My two books about Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are now both out in paperback!
A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Cambridge UP):
Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Islamist Writings (I. B. Tauris):
You do not need a PhD in Middle Eastern studies to identify and denounce injustice. What is happening now in Palestine is the result of decades of occupation, deprivation, and oppression of the Palestinians.
I would highly recommend the following books if you want to learn more about Hamas, its history, and its ideology:
1. I think Jeroen Gunning’s Hamas in Politics is one of, if not the, best book about the movement.
[THREAD] I am delighted to announce my two forthcoming books: A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Faith, Awareness, and Revolution in the Middle East (
@CambridgeUP
) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Islamist Writings on Resistance and Religion (
@ibtauris
).
Journalists have asked about Palestinian Islamic Jihad and what future state it envisions. Incidentally, I have written an (open access) article comparing the political theory of Fathi al-Shiqaqi (PIJ) and Jamal Mansur (Hamas):
It is normal for Hamas and Islamic Jihad to refer to their fighters killed in regular action as “martyrdom seekers” (استشهادي). It does not require a suicide bombing. In many martyr biographies, they are referred to as both martyrdom seeker and martyr (شهيد).
1) To my knowledge, yesterday's "martyrdom" operation on Gaza City's Rantisi Hospital would be the first suicide bombing (SB) attack by Hamas or other Palestinian terrorist groups since 15 years.🧵
🚨(open access) publication alert🚨
My article “Texts or Praxes: How Do We Best Understand Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad After October 7?” has finally been published by CTC Sentinel!
A short 🧵🧵
I am delighted to say that my book A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
) will be published tomorrow! Preorder it here (or just order it tomorrow):
And if you want to learn a little bit about Hamas from the perspective of its “little sister” Palestinian Islamic Jihad, why not check out my own book: A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad?
So very honored to receive the Palestine Book Awards (
@palestineawards
) for my book A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
)! My sincere gratitude to the judges and to Eugene Rogan who was a wonderful moderator.
My two books on Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) are now both out for sale!
A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
):
Palestinian Islamic Jihad: Islamist Writings (
@ibtauris
):
Short🧵:My article “Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad” has finally been published in the journal Religions (
@MDPIOpenAccess
)!
My article “Affluent and Well-Educated? Analyzing the Socioeconomic Backgrounds of Fallen Palestinian Islamist Militants” is finally out in the latest issue of
@MiddleEastJrnl
. A short thread 🧵:
Some thoughts about the recent developments in Gaza and the West Bank. As
@dbgreenwald
notes, this is clearly a confrontation between Islamic Jihad and Israel.
I’m delighted to announce that my article “Controlling the State in the Political Theory of Hamas and [PIJ]” has been accepted for publication in the special issue of Religions “Islamist Movements in the Middle East”. Will share link once published and online.
I remember when I was in Gaza in 2013 and my hosts asked me if I wanted to see the tunnels. Obviously, I accepted, we got in the car, and drove from the apartment close to al-Maghazi.
Analytically, I always found it weird designating a movement liquidating Lebanese communists in the 1980s as a part of the Global Left.
These are conservative movements, and this conclusion likely comes from reducing leftism to anti-Americanism.
[THREAD] As A History of Palestinian Jihad is published by
@CambridgeUP
in a couple of weeks, I want to give a shout-out to some of the books/authors that influenced me and the writing process (and not just the literature on Islamism).
Ellen Meiksins Wood is one of the intellectuals and scholars for which I had the greatest admiration. Time and again I return to her magnificent Liberty & Property (
@VersoBooks
), which I cannot recommend enough! Not merely for the findings, but for her method of inquiry.
I finally defended my doctoral thesis on the history of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. My gratitude goes to my terrific opponents Katerina Dalacoura and Khaled Hroub. I could not have done it without the help and support of my supervisors Dag Tuastad,
@Hegghammer
and
@brynjarlia
And last, for anyone working on their PhD thesis or master’s thesis etc. Read Authoring A PhD by
@PJDunleavy
. I have no idea how I would’ve managed without it. It should be your bible.
Today, nobody showed up to my 8.15am class.
0 students of about 40. Sitting in the empty room, I email them, trying to disguise my hurt feelings.
2 mins later, I get a reply: "Professor, we think you might be in the wrong room." So anyway off I go to live in a hole forever.
With everything happening in Afghanistan, don’t forget our Taliban Sources Project. TSP is an online repository containing thousands of Taliban documents from the 1990s & 2000s in original & translation.
BIG NEWS: The Taliban Sources Project is now live. TSP is an online repository containing thousands of Taliban documents from the 1990s & 2000s in original & translation. The largest such archive in existence, it offers unique insights at a crucial time
Very pleased to be publishing this article for
@ecfr
exploring Iran's historical and evolving relations with Palestinian armed groups, from the PLO to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
We talk almost exclusively about the tunnels as a part of the battlefield. But they have also had a civilian purpose for a people under siege. While strengthening a Hamas taxing the smuggler economy, the tunnels have rightly been described as the lifeline of Gaza.
So I just spoke with one of the leaders in Islamic Jihad about the hostages who noted that “we [PIJ] are now following up through our brothers [Hamas] on all the details, and all the resistance factions are working to complete this exchange deal for all Israeli civilian hostages”
If this is true then it would be the first international Hamas operation, as far as I know. I can’t see how Hamas would not splinter on the question of international terrorism.
Concerning development:
“4 ppl have been arrested in Germany & Netherlands on suspicion of a cross-border Hamas terrorism plot that aimed to target Jewish institutions in Europe. 3 others were arrested in Denmark on apparently related terrorism offences.”
Finally had the chance to read the phenomenal The Caravan by
@Hegghammer
! Cannot recommend it enough. Not just a history of Azzam, but of the broader developments in the Middle East.
I am happy to say that A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad will be out in February 2021 (not July) due to the industrious editor team at
@CambridgeUP
-
@MariaSoleMarsh
,
@AtifaJiwa
, and Lisa Carter
🚨 (Open access) Article alert🚨
My article “Staying safe by being good? The EU’s normative decline as a security actor in the Middle East has finally been published by
@EJIntSec
- !
Short thread 🧵
Great piece by Nathan J. Brown “There Might Be No Day After in Gaza”:
“ … it is a mistake for scenarios to assume a “day after” as if this were a conventional war that will clearly and cleanly give way to agreed or imposed postwar arrangements.”
Most important take here: Hamas leaders "quietly admit[ted] that continued restraint in exchange for economic benefits and suitcases of Qatari cash was putting them in the same trap that ensnared the Palestinian Authority early on."
Bit embarrassing coming so late to the party, but inspired by
@Hegghammer
’s The Caravan (
@CambridgeUP
), I finally read
@strickvl
and Kuehn’s An Enemy We Created (
@HurstPublishers
). Such a great read and meticulously researched!
Now, I realize that is not a very exciting story or anecdote. Yet, what struck me with the encounter was just how mundane everything was. The tunnels were a secret, yet so obvious. They were a part of the battlefield, yet also of everyday life.
This photograph showing the complete anguish and pain of a father burying his 12-year-old son in Gaza after an Israeli bombing broke something in me in 2014. What happened then is happening now.
Really appreciate the beautiful plaque from the Palestine Book Awards (
@MiddleEastMnt
) for my book A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
)!
I’m looking for a research assistant who is proficient in both Arabic and in R. Preferably based in Oslo, and will be paid. The job is mainly to correct Arabic text output from Google Document AI with
@Hegghammer
’s daiR package. Contact me for more info if you’re interested.
The photos I have been able to find of Muhammad Deif: 1985 (red circle from Islamic University of Gaza), 1994 (far left of the three), unknown, and allegedly a quite recent one of him.
My gratitude to
@UniOslo_IKOS
for hosting my talk today about A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to those who showed up, and to
@brynjarlia
for moderating the Q&A-session. I had a great time!
Important piece by Cole on the differences between Hamas, ISIS, and al-Qaida.
Some unrelated thoughts: Hamas has been an important factor for curbing salafi jihadism in Gaza.
“Gaza and Global Jihad” - my latest for
@ForeignAffairs
, in which I explain how ISIS & al-Qaida view Hamas and why I think they will l struggle to take advantage of the war in Gaza
Wonderful news! A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
) will be published as paperback next year in March 2024. That means you don’t have to harvest your grandma’s kidneys to afford the book.
Everybody wins (particularly your grandma)!
“You smell that? Do you smell that? Proofs, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of proofs in the morning.” - Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, probably.
@ibtauris
With all due respect, this is factually incorrect🧵. The PIJ nucleus was established in Egypt, 1979, the movement was established in Gaza in 1981-1982, and it commenced violence in 1984. PIJ was never part of EIJ.
PIJ is an Islamist terror group founded in 1979 as part of Egypt-based Islamic Jihad, which assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981 for signing a peace treaty with Israel. PIJ then moved to Gaza and expanded with extensive support from Iran, which continues today. 12/21
So I finally learned some basic html/CSS to create my own website. You can find all of my publications there (except two monographs) and I will use it to upload replication datasets, active citation etc. Check it out!
In case you can’t afford the books below, or simply do not have the time to read them, then I warmly recommend the following podcast episodes:
@GunningJeroen
talks with
@ArifCRafiq
about Hamas’s historical development:
I would highly recommend the following books if you want to learn more about Hamas, its history, and its ideology:
1. I think Jeroen Gunning’s Hamas in Politics is one of, if not the, best book about the movement.
So I wrote this piece for
@lawfare
in 2021. It is about Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but I do think it is relevant now as it illustrates the tricky situation Hamas has faced the last 15 years and which I believe has contributed what we are seeing now.
Stoked to be joining Oslo University's Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies as an adjunct fellow (alongside my FFI job). Looking forward to working on digital humanities and more with the fantastic scholars there
Finally got around to read Lahoud’s enlightening and thought-provoking book The Jihadis’ Path to Self-Destruction. Thank you
@annestenersen
for recommending it!
With everything going on in the West Bank following the murder of Nizar Banat, I highly recommend
@brynjarlia
’s book A Police Force Without a State (Ithaca Press).
So excited that my article on the
#EU
and its CT and PvE policies in the Middle East has been accepted for publication by
@EJIntSec
! Really looking forward to share it once published.
@PREVEXproject
“You smell that? Do you smell that? Proofs, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of proofs in the morning.” - Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore.
Either way, to summarize, I don’t think the recent developments can be analyzed in a 6 or 12 month framework. Instead, I think this is the culmination of a 15 year development that now also engulfs the West Bank.
Wonderful and strange (wonderfully strange?) to be back “home” at the University of Oslo - and grateful to continue at
@CERI_SciencesPo
as an associate researcher!
So I just found my invited talk about Palestinian Islamic Jihad for the Doha Institute on YouTube. If you’re interested in the movement and it’s history, check it out:
Wonderful review of A History of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (
@CambridgeUP
) in Choice Reviews: “a more thorough, indeed all-encompassing, study of PIJ … and it asks all the right questions.”