Mizrahi Jews and the Zionist settler colonial context: between inclusion and struggle

Giulia Daniele

doi:10.1080/2201473x.2020.1793560

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article intends to analyse the ‘in-between' category of Mizrahi Jews within Israeli society. The main objective is to draw attention to how Israel’s Mizrahi majority has been part of the Zionist settler colonial system itself while, at the same time, it has been greatly marginalised from the mainstream Zionist discourse led by white Ashkenazi Jews. Theoretically founded on the interconnection of three major approaches, namely settler colonialism, critical whiteness, and decolonial feminism, this contribution aims to question the current academic debate depicting asymmetric power relations founded on race, ethnic, gender and class discrimination inside Israeli society. Accordingly, Zionist settler colonialism needs to be critically analysed from a Mizrahi perspective, providing an additional element for understanding the relevance of connecting all the actors involved in the Zionist settler colonial project and reinforcing the discourse concerning settlers and indigenous people. Moreover, as the article discusses the wide cultural and political range of the Mizrahi Jews by questioning the viability of the Arab-Jew historical construct up to very recent times, it is also intended to further enhance the examination of an emerging field for studying Israel and Palestine within which several aspects and areas of inquiry remain unexplored.

Highlights

Founded on the interconnection of three major approaches, namely settler colonialism, critical whiteness, and decolonial feminism, this contribution aims to question the current academic debate depicting asymmetric power relations founded on race, ethnic, gender and class discrimination inside Israeli society
Zionist settler colonialism needs to be critically analysed from a Mizrahi perspective, providing an additional element for understanding the relevance of connecting all the actors involved in the Zionist settler colonial project and reinforcing the discourse concerning settlers and indigenous people
Going in depth into the specificity of the land of Palestine, Zionist settler colonialism has been mostly studied in terms of the conflicting relations between settlers and natives, starting from what happened when the earliest Zionist settlers arrived in the historic Palestine, and how they faced the native Arab Palestinians by means of territorial conquest, land dispossession and domination leading to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population.[3]

Summary

Introduction

From the United States of America to South Africa, from New Zealand to Kenya, from Palestine to Mexico, from Australia to Canada, and from Algeria to Cyprus, the imperative of transforming territorial boundaries and creating new demographic and socio-political facts on the ground has fragmented geographies and identities.

Results

Conclusion