Zionism and Oriental Jews: a dialectic of exploitation and co-optation

Abstract

Some recent accounts have sought to present Mizrahim —Jews whose origins are in Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa rather than in eastern and central Europe — as fellow victims of the Zionist project, along with Palestinian Arabs. On this view, Zionism is an essentially Ashkenazi (European Jewish) project. Here, a more complex account of Mizrahi identity in Israel is presented, showing how Jewish immigrants from Muslim countries, despite being regarded as culturally inferior and treated as colonisation fodder by the Zionist leadership, were nevertheless successfully co-opted to the Zionist project. The Mizrahim continue to face socio-economic disadvantages in Israel but these are predominantly a reflection of class barriers and are fundamentally distinct from the national oppression of Arabs.