In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The two-way rocket salvos into and from Gaza feels like a tedious repetition of tragedies past. The world has seen this before, and tragically we will probably see it again in the not… Read more »
Author: Jørgen Jensehaugen
The Politics of Refugee Relief: UNRWA and the Ongoing Funding Crisis
On 9 November 2020 Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, tweeted: “I am pained to announce that despite all efforts to raise the resources for @UNRWA 2020, I informed our 28,000 staff that we do not have enough funds to pay their salaries in full this month”. This is a desperate situation for the… Read more »
Pompeo and the Two-State Swan Song
On 19 November 2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo became the most senior US politician to officially visit an Israeli settlement on the occupied West Bank. This visit, and his ensuing statement that products from Israeli settlements can be labeled as “Made in Israel”, mark the swan song of US support for the two-state… Read more »
What a Biden Presidency Could Mean for the Middle East
With a winner finally announced in the US election, researchers at the PRIO Middle East Centre present a few thoughts on what a Biden presidency could mean for the Middle East. What are likely to be the guiding foreign policy principles of a Biden administration and how will regional and international actors’ positions be impacted?… Read more »
From Moria to the UN Security Council: Norwegian Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy Ambitions
The fire at the Moria camp underlines the depth of the crisis in the international system intended to protect people fleeing their home countries. Under the Refugee Convention, people in need of asylum must be given the opportunity to apply for it. The fundamental flaws in this system weighs heavily on the international community and… Read more »
Responding to Peer Review as an Early Career Scholar
This week, PRIO is posting a series of blogs to mark Peer Review Week 2020. In today’s blog, Jørgen Jensehaugen draws on his own experience as an author, editor and reviewer to provide some advice to early career researchers in how to deal with peer review, highlighting challenges that can afflict early career researchers in… Read more »
What should the world do about Israel’s proposed annexation of the West Bank?
Will Palestinians living in the annexed areas be offered Israeli citizenship, or will they become non-citizens within Israel?
Making a Regional Peacemaker
On March 3 the PRIO-CSS Jordan seminar, “Preserving Spaces for Dialogue in the Middle East”, was situated by the shore of the Dead Sea. The view was both beautiful and thematically fitting, because while most people associate the Dead Sea with a rather exotic seaside tourist destination, and the Kingdom of Jordan with being a… Read more »
Trump calls, Israel answers
On Thursday President Trump made the unprecedented move to use a foreign power to punish domestic political actors. He tweeted that Israel should bar two congresswomen from entering the country. Prior to this tweet Prime Minister Netanyahu had decided that the congresswomen should be allowed to enter, but after the tweet he changed his mind…. Read more »
Israel and the UN – a Relationship on Israel’s Terms
It is claimed that the UN created Israel. This is only true subject to major reservations, and the relationship between the two is extremely complicated. On 14 May 2018, Israel celebrated its 70th anniversary, and in May this year it will be 70 years since the country became a member of the United Nations. These… Read more »