This article discusses the place of Hebrew and Jewish images and stereotypes in the works of the Israeli-Arab Hebrew writer Sayed Kashua. When describing his Arab protagonists, Kashua portrays both the stereotype of the oppressed Diaspora Jew, who is trying to blend in and hide his identity, and the stereotype of the Israeli Jew, the image that many of Kashua's protagonists aspire to imitate. The article argues that adopting those images and stereotypes has a dual function. On the one hand, it can be understood as an attempt to imitate and internalize the majority's gaze, creating a sense of brotherhood and familiarity with Jewish-Israeli readers. On the other hand, the same images and stereotypes can be understood as having a major subversive thrust that ridicules the Jewish-Israeli identity and its perception of the Israeli-Arab and criticizes the Israelization process among Palestinian citizens of Israel. This subversive dimension, typical of Kashua's sarcastic style, becomes sharper in his more recent works.
Search Results
Adia Mendelson-Maoz and Liat Steir-Livny
Ehud Eiran
Gershom Gorenberg, Th e Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967–1977 (New York: Times Books, 2006).
Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar, Lords of the Land: The War over Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories (New York: Nation Books, 2007).
Hagai Huberman, Against All Odds: Forty Years of Settlement in Judea and Samaria, 1967–2007 (Ariel: Netzrim Publishing, 2008 [in Hebrew]).
Meron Medzini, Sheila Jelen, Amalia Ran, and Russell A. Stone
Neil Caplan and Yaakov Sharett, eds., My Struggle for Peace: The Diary of Moshe Sharett, 1953–1956 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019), 3 vols. 1,950 pp. Hardback, $125.00.
Adia Mendelson-Maoz, Borders, Territories, and Ethics: Hebrew Literature in the Shadow of the Intifada (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2018), 252 pp. Paperback, $30.00. Kindle, $26.00.
Alejandro Paz, Latinos in Israel: Language and Unexpected Citizenship (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018), 327 pp. Hardback, $75.00. Paperback, $32.00. Kindle, $20.00.
Neta Oren, Israel’s National Identity: The Changing Ethos of Conflict (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019), 291 pp. Hardback, $65.00.
The positive feedback we have received since the appearance of the first issue of the (renamed) Israel Studies Review last May has exceeded our expectations, and we are grateful to everyone who responded. Of course, we have built on the work of the previous Editorial Board and the support of the Association for Israel Studies. We are appreciative that the innovations we introduced, including the Forum section and the review essays of books published in a particular field in Hebrew, have received such approbation. We encourage all of our readers and friends to continue sending us more ideas for topics, sections, and issues to deal with.
Rachel Werczberger and Boaz Huss
On 17 June 2014, in the heart of the Etzion Bloc (Gush Etzion) in the West Bank, the site of the abduction of three Israeli teens by Palestinian terrorists the week before, an unusual event took place. Several Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, a few rabbis, and a Muslim Sufi sheikh gathered in order to pray for the safe return of the kidnapped youths. The group prayed both in Hebrew and Arabic, reciting psalms and Quran-based Muslim prayers. “Our hearts are torn at this moment, and my heart goes out the mothers of these children,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Abu Al-Hawa, before reciting the first chapter of the Quran, the Fatiha. He continued, “There is a wall between our two nations, and we hope to remove the wall separating the hearts of humans” (Miller 2014). He concluded his speech by proclaiming “God is One” in Arabic and Hebrew, followed by the young Rabbi Yossi Froman (son of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman), who stood beside him.
Reports
Publications, Films and Conferences
Jean-Pierre Digard, Sigal Nagar-Ron, Soraya Tremayne, Soheila Shahshahani, and Veronica Buffon
PUBLICATIONS
Anatoly M. Khazanov and Günther Schlee (eds.) (2011), Who Owns the Stock? Collective and Multiple Property Rights in Animals (New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books), "Integration and Conflict Studies", Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, vol. 5, 332 pp., 8 maps, 19 tables, 66 fig., biblio., index.
Motzafi-Haller, Pnina (2012), In the Cement Boxes: Mizrahi Women in the Israeli Periphery (The Hebrew University Magnes Press), pp. 276, ISBN: 978- 965-493-650-7.
Helie, Anissa and Hoodfar, Homa (eds.) (2012), Sexuality in Muslim Contexts: Restrictions and Resistance (London: Zed Books), Pb., glossary, xiv + 346 pp., index, ISBN: 978-1-78032-286-8.
FILMS
What is Farhâdi Trying to Portray of Iranian Everyday Life and Iranian Characters in His Films?
CONFERENCES
Encounters and Engagements: Creating New Agendas for Medical Anthropology, 12–14 June 2013, EASA/SMA/URV Joint International Conference, Tarragona, Spain.
Menachem Mautner, Law and the Culture of Israel Review by Gad Barzilai
Nadav G. Shelef, Evolving Nationalism: Homeland, Identity, and Religion in Israel, 1925–2005 Review by Ilan Peleg
Susan A. Glenn and Naomi B. Sokoloff, eds., Boundaries of Jewish Identity Review by Kirsten Fermaglich
Arieh Bruce Saposnik, Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine Review by Nina S. Spiegel
King Abdullah II, Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril Review by Saliba Sarsar
Leslie Stein, The Making of Modern Israel: 1948–1967 Review by Pierre M. Atlas
Joyce Dalsheim, Unsettling Gaza: Secular Liberalism, Radical Religion, and the Israeli Settlement Project Review by Myron J. Aronoff
Beverley Milton-Edwards, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A People’s War 180 Review by Raphael Cohen-Almagor
Uri Cohen
This article focuses on the practices that led to the elimination of the possibility of establishing an independent academic sector—professional-academic colleges—in the first years after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. This sector, the "service tradition" of non-university institutions, focuses on meeting economic and social needs through professional and vocational education. The only academic model in Israel that evolved under the control of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ) was the comprehensive university model. By describing the ongoing problems of the School of Law and Economics (SLE) in Tel-Aviv, we can learn about the close relations that were established between politicians and the HUJ and the paradox that has resulted in the rapid growth of the SLE but also its integration with the comprehensive university.
Shai Ginsburg, Rhetoric and Nation: The Formation of Hebrew National Culture, 1880–1990 Review by Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi
Anat Helman, Becoming Israeli: National Ideals & Everyday Life in the 1950s Review by Dafna Hirsch
Madelaine Adelman and Miriam Fendius Elman, eds., Jerusalem: Conflict and Cooperation in a Contested City Review by Shlomo Hasson
Adam Rovner, In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel Review by Michael Brenner
Fran Markowitz, Stephen Sharot, and Moshe Shokeid, eds., Towards an Anthropology of Nation Building and Unbuilding in Israel Review by Russell Stone
Guy Ziv, Why Hawks Become Doves: Shimon Peres and Foreign Policy Change in Israel Review by Oded Haklai
R. Amy Elman, The European Union, Antisemitism, and the Politics of Denial Review by Alona Fisher
Rachel S. Harris, An Ideological Death: Suicide in Israeli Literature Review by Adia Mendelson-Maoz
David Ohana, The Origins of Israeli Mythology: Neither Canaanites Nor Crusaders Review by Ian S. Lustick
Revital Amiran-Sappir
This article deals with the relation of Micha Yosef Ben Gurion (Berdichevski)—one of the central formulators of the Zionist idea and of modern Hebrew literature—to the Zionist political sphere. As a wordly Jewish intellectual, Berdichevski attempted to establish a kind of Zionism that would allow Jewish individuals to engage in it as an act of their desires. In exploring how his carnal inclinations affected his vision of the political, I argue that Berdichevski's perception fails qualitatively by transposing its guiding sensual approach to the formulation of the new Jewish political sphere. As this article will show, Berdichevski's relation to the Jewish political revolution reveals a sometimes limited perception regarding the possibilities of freedom inherent in political activity and often contradicts his own aspiration to nurture the liberty of Jewish individuals.