Epilogue: reflections on race and racism in contemporary Israeli society: ‘wishing the barbarian away’

Abstract

This epilogue reviews various manifestations of racism in contemporary Israeli society through reflection upon an interview with the revisionist historian Prof. Benny Morris, entitled ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’. The interview provides a classically racialised representation of Israeli society, and its adversarial presence in the Middle East. Morris elucidates, both directly and indirectly, the ideology and systems of ethnic marginalisation that operate to the advantage of Ashkenazi Jews and to the disadvantage of the ‘Other’ Israeli citizens (such as Palestinian Arabs, Mizrahi and Ethiopian Jews) and non‐citizens. As the articles in this special issue suggest, the ideological and structural realities of racism cannot just be ignored or ‘wished away’, but are instead likely to have an increasingly destabilising effect on Israeli society.