DENATURALIZING CULTURE: SAYED KASHUA'S NEWSPAPER COLUMNS ON THE TOPIC OF PREJUDICE

Juliana Portenoy Schlesinger

doi:10.1590/2238-38752015v5311

Abstract

Abstract Discrimination is a recurrent topic in the work of the Israeli-Arab writer Sayed Kashua. In the last couple of years, Sayed Kashua has moved away from writing about the prejudice expressed by his own Israeli Muslim community towards the Israeli Jewish population to focus his attention instead on the prejudice shown by Jews against Arabs in Israel. Self-criticism has always been a hallmark of Sayed Kashua's work so this shift indicates a significant change in the columnist's perception of his own society. Based on a survey of various issues relating to Israeli society, such as the law, the educational system and language, as well as a theoretical review of authors who observe a mutual alienation of Arabs and Jews in Israel, this article analyses several of Sayed Kashua's recent columns in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It also investigates how the author understands prejudice and, in a singular and surprising way, expresses his concerns and solutions to this problem.

Highlights

In his same Haaretz column of August 16th 2013, Sayed Kashua describes how the I-columnist and his wife were always waiting for invitations during denaturalizing culture: sayed kashua’s newspaper columns on the topic of prejudice vacations that included their children: “The thing is, all our friends have disappeared
Sayed Kashua is screenwriter for the program Avoda Aravit (Arab Labor), in post-production for its fourth season
“A clear hierarchy has been institutionalized in Israeli society in general and in the labor market in particular whereby Ashkenazim are at the top of the socioeconomic ladder, Mizrahim (Asian, Middle Eastern, or North African descent of Jews, so called Oriental Jews) are in the middle, and the Arab citizens of Israel are at the bottom,” the authors write (Yelenevskaya & Fialkova, 2004: 32)

Summary

Introduction

In his same Haaretz column of August 16th 2013, Sayed Kashua describes how the I-columnist and his wife were always waiting for invitations during denaturalizing culture: sayed kashua’s newspaper columns on the topic of prejudice vacations that included their children: “The thing is, all our friends have disappeared. As for the Jewish public, percent of Israeli Jews in 2013 recognized the right of Arabs to live as a minority in Israel with full civil rights, compared to percent in 2012.

Results

Conclusion