I am a Reader in Israeli Studies at SOAS. My research deals with modernity and its transformative dimensions in Israel/Palestine, focussing on urban space and visual culture.
To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and ... more To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such integration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adoption of Arab clothes, Arabic language, and urban encounters and cohabitation, I argue that Ashkenazi integration in Ottoman Palestine was a very real process, which took on significant dimensions. I focus on civic participation and local politics, military service in the Ottoman army, and deep economic interdependence. Integration was uneven and did not follow a single pathway; rather, there were diverse avenues of integration through Jewish Sephardi society, the Arab elite, Ottoman institutions, and more.
This piece presents an interview conducted by Karène Sanchez Summererand Sary Zananiri with Salim... more This piece presents an interview conducted by Karène Sanchez Summererand Sary Zananiri with Salim Tamari and Yair Wallach about the FrankScholten photographic collection (now available with CreativeCommons access), discussing the archive’s significance and use forresearchers of the history of Mandate Palestine.During the turbulence ofthe period after the First World War, Dutch photographer FrankScholten (1881-1942) travelled to Palestine with the aim of producingan‘illustrated Bible’. He arrived in Palestine in 1921, where he stayed fortwo years. While the bulk of his photo collection consists of images ofPalestine, his camera lens gives a snapshot into modernity in theEastern Mediterranean more broadly. The entire Frank Scholtencollection, consisting of 12,000 negatives and 14,000 prints, represents awork in progress towards a 16-volume set of books on the‘Holy Land’,only two volumes of which were ever published.One of the hallmarks ofScholten’s collected work is the thoroughness with which he imagedPalestine. His images of people cut across religious and confessionallines, ethnic backgrounds, and class and urban-rural divides. He imagedpeople at work as well as in their leisure time, but most of all, heimaged people in the context of their daily life, rather than divorcedfrom the landscape.
Pendant des siècles, les pèlerins juifs qui se rendaient à Jérusalem écrivirent leurs noms sur le... more Pendant des siècles, les pèlerins juifs qui se rendaient à Jérusalem écrivirent leurs noms sur les pierres du mur des Lamentations dans le cadre de leurs dévotions. En 1930, cette pratique fut brutalement proscrite par les autorités coloniales britanniques, lorsque le Mur devint l’épicentre du conflit arabo-sioniste naissant. Dans ce nouveau contexte, les inscriptions hébraïques acquirent une dimension politique et on commença à les regarder comme des tentatives de subversion, qu’il n’était plus possible de tolérer. Fonctionnaires britanniques, dirigeants arabo-musulmans et même chefs de file du mouvement sioniste : tous voyaient dans ces graffitis des textes séditieux. Au lendemain des émeutes de 1929, ils furent donc interdits et effacés de la surface des pierres, mais aussi de la mémoire culturelle juive.
and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambig... more and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambiguities that these stories reveal. Ashkenazi presence in Palestine is typically understood in terms of either the pious, zealot pilgrims, or the nationalist settlers. And yet the story of the hotel owners and operators could also fit into a different category, that of migrants, who sought to integrate within existing social, economic, and political structures. The tourism and hospitality industry, which relied on flows of people across borders and on a diverse customer-base, was to some degree at odds with the segregation associated with Zionist Yishuv. Such stories, which have been forgotten and erased by the history of Palestine in the twentieth century, prompt us to rethink our understanding of Ashkenazi history in the region.
The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have lo... more The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have long been dismissed by the historiography as one of many failed ideas of the Mandate. Yet the legislative assembly was not a mere concept thrown around in pointless rounds of negotiations; it was also an architectural project that came remarkably close to being built, involving several plots of land in Jerusalem, countless architectural drawings, and clay models, designed primarily by the Mandate's celebrated architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison. The legislative assembly chamber was, as of the early 1930s, a central element in the design of the central government offices-the most ambitious unfulfilled scheme of the British Mandatory Palestine government in Jerusalem, aiming to accommodate all executive and legislative bodies in a single building. The deliberations over the scheme remained restricted to the top echelons of the Palestine government, with no involvement of Arab Palestinians or Jews. The project, which was derailed and revived several times in the 1930s and 1940s, was finally abandoned only in early November 1947. The project and its design throw new light on colonial state-making in Palestine and its flaws.
The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It
remains a consensus... more The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in the first half of the twentieth century. British and international policy makers regarded (European) Jews as a non-European, Semitic race. This led them to view Jewish Zionist migrants and native Palestinian Arabs as somewhat comparable groups. Rather than a clash between European settlers and Arab natives, they saw in Palestine a conflict between two nations living side by side. Reading through key documents – the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and the Partition Reports of 1937 and 1947 – I show how this racial logic informed the framework of partition.
مسألة رايات موسم النبي موسى واختفائها،
ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خا... more مسألة رايات موسم النبي موسى واختفائها، ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خالل الفترة 1858 ـ 1948 ،واالعتبارات التي دفعت سلطات االنتداب البريطاين إىل صناعة املشهد الفلسطيني عبر الكتابة والنصوص، كآلية لتحقيق أهدافها السياسية.
Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940 Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global City
This is a chapter from "Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940, Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global C... more This is a chapter from "Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940, Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global City", Editors: Angelos Dalachanis and Vincent Lemire (Brill: 2018). The book is available open access, http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/9789004375741?showtab=chapters, and contains excellent contributions from many colleagues.
This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of
Jews in late-Ottoman Pales... more This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities, embedded within local, regional and global networks. The conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long portrayed Palestine’s Jews as sui-generis community, a Jewish microcosm united in its unique attachment to the Eretz Israel. It was studied as part of Jewish history, in isolation from its Middle Eastern context. In contrast, recent Relational Studies stressed Jewish connections to the Arab and Ottoman environment in Palestine. The article examines the self-perception of Jewish communities as plural and heterogeneous, through a survey of early Hebrew Press. It traces the genealogy of the term yishuv, from an ideological project of revival and colonization in the 1860s, to an imagined pan-Jewish national community after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. This shift was boosted not only by Zionism and Jewish diaspora influence, but also by Ottomanism. Even then, Jewish communities in Palestine continued to operate separately in a highly fragmented manner well into the British Mandate.
Jerusalem is typically presented as a city where religious and ethnic segregation is deep-rooted.... more Jerusalem is typically presented as a city where religious and ethnic segregation is deep-rooted. This chapter challenges this portrayal, while problematizing the ways we theorize and measure segregation. Building on recent debates in urban studies, I follow the life history of one Jerusalemite, Justice Gad Frumkin, to examine how encounter and separation played out in the lived experience of the city. Frumkin, who was born to a Jewish Ashkenazi family in the " Muslim Quarter, " studied law in Istanbul, became a judge in Palestine's Supreme Court under British rule, and was a Zionist with excellent ties with the Arab elite. His writing reveals a complex picture of Jerusalem that does not conform to the stereotype of entrenched ethnic residential segregation. I show that the reorganization of the city in the late Ottoman period facilitated the creation of new civic spaces associated with a common identity. Such possibilities became impossible under the British Mandate and the emerging Zionist-Arab conflict; however, trade and work relations persisted in numerous places of encounter up until the 1947 inter-communal war. I suggest that in analyzing segregation in conflict environments, attention should be paid to the quotidian rhythms of commerce, labor, and movement through the city, and not only to the question of residential segregation.
In: Goldstein-Sabbah, S. R. and Murre-Van Den Berg, H. L. , (eds.), Modernity, Minority, and the Public Sphere: Jews and Christians in the Middle East. Leiden: Brill. (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society) (2016)
This is an earlier draft version of the chapter that was later published as
Wallach, Yair (2016... more This is an earlier draft version of the chapter that was later published as
Wallach, Yair (2016) 'Jewish Nationalism:On the Impossibility of Muslim Jews.' In: Meri, Yousef, (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp. 331-350. (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)
Examining recent developments in the study of Zionism, and focussing on the notion of Jewishstate... more Examining recent developments in the study of Zionism, and focussing on the notion of Jewishstatehood, this article argues that the alleged uninterrupted continuity of Zionism in the 20 th cen-tury (as an ideology, movement, and political project) masks deep ruptures and transitions. The‘Jewish State’ is often presented as the unchanging core principle of Zionism. And yet the consti-tutional framework of Israel differs considerably from Zionist visions of statehood of the 1920s and1930s.
To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and ... more To what extent did Ashkenazi Jews integrate and acculturate into the local society, culture, and politics of late Ottoman Palestine? This question has been almost entirely ignored by the voluminous scholarship on the migration of Jews from central and eastern Europe to Palestine. This article challenges the widely held assumption that such integration was nonexistent and impossible. Building on recent work on Ashkenazi adoption of Arab clothes, Arabic language, and urban encounters and cohabitation, I argue that Ashkenazi integration in Ottoman Palestine was a very real process, which took on significant dimensions. I focus on civic participation and local politics, military service in the Ottoman army, and deep economic interdependence. Integration was uneven and did not follow a single pathway; rather, there were diverse avenues of integration through Jewish Sephardi society, the Arab elite, Ottoman institutions, and more.
This piece presents an interview conducted by Karène Sanchez Summererand Sary Zananiri with Salim... more This piece presents an interview conducted by Karène Sanchez Summererand Sary Zananiri with Salim Tamari and Yair Wallach about the FrankScholten photographic collection (now available with CreativeCommons access), discussing the archive’s significance and use forresearchers of the history of Mandate Palestine.During the turbulence ofthe period after the First World War, Dutch photographer FrankScholten (1881-1942) travelled to Palestine with the aim of producingan‘illustrated Bible’. He arrived in Palestine in 1921, where he stayed fortwo years. While the bulk of his photo collection consists of images ofPalestine, his camera lens gives a snapshot into modernity in theEastern Mediterranean more broadly. The entire Frank Scholtencollection, consisting of 12,000 negatives and 14,000 prints, represents awork in progress towards a 16-volume set of books on the‘Holy Land’,only two volumes of which were ever published.One of the hallmarks ofScholten’s collected work is the thoroughness with which he imagedPalestine. His images of people cut across religious and confessionallines, ethnic backgrounds, and class and urban-rural divides. He imagedpeople at work as well as in their leisure time, but most of all, heimaged people in the context of their daily life, rather than divorcedfrom the landscape.
Pendant des siècles, les pèlerins juifs qui se rendaient à Jérusalem écrivirent leurs noms sur le... more Pendant des siècles, les pèlerins juifs qui se rendaient à Jérusalem écrivirent leurs noms sur les pierres du mur des Lamentations dans le cadre de leurs dévotions. En 1930, cette pratique fut brutalement proscrite par les autorités coloniales britanniques, lorsque le Mur devint l’épicentre du conflit arabo-sioniste naissant. Dans ce nouveau contexte, les inscriptions hébraïques acquirent une dimension politique et on commença à les regarder comme des tentatives de subversion, qu’il n’était plus possible de tolérer. Fonctionnaires britanniques, dirigeants arabo-musulmans et même chefs de file du mouvement sioniste : tous voyaient dans ces graffitis des textes séditieux. Au lendemain des émeutes de 1929, ils furent donc interdits et effacés de la surface des pierres, mais aussi de la mémoire culturelle juive.
and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambig... more and elsewhere, in the late Ottoman period and under British rule, to consider the confusing ambiguities that these stories reveal. Ashkenazi presence in Palestine is typically understood in terms of either the pious, zealot pilgrims, or the nationalist settlers. And yet the story of the hotel owners and operators could also fit into a different category, that of migrants, who sought to integrate within existing social, economic, and political structures. The tourism and hospitality industry, which relied on flows of people across borders and on a diverse customer-base, was to some degree at odds with the segregation associated with Zionist Yishuv. Such stories, which have been forgotten and erased by the history of Palestine in the twentieth century, prompt us to rethink our understanding of Ashkenazi history in the region.
The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have lo... more The deliberations over the establishment of a legislative assembly in Mandatory Palestine have long been dismissed by the historiography as one of many failed ideas of the Mandate. Yet the legislative assembly was not a mere concept thrown around in pointless rounds of negotiations; it was also an architectural project that came remarkably close to being built, involving several plots of land in Jerusalem, countless architectural drawings, and clay models, designed primarily by the Mandate's celebrated architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison. The legislative assembly chamber was, as of the early 1930s, a central element in the design of the central government offices-the most ambitious unfulfilled scheme of the British Mandatory Palestine government in Jerusalem, aiming to accommodate all executive and legislative bodies in a single building. The deliberations over the scheme remained restricted to the top echelons of the Palestine government, with no involvement of Arab Palestinians or Jews. The project, which was derailed and revived several times in the 1930s and 1940s, was finally abandoned only in early November 1947. The project and its design throw new light on colonial state-making in Palestine and its flaws.
The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It
remains a consensus... more The partition of Palestine was first proposed more than eight decades ago. It remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in the first half of the twentieth century. British and international policy makers regarded (European) Jews as a non-European, Semitic race. This led them to view Jewish Zionist migrants and native Palestinian Arabs as somewhat comparable groups. Rather than a clash between European settlers and Arab natives, they saw in Palestine a conflict between two nations living side by side. Reading through key documents – the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate, and the Partition Reports of 1937 and 1947 – I show how this racial logic informed the framework of partition.
مسألة رايات موسم النبي موسى واختفائها،
ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خا... more مسألة رايات موسم النبي موسى واختفائها، ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خالل الفترة 1858 ـ 1948 ،واالعتبارات التي دفعت سلطات االنتداب البريطاين إىل صناعة املشهد الفلسطيني عبر الكتابة والنصوص، كآلية لتحقيق أهدافها السياسية.
Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940 Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global City
This is a chapter from "Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940, Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global C... more This is a chapter from "Ordinary Jerusalem 1840-1940, Opening New Archives, Revisiting a Global City", Editors: Angelos Dalachanis and Vincent Lemire (Brill: 2018). The book is available open access, http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/9789004375741?showtab=chapters, and contains excellent contributions from many colleagues.
This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of
Jews in late-Ottoman Pales... more This article argues for a significant revision in the understanding of Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities, embedded within local, regional and global networks. The conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long portrayed Palestine’s Jews as sui-generis community, a Jewish microcosm united in its unique attachment to the Eretz Israel. It was studied as part of Jewish history, in isolation from its Middle Eastern context. In contrast, recent Relational Studies stressed Jewish connections to the Arab and Ottoman environment in Palestine. The article examines the self-perception of Jewish communities as plural and heterogeneous, through a survey of early Hebrew Press. It traces the genealogy of the term yishuv, from an ideological project of revival and colonization in the 1860s, to an imagined pan-Jewish national community after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. This shift was boosted not only by Zionism and Jewish diaspora influence, but also by Ottomanism. Even then, Jewish communities in Palestine continued to operate separately in a highly fragmented manner well into the British Mandate.
Jerusalem is typically presented as a city where religious and ethnic segregation is deep-rooted.... more Jerusalem is typically presented as a city where religious and ethnic segregation is deep-rooted. This chapter challenges this portrayal, while problematizing the ways we theorize and measure segregation. Building on recent debates in urban studies, I follow the life history of one Jerusalemite, Justice Gad Frumkin, to examine how encounter and separation played out in the lived experience of the city. Frumkin, who was born to a Jewish Ashkenazi family in the " Muslim Quarter, " studied law in Istanbul, became a judge in Palestine's Supreme Court under British rule, and was a Zionist with excellent ties with the Arab elite. His writing reveals a complex picture of Jerusalem that does not conform to the stereotype of entrenched ethnic residential segregation. I show that the reorganization of the city in the late Ottoman period facilitated the creation of new civic spaces associated with a common identity. Such possibilities became impossible under the British Mandate and the emerging Zionist-Arab conflict; however, trade and work relations persisted in numerous places of encounter up until the 1947 inter-communal war. I suggest that in analyzing segregation in conflict environments, attention should be paid to the quotidian rhythms of commerce, labor, and movement through the city, and not only to the question of residential segregation.
In: Goldstein-Sabbah, S. R. and Murre-Van Den Berg, H. L. , (eds.), Modernity, Minority, and the Public Sphere: Jews and Christians in the Middle East. Leiden: Brill. (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society) (2016)
This is an earlier draft version of the chapter that was later published as
Wallach, Yair (2016... more This is an earlier draft version of the chapter that was later published as
Wallach, Yair (2016) 'Jewish Nationalism:On the Impossibility of Muslim Jews.' In: Meri, Yousef, (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp. 331-350. (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)
Examining recent developments in the study of Zionism, and focussing on the notion of Jewishstate... more Examining recent developments in the study of Zionism, and focussing on the notion of Jewishstatehood, this article argues that the alleged uninterrupted continuity of Zionism in the 20 th cen-tury (as an ideology, movement, and political project) masks deep ruptures and transitions. The‘Jewish State’ is often presented as the unchanging core principle of Zionism. And yet the consti-tutional framework of Israel differs considerably from Zionist visions of statehood of the 1920s and1930s.
This article, published in 2010, examined the narrowing down of room for political dissent in Isr... more This article, published in 2010, examined the narrowing down of room for political dissent in Israel, as a consequence of Israel's de-facto annexation of the West Bank.
Arabic translation of my review article "Israel and Palestine in the Age of Trump", published in ... more Arabic translation of my review article "Israel and Palestine in the Age of Trump", published in Marginalia
"This issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly is yet another special issue, this time dedicated to Jerus... more "This issue of the Jerusalem Quarterly is yet another special issue, this time dedicated to Jerusalem’s futures, albeit the interrupted ones. As guest editor, Falestin Naïli conjured a lineup that brings into sharper focus, and elaborates on, a familiar theme in writings on Palestine and on the condition of Palestinians in Jerusalem and elsewhere: a theme of lost opportunities and unrealized plans. We leave it to you, our readers, to imagine what this means as you contemplate the turbulent history of Jerusalem in the twentieth century."
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2022/4 (N° 156), pages 85 à 101
remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which
partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the
explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in
the first half of the twentieth century. British and international policy makers
regarded (European) Jews as a non-European, Semitic race. This led them to
view Jewish Zionist migrants and native Palestinian Arabs as somewhat
comparable groups. Rather than a clash between European settlers and Arab
natives, they saw in Palestine a conflict between two nations living side by
side. Reading through key documents – the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine
Mandate, and the Partition Reports of 1937 and 1947 – I show how this racial
logic informed the framework of partition.
ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خالل الفترة 1858 ـ
1948 ،واالعتبارات التي دفعت سلطات االنتداب البريطاين إىل صناعة املشهد
الفلسطيني عبر الكتابة والنصوص، كآلية لتحقيق أهدافها السياسية.
Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular
community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities,
embedded within local, regional and global networks. The
conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the
Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their
ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long
portrayed Palestine’s Jews as sui-generis community, a Jewish
microcosm united in its unique attachment to the Eretz Israel. It was
studied as part of Jewish history, in isolation from its Middle
Eastern context. In contrast, recent Relational Studies stressed
Jewish connections to the Arab and Ottoman environment in
Palestine. The article examines the self-perception of Jewish
communities as plural and heterogeneous, through a survey of
early Hebrew Press. It traces the genealogy of the term yishuv, from
an ideological project of revival and colonization in the 1860s, to
an imagined pan-Jewish national community after the 1908 Young
Turk Revolution. This shift was boosted not only by Zionism and
Jewish diaspora influence, but also by Ottomanism. Even then,
Jewish communities in Palestine continued to operate separately in
a highly fragmented manner well into the British Mandate.
In: Goldstein-Sabbah, S. R. and Murre-Van Den Berg, H. L. , (eds.), Modernity, Minority, and the Public Sphere: Jews and Christians in the Middle East. Leiden: Brill. (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society) (2016)
Wallach, Yair (2016) 'Jewish Nationalism:On the Impossibility of Muslim Jews.' In: Meri, Yousef, (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp. 331-350. (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)
th
cen-tury (as an ideology, movement, and political project) masks deep ruptures and transitions. The‘Jewish State’ is often presented as the unchanging core principle of Zionism. And yet the consti-tutional framework of Israel differs considerably from Zionist visions of statehood of the 1920s and1930s.
2022/4 (N° 156), pages 85 à 101
remains a consensus international approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Why was Palestine the only settler-colonial context outside Europe in which
partition became a dominant “solution”? This article argues that the
explanation is found in European racial attitudes towards Jews and Arabs in
the first half of the twentieth century. British and international policy makers
regarded (European) Jews as a non-European, Semitic race. This led them to
view Jewish Zionist migrants and native Palestinian Arabs as somewhat
comparable groups. Rather than a clash between European settlers and Arab
natives, they saw in Palestine a conflict between two nations living side by
side. Reading through key documents – the Balfour Declaration, the Palestine
Mandate, and the Partition Reports of 1937 and 1947 – I show how this racial
logic informed the framework of partition.
ِّ كجزء من دراسة للمشهد النص ّي العربي والعبري يف القدس خالل الفترة 1858 ـ
1948 ،واالعتبارات التي دفعت سلطات االنتداب البريطاين إىل صناعة املشهد
الفلسطيني عبر الكتابة والنصوص، كآلية لتحقيق أهدافها السياسية.
Jews in late-Ottoman Palestine: from a model of a singular
community (the yishuv) to a model of multiple communities,
embedded within local, regional and global networks. The
conceptualization of Palestine’s Jewry is reappraised, from the
Jerusalem School to recent literature. Despite acknowledging their
ethnic and linguistic diversity, the historiography has long
portrayed Palestine’s Jews as sui-generis community, a Jewish
microcosm united in its unique attachment to the Eretz Israel. It was
studied as part of Jewish history, in isolation from its Middle
Eastern context. In contrast, recent Relational Studies stressed
Jewish connections to the Arab and Ottoman environment in
Palestine. The article examines the self-perception of Jewish
communities as plural and heterogeneous, through a survey of
early Hebrew Press. It traces the genealogy of the term yishuv, from
an ideological project of revival and colonization in the 1860s, to
an imagined pan-Jewish national community after the 1908 Young
Turk Revolution. This shift was boosted not only by Zionism and
Jewish diaspora influence, but also by Ottomanism. Even then,
Jewish communities in Palestine continued to operate separately in
a highly fragmented manner well into the British Mandate.
In: Goldstein-Sabbah, S. R. and Murre-Van Den Berg, H. L. , (eds.), Modernity, Minority, and the Public Sphere: Jews and Christians in the Middle East. Leiden: Brill. (Leiden Studies in Islam and Society) (2016)
Wallach, Yair (2016) 'Jewish Nationalism:On the Impossibility of Muslim Jews.' In: Meri, Yousef, (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, pp. 331-350. (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)
th
cen-tury (as an ideology, movement, and political project) masks deep ruptures and transitions. The‘Jewish State’ is often presented as the unchanging core principle of Zionism. And yet the consti-tutional framework of Israel differs considerably from Zionist visions of statehood of the 1920s and1930s.