance their social and political status in the Yishuv. These activities reflect the status of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews as a hybrid group on the socioeconomic border between the Jews and Arabs of Mandatory Palestine. The article explores the processes which led to the establishment of Sephardi labor organizations, and which manifest the connection between patterns of employment and standard of living, and between ethnic identity and social status.

The U.S. Factor in Sino-Israeli and Indian-Israeli Relations

The article analyses the US influence on Israeli policy towards both China and India. The United States has had and still has a significant influence on the dynamics of Israeli-Chinese and Israeli-Indian relations. The relevance of the issue stems from the growing importance of China and India in the world affairs amid rising tensions between the US and China that are spilling into a trade war. The article aims to explore the US influence on Israels policy in Asia. It examines the way how the Israeli leadership has adapted to Washingtons influence while promoting its strategic cooperation with China and India. The study comprises historical method, comparative analysis and historical-systematic analysis. The author comes to the following conclusions. First, Washingtons influence on Sino-Israeli relations has gone through five development stages: the first stage (1971-1989): implicit US support for the development of Sino-Israeli relations; the second stage (1990-1998): American criticism of military and technical cooperation between Israel and China; the third stage (1999-2005): Washingtons shift from criticism to pressure policy in order to prevent the Israeli leadership from military cooperation with China; the fourth stage (2006-2016): Israels acceptance of US demands and refusal to supply arms to Beijing (with Tel Aviv focusing on the development of trade and economic relations with China); the fifth stage (2017 - present): U.S. criticism of Israeli-Chinese economic cooperation amid worsening contacts between Beijing and Washington. The Israeli government is trying to meet Washingtons demands as well as preserve its strategic economic relations with Beijing. Second, the US factor, on the contrary, contributed to normalization of Indian-Israeli relations, having a positive impact on the development of trade, economic and military cooperation between Tel Aviv and New Delhi. Third, the US actions can be explained by an attempt to preserve its national interests. At the same time, the author stresses that the US influence on Israels policy in Asia complies with Washingtons regional priorities set forth in the 2017 US National Security Strategy.

“Place Making” and “Place Attachment” as Key Concepts in Understanding and Confronting Contemporary Urban Evictions: The Case of Givat-Amal, Tel Aviv

This article expands on the usability of the concepts of “place making” and “place attachment” as recently developed in urban studies research in the context of housing insecurity of marginalized communities in today’s neo-liberal city. Particularly, against the growing threat of urban evictions, the article utilizes a transdisciplinary approach, showing the relevance of both concepts for (a) a better understanding of bottom-up processes of spatial production and attempts to create a sense of place on the part of such communities, and (b) offering an innovative legal strategy for doing justice to these communities in terms of their compensation rights, especially where a title to land has not been registered on a private basis. These issues are critically examined on the site-related case of the Givat-Amal quarter in Tel Aviv, Israel. This district is now under actual final threat of forced evictions following seven conflicted decades with the state, municipal authorities and private entrepreneurs. Our transdisciplinary study is based on qualitative methodologies in human geography such as fieldwork, visual evidence, and interviews, with a glimpse into philosophy. It is equally based on revisiting “traditional” legal property rights through the lens of post-liberal human rights analysis. The argument can apply to many situations of forced evictions across Africa, Latin America, and the West itself.

Book Reviews

Ouzi Elyada, Hebrew Popular Journalism: Birth and Development in Ottoman Palestine (London: Routledge, 2019), 318 pp. Paperback, $50.00.Yusri Khaizran and Muhammad Khlaile, Left to Its Fate: Arab Society in Israel under the Shadow of the “Arab Spring” (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2019), 226 pp. Paperback [Hebrew], NIS 50.