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Examining the prolonged Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanese civil war and the periodic upsurges of inter-state and internal tensions in the Gulf region, this book looks at how civilians are at the forefront of military conflicts and violence in the Middle East. The unsung heroes and real victims of wars in the Middle East are the civilian populations. Quickly forgotten, they have all too frequently been forced to endure the brutalities of war and its aftermath. Behind political calculations, military strategy and technological innovations, it is the unarmed civilian population that is expected to make the maximum sacrifices.Wars reflect the fears and trepidations of ordinary men and women about the ability of their leaders to lead their nations during critical times and to make sensible choices. Civilians suffer even when clear-cut victories are achieved in the battlefield and their problems often begin when the guns fall silent. Their attempts to reconstruct their lives and livelihood are, however, generally ignored, forgotten and unspoken. This book attempts to redress the balance, and reminds us that the 'collateral damage' of war actually has a serious and enduring impact upon Middle Eastern societies, and should not be neglected.
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Crossfire TP 24/7/08 5:44 PM Page i Caught in Cr ssfire Civilians in Conflicts in the Middle East Edited by P. R. Kumaraswamy DURHAM MIDDLE EAST MONOGRAPHS ITH ACA P R E S S 610 Caught in Crossfire #190106 27/7/08 1:57 PM Page ii To Jayanthi and Ravi Mama CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE Civilians in Conflicts in the Middle East Published by Ithaca Press 8 Southern Court South Street Reading RG1 4QS UK www.ithacapress.co.uk Ithaca Press is an imprint of Garnet Publishing Limited. Copyright © P. R. Kumaraswamy, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. First Edition Hardback ISBN: 978-0-86372-331-5 Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86372-334-6 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Samantha Barden Jacket design by David Rose Cover photo © Lynsey Addario/Corbis Printed by Biddles, UK 610 Caught in Crossfire #190106 27/7/08 1:57 PM Page iii Contents Contributors v Introduction vii P. R. Kumaraswamy 1 Arab and Jewish Civilians in the 1948 Palestine War 1 Avraham Sela 2 Israeli Civilians in the 1967 Six-Day War 31 Meron Medzini 3 Israeli Civilians during the 1973 Yom Kippur War 55 Dalia Gavriely-Nuri 4 The Pathologies of Protracted and Displaced Collective Violence in Lebanon 75 Samir Khalaf 5 Revolution in Iran, 1979 – The Establishment of an Islamic State 95 Stuti Bhatnagar 6 The Al-Aqsa Intifada: Snapshots from the Field 119 Amira Hass 7 Kuwait: Never Before, Never Again N. Janardhan [iii] 151 610 Caught in Crossfire #190106 27/7/08 1:57 PM Page iv CAUGHT IN CROSSFIRE 8 Iraqi Civilians under the 1990–2003 Sanctions 177 William W. Haddad 9 Iraq: The Tragedy and Trauma of Humiliation 201 Girijesh Pant Chronology Index 219 237 [iv] 610 Caught in C