Abstract
AbstractDominant majorities often use idealized categories to validate the ‘goodness’ and deservingness of minority citizens. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, this category is the ‘good Arab’. Since its origins in early Jewish settlement of Palestine, it has become a powerful and controversial metaphor in Israeli public discourse. As an experienced condition of limited inclusion, the ‘good Arab’ exemplifies the Palestinian dilemma of accessing socioeconomic opportunities in Jewish Israeli spaces that stigmatize and fend off their ethnonational identity. Combining a historical genealogy of the ‘good Arab’ with ethnographic research among Palestinians in Tel Aviv, this article shows how a historically evolved logic of settler colonial control and indigenous erasure continues to define liberal frameworks of conditional citizenship and inclusion. Theorized through the emerging concept of conditional inclusion, these insights open up new avenues for analysis and comparison in anthropological debates surrounding indigenous struggles, settler colonialism, urban inclusion, and citizenship.
Highlights
Theorized through the emerging concept of conditional inclusion, these insights open up new avenues for analysis and comparison in anthropological debates surrounding indigenous struggles, settler colonialism, urban inclusion, and citizenship
Becoming a good Arab In their hope to gain access to Jewish Israeli cities and the socioeconomic opportunities there, some Palestinian citizens aspired to meet the criteria of the ‘good Arab’
This opportunity was made possible by an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship, held at the University of Edinburgh
Summary
Citation for published version: Hackl, A 2020, 'The good Arab: Conditional inclusion and settler colonial citizenship among Palestinian citizens of Israel in Jewish Tel Aviv ', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol 26, no. The good Arab: conditional inclusion and settler colonial citizenship among Palestinian citizens of Israel in Jewish Tel Aviv
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