Middle East
It is not only since the events of the last few months that the Middle East has become a point of convergence for political configurations both on the local and the global level. For decades, the region has been a geographical focus that is not only a test case for international relations and globally strategic coexistence within a restricted space, but also has a strong determining influence on the relationships and clashes between different cultures.
The springerin »Middle East« issue is devoted to this cultural level or, to put it better, to the variety of cultural spin-offs and facets of a conflict that seems increasingly hopeless. Its main emphases include media analyses, such as Ariella Azoulay's examination of reporting methods in Israeli newspapers, and personal accounts, like the one Ainatte Inbal has written about her daily life and experiences as an activist in Tel Aviv. Artists and other creative people from the region also get a chance to speak, such as the Palestinian film directors Rashid Masharawi and Elia Suleiman, who in their most recent works have once more addressed the political situation in the Palestinian territories. For some time now, the artist couple Paola Yacoub and Michel Lasserre has been documenting the border area between Lebanon and Israel, which is becoming increasingly poverty-stricken as a result of various wars, and the Atlas Group has also been exploring the painful cultural aftermath of the war in Lebanon in its archive, excerpts from which are presented here. A round-table discussion held by Lebanese intellectuals on the complex history and political position of the Palestinians in the region amplifies this by providing »involved points of view« from a country directing bordering on the conflict. In Ella Shohat's article on specific migratory experiences, she shows the complexity and splits within the Israeli-Arab identity, while Noah Chasin counterpoints this in his essay by observing how the American intelligentsia, for one, still display a complete lack of comprehension in the face of the Middle East conflict.
The »Middle East« issue also contains contributions by and about some of the participants in this year's »documenta«: Fareed Armaly, Rashid Masharawi, Walid Ra'ad, Andreas Siekmann and James Coleman.