Israel Studies Seminar
The Israel Studies Seminar is a weekly public seminar at the University of Oxford during term time. It explores Israeli society, history, politics, and culture through talks by an international roster of speakers. The series is convened by Prof. Yaacov Yadgar and hosted by the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College. It is aimed at students, researchers, and others interested in Israel studies.
Episodes
Stav Shufan-Biton/“Just Follow the Magic”: Ritual Holy Time among Jews as a Minority Community in Comparison to Their Position as a Cultural Majority in Israel
In this lecture, Dr Stav Shufan-Biton examines how Israeli Jews living outside Israel experience holy time, focusing on Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and local religious and civil holidays such as Halloween and Christmas. Drawing on ongoing ethnographic research based on interviews and observations conducted within Israeli Jewish communities in Cambridge and London, the findings show that cultural dis
Elad Lapidot/Levinas and Decolonial Israel
Professor Elad Lapidot reflects on the relations between post-Holocaust Jewish thought and decolonial thought through the work of French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Recently thinkers criticized Levinas for his Eurocentrism. In his recent book, State of Others. Levinas and Decolonial Israel (Indiana UP, 2025), he argues that Levinas anticipated this critique and from the 1960s on sought to
What's the problem with the Jewish State?
Raef Zreik talks about his paper, with a focus on Zionist, Liberal and Movement. When things are presented in an alternative way, we will find out that the problem is political, not logical, it is historical and not merely concept Raef Zreik, a Professor of moral and political philosophy at Tel Aviv College and Prof. of Jurisprudence at Ono Academic college and senior researcher at Jerusalem Van L
The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity
The grouping of Yiddish speaking Jews, of various origin countries in Central and Eastern Europe, into a single overarching identity of Ashkenazim, was meaningful particularly in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Jewish contexts. This seminar examines the shaping of the Ashkenazi community in Ottoman Jerusalem, as facilitated by Ottoman legal and political context. Ottoman recognition of Ashkenazim a
Student volunteering in historical perspective: debates and tensions in Israeli higher education
In this talk, Dr Sapir will present her research on the historical development of student volunteering in Israeli higher education and its current implications. Based on archival analysis of two elite universities over four decades, the study identifies three key debates surrounding student volunteering: over the purpose of volunteering; over its mandatory nature; and over the awarding of academic
Intersecting Penalties: Reproducing Inequality Among Palestinian Middle-Class Women
This study explores the mechanisms underlying the paradox of marginality experienced by middle-class Palestinian professional women in the Israeli labour market through an intersectional analysis of their everyday professional lives. It demonstrates that this paradox—characterised by their marginalisation despite possessing high educational capital comparable to that of highly educated Jewish (bot
Is the Gaza War the End or the Beginning of Romantic Religious Zionism?
In this lecture I present Religious Zionism, the right-wing religious nationalist movement, which despite representing 12-16% of Israel’s population, has a prominent and influential place in the current “fully” right-wing government. In contradistinction to previous research, I argue that this movement, which initiated and led the settlement movement in the West Bank and the Golan Heights, is bes
From Separation to a Shared Homeland: Notes on Settler-Colonial Urbanism in Israel/Palestine
In this presentation, Professor Yacobi aims to discuss settler colonial urbanism(s) in Palestine/Israel, while exploring the different spatial and political typologies developed during the last few decades. He will discuss how colonial planning has been used as a tool of social, demographic, and spatial control and how Palestinian claims for the right to the city are meaningful political forms of
The Ethics of the Mothers: Field notes on Mizrahi women's religion of care
This talk explores the notion of obligation towards others at the intersection of Jewish feminist thought and the lived religious practices of Sephardi women in Israel. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and her involvement in Arevot — the only Sephardi feminist beit midrash in Israel — Dr Cohen examines how women who engage in practices of blessing, healing, and intercessory prayer construct a mor
Precarious Labour in Precarious Times: The Impact of the War in Israel/Palestine on Non-Citizen Workers
Although overshadowed by the scale of atrocities in Gaza since October 2023, employment and workers’ rights significantly affect individual lives, non-citizen workers, and the region’s political economy The scale of atrocities in Gaza since October 2023 has overshadowed less catastrophic issues such as employment and workers’ rights. Yet these concerns, while less urgent, significantly affect indi
"A Man Learns Only from What His Heart Desires": Hebrew Textbooks Reimagined
By situating Hebrew textbooks for adults within their historical and social contexts, this lecture sheds light on the intricate relationship between pedagogy, national identity, and the challenges faced by immigrants adapting to a new homeland. Employing the concept of Entangled Histories, it connects global pedagogical knowledge of language instruction with the unique adaptations developed in Man
Love, Pride, Fear, and Happiness: Zionism as a Case Study for 'National Emotions'
What emotional traits are essential for building a nation? More broadly, are there such things as ‘national emotions,’ and if so, what are they? In this lecture, I will explore these questions by analysing the Zionist case through the lens of the history of emotions. I will examine emotions where the national dimension is evident, such as honour and love of the homeland, alongside emotions that ma
Israeli Far-Right amid the Erosion of the 'Legitimate Circle of Politics'
The seminar explores the discursive mapping of far-right constituents within the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history, formed under Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership after the five elections held between 2019 and 2022. The Religious Zionism Party and Jewish Power have consistently been at the centre of heated debate—not only because their leaders hold critical ministerial positions, includ
To Be a Jewish State
A book launch event marking the publication of Yaacov Yadgar's new book, To Be a Jewish State: Zionism as the New Judaism. The author in conversation with Amnon Ray-Krakotzkin
Trade Networks Bridging Yemen, Israel, and Ethiopia: The Ḥibshūsh Family and Jewish-Muslim Commercial Relations in the 20th Century
This lecture examines the commercial legacy of the Ḥibshūsh family, a prominent Yemenite Jewish dynasty that played a pivotal role in the Red Sea basin trade from the 1880s to the 1970s Utilizing a rich archive of primary sources, this global micro-historical study illuminates the intricate Jewish-Arab commercial networks that flourished across geopolitical boundaries, encompassing Yemen, Mandator
Abraham and Moses as Entrepreneurs: Educating for the Future with Narratives of the Past
How does the global entrepreneurial discourse, which advocates for a neoliberal, individualistic, and future-oriented identity, intersects with a state education system that seeks to establish a collectivist and ethno-national identity? Over the past two decades, the entrepreneurial ethos has gained prominence in state education systems across many countries, aiming to construct an entrepreneurial
Synagogues in Israeli Urban Internal Frontiers as Symbols of Sovereignty
Israeli synagogues in mixed cities following the 1948 war, and their sovereign role This paper will focus on synagogues in the urban internal frontier in Israel following the 1948 war and the Nakba. Following the 1948 war and the collapse of Palestinian urbanity, several administrative initiatives were held by the authorities to demonstrate sovereignty in these urban internal frontiers. Among thes
New & Jew, Zionism and the Quest for National Culture
The Creation of Hebrew Music and its Origins The Zionist claim to Palestine was based on a very old story; so old that it became a myth. And since the distance between the Jewish present and the Jewish past was vast, the wish to make Palestine a home for a modern Jewish nation called for creating that nation anew. It was an immense claim that required an equally immense innovation. The lecture re
Michal Huss - You cannot really live (or die) here: ongoing struggles over cemeteries and housing in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957-2020
Debates over housing and cemeteries in Jaffa. In the summer of 2020, protests erupted in Jaffa against a plan to build a homeless shelter on the site of the ancient Al-Isaaf Muslim cemetery, and in the following year, the community mobilized to protest a wave of housing demolitions. These were the latest in a long line of actions by the Muslim community opposing the sale and demolition of Muslim c
Martin Goodman - The Image of Herod in Modern Israel
Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist perceptions of Herod. Much is known from ancient authors and archaeological remains about the life and rule of Herod the Great (73-4 BCE), who was appointed king of Judaea by the Romans in 40 BCE. In later Christian mythology, Herod was depicted as an archetypical tyrant who had ordered a massacre of infants in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Jesus, but Jewish tr
Yemima Hadad - Buber and Gandhi on land and resistance: Reading the Buber-Gandhi correspondence after October 7
Contesting pacifist views and their implications today. In 1938, shortly after the November Reichspogromnacht, leaders of the Zionist movement turned to Gandhi with a request to support the Zionist enterprise in Eretz-Israel/Palestine. Gandhi, against their expectations, stated his strong objection to Zionism, suggesting that German Jews should stay in Germany and practice Satyagraha, even if it w
Anat Scolnicov - The Israel Supreme Court Religion and the Relationship of State and Religion in Israel
On judicial independence in Israel Israel was originally to have a Constitution, but it never did as the issue proved divisive on religious grounds, among others. An unwritten constitution developed in its place. This is the legal context of current constitutional debates, including on the constitutional status of religion in Israel. The solution was the adoption of chapters or Basic Laws, that to
Amos Morris-Rich - The Fusion of Zionism and Science: The First Two Decades - And the Present Day?
On Zionism's relation to Science Focusing on the relationship between Zionism and science in the first two decades of the Zionist movement, the argument of this paper is threefold. First, that a relationship was established with the very inception of the Zionist movement. Second, it is characterized by a duality, a tension between a highly pragmatic scientific attitude, on the one hand, namely sci
Neta Schramm - Zionist Neutral? The Sardonic Zionism of Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Ovadia Yosef
Neta Schramm discusses the (non-ideological) "think Zionism" stances of two leading Israeli figures. Back in the days when the Israeli labour party enjoyed its dominance, two prominent agenda-setters in Israel shared an unpopular position: Zionism does not define nor embody Judaism. Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, two Orthodox Jews affiliated with different social and religious m
Maya Mark - Menachem Begin’s stand on the imposition of the Military Government, 1948- 1966
Maya Mark discusses Menachem Begin's commitment to Liberalism The Military Government over the Arab citizens of Israel was established several months after the founding of the state, and ended late in 1966. Although it was initially driven by security considerations and fears concerning the Arab citizens’ involvement in hostile activities, its political and economic usefulness to the government an
Hillel Cohen - Haters, Love Story: on the relations between Mizrahi Jews and Palestinian Arab’
Hillel Cohen discusses his new book on Mizrahim, Arabs, and Asheknazim in Israel The prominence of Mizrahi Jews as perpetrators of violent acts against Palestinians that have topped the headlines in recent years was the starting point of my recent study. The media coverage and public denunciation of these incidents are usually accompanied by reference to the attackers’ Mizrahi origins, frequently
Suzanne Schneider - The Divine People? Mapping the political-theological coordinates of post-liberalism
On the political theology of "illiberal democracy" The rise of right-wing ‘populist’ parties has generated considerable anxiety over the future of liberal democracy in countries ranging from India and Turkey to Israel, Hungary, Brazil, and the United States, among others. This talk will attend to the political-theological dimensions of what has variously been called post-liberalism, illiberal demo
Gabriel Schwake - Dwelling on the Green Line: Privatize and Rule in Israel/Palestine
Gabriel Schwake discusses his new book dealing with urban planning along the green line. Concealed within the walls of settlements along the Green Line, the border between Israel and the occupied West-Bank, is a complex history of territoriality, privatisation, and multifaceted class dynamics. Since the late 1970s, the state aimed to expand the heavily populated coastal area eastwards into the oc
Tilde Rosmer - The Islamic Movement in Israel
Tilde Rosmer (Zayed University) discusses the history and politics of the Islamic Movement in Israel. The Islamic Movement in Israel was established in the early 1980s by and for Palestinian citizens of Israel. It has a non-violent approach focusing on providing its community with grassroots Islamization, as well as catering to this community’s socio-economic needs. Its trifecta of goals is to pro
Gideon Katz - The Fear of Judaism in Israeli Culture
Gideon Katz discusses some of the mure surprising aspect of Israeli secularism The fear of Judaism is an important theme in Israeli culture. By analyzing Israeli dystopias and essays we have the chance to “look” closely at this fear, and its images. The main one is the image on Judaism as the Israeli unconsciousness that ambush to the secular identity. This central image tells us something about t
Nitzan Lebovic: Is Zionism a “Left-Wing Melancholy”?
Nitzan Levobic discusses Zionism and melancholy, through the woks of Israel Zarchi The story of the early Zionist settlement in Palestine could be told from the viewpoint of failure and melancholia. An untold history of this period ignores the high rate of suicides and cases of clinical depression among the Zionist “pioneers”. The story of the forgotten author Israel Zarchi (1909-1947) will serve
Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman - Hollywood and Israel: A History
The authors of a recently published book dealing with the history of Hollywood's relation with Israel discuss some of their findings From Frank Sinatra's early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg's present-day peace-making, Hollywood has long enjoyed a 'special relationship' with Israel. Based on a newly-published book by Columbia University Press, this paper outlines the ways in which Hollyw
Haggai Ram - The Social Life of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel: A Global History
Haggai Ram charts the (modern) history of Hashish in the Holy Land After a century of prohibition, we are witnessing a dramatic shift in cannabis culture and policy around the world from a “killer weed” and a cause of racial degeneration to an accepted recreational drug and a “magic medicine.” In his lecture, Haggai Ram will examine this global shift of cannabis by focusing on the social history o
Amnon Aran - Israeli foreign policy since the end of the Cold War
Amnon Aran maps the development of Israeli foreign policy since the end of the Cold War This is the first study of Israeli foreign policy towards the Middle East and selected world powers including China, India, the European Union and the United States since the end of the Cold War. The book provides an integrated account of these foreign policy spheres and serves as an essential historical contex
Michael Karayanni - Religion and State among the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel: A Multicultural Entrapment
Michael Karayanni considers how the Israeli construction of religion and politics shapes the live Palestinian-Arabs in the state. The religion-and-state debate in Israel is Jewish centred and systematically disregards the Palestinian-Arab minority. This is rather puzzling. For the religion-and-state debate in many other countries does take up conflicts pertaining to minority religions, and the Pa
Eldad Ben Aharon - Supporting Denial: Israel’s Foreign Policy and the Armenian Genocide
Eldad Ben-Aharon charts the history of Israel's refusal to recognise the Armenian Genocide. In a milestone vote in late 2019, both the US House of Representatives and Senate overturned more than forty years of precedent to pass a bill declaring that the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was, in fact, a genocide. Subsequently, on 24 April 2021, also US President Joe Biden has o
Kathrin Bachleitner - A road towards atonement? Why only West Germany came to “atone” for the Nazi crimes.
Kathrin Bachleitner remaps the road that led to Germany's "atonement" for the Holocaust The duty to remember the Holocaust, the profession of responsibility for the atrocities committed, the admission of guilt and shame on the part of all Germans with the ensuing effort to atone for the past constitute the cornerstone of Germany’s national memory approach today. However, what started this official
Atalia Omer - Pathways toward a Jewish Israeli Restorative Ethics
Atalia Omer discusses restorative justice practices and the possibilities (and limits) of Jewish critiques of Zionism. In the same way that it is no longer possible to talk about antisemitism without also thinking about Israel/Palestine, it is no longer possible to imagine Jewish ethics outside the realities of Jewish power. My focus here is on when such thinking unfolds through a restorative just
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar: Elana Shapira: Berta Zuckerkandl and Her Circle: Austrian Nationalism and Zionism in Viennese Modernism
Elana Shapira discusses the tangled relationship between Austrian Nationalism and Zionism in Viennese Modernism Berta Zuckerkandl grew up witnessing her father, publisher of the newspaper Neues Wiener Tagblatt, Moritz Szeps’s stormy career and political engagements. Moritz Szeps was a close advisor to the liberal Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf and a supporter of an Austria-France alliance through hi
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar: Maja Gildin Zuckerman: The Pragmatism of Proto-Zionism: Tracing Jewish Nation-building through a Cultural Sociological Framework
Maya Gildin Zuckerman discusses a 1897 tour from London to Palestine as a moment in the Zionist meaning making process. Zionist emergence and its early developments have often been told either as a person/organisation-centred narrative or a Herderian cultural-geographically distinct account (see Dubnov 2011). Through the empirical case study of Danish Zionist emergence, I will show Zionism as an
Jamie Stern-Weiner: IHRA: The Politics of a Definition
Jamie Stern-Weiner (Oxford) traces the genesis and evolution of a controversial 'working definition' of antisemitism. The Working Definition of Antisemitism was originally presented in modest terms: a common reference point enabling monitoring bodies to collect data in a manner that permitted cross-country comparison. Some 15 years on, a formidable array of Jewish organisations and supportive Gove
Anna Prashizky: Connecting Ethnicity and Space: The New Russian-Mizrahi-Mediterranean Pop Culture in Israel’s Periphery
Ann Prashizky discusses 'self orientalistation' by the 1.5 generation of FSU immigrants to Israel. Abstract
This seminar explores the mutual influences between urban spaces and ethnic relations and hierarchies in the cultural field. It hinges on the two theoretical arguments: that physical place influences intergroup/ethnic relations, and that ethnic relations may reshape the meaning of spaces, e
Adam Sutcliffe: Light Unto the Nations - The Idea of Jewish Purpose and the Emergence of Zionism (Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar)
Adam Sutcliffe (KCL) discusses how Zionist ideologues have viewed the notion of Jewish purpose. The nineteenth-century emergence of Zionism was intimately connected to the idea that the Jews served a uniquely crucial role in the world. This notion is rooted in theological anticipations, both Jewish and Christian, of a messianic future. From it the 1860s took on distinct overtones of economic and g
Tal Shamur (Cambridge): The emergence of melancholic citizenship at the urban periphery: The case of south Tel Aviv protest against global migration
Tal Shamur presents his work on the melancholic protest of Hatikva residents. While the concept of citizenship is often related to legal status within the nation state, the actual expression of the concept is defined by one’s standing within the political community and develops questions of inclusion and belonging where spaces of citizenship extend to the city level. According to this perspective,
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar: Rose Stair (Oxford): Age and gender in German-language cultural Zionism
The fourth lecture in the Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies seminar series. Rose Stair discusses cultural Zionism through a focus on age and gender. This paper examines the construction and mobilization of age categories in the German-language cultural Zionism of the turn of the 20th century. Presenting examples of texts and visual art that employ models and metaphors of different
Peter Bergamin (Oxford): Guns and Moses: Jewish anti-British Resistance during the Mandate for Palestine
Peter Bergamin presents some findings and conclusions from his recent research on the British Mandate for Palestine, focusin on the phenomena of Jewish illegal immigration and anti-British terrorism, and their role in Britain’s eventual abandonment of the Abstract:
In this seminar Dr Bergamin presents some findings and conclusions from his recent research on the British Mandate for Palestine. The
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar: Yuval Evri (KCL) - The Return to Al-Andalus: Disputes Over Sephardic Culture and Identity Between Arabic and Hebrew
Yuval Evri discusses his new book, The Return to Al-Andalus, Disputes Over Sephardic Culture and Identity Between Arabic and Hebrew Abstract:
Against the background of the tumultuous political and social events of the period and the processes of national, ethnic, and religious partitions that gained momentum during those years, the lecture explores the ways in which these Arab-Jewish intellectual
Nahshon Perez (Bar-Ilan) and Yuval Jobani (Tel Aviv): Governing the Sacred: Political Toleration in Five Contested Sacred Sites
Nachshon Perez discusses Perez and Jobani's co-authored book on the politics of contested sacred sites Abstract:
Sacred sites are often at the center of intense contestation between different groups regarding a wide variety of issues, including ownership, access, usage rights, permissible religious conduct, and many others. They are often the source of intractable, long-standing conflicts and ext
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Semina: Danielle Drori (Oxford): Yosef Klausner in Translation: Zionism and Christianity
The second seminar in the Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalism Sereis. Danielle Drori discusses Zionism and translation, with a focus on Klausner's Life of Jesus Abstract:
The literary critic, historian, and Hebrew writer Yosef Klausner has never been as widely known and as celebrated as some of his mentors and interlocutors in the Zionist movement. His competing alliances may explain this. He
Reconsidering Early Jewish Nationalist Ideologies Seminar: Yair Wallach, (SOAS): Language of Revival or Conquest? Hebrew in the Streets of early 20th century Jerusalem
Yair Wallach discusses his book A City in Fragments: Urban Text in Modern Jerusalem (Stanford University Press, 2020). Until the late nineteenth century, Hebrew was rare to come by in the streets of Jerusalem, visible only in a handful of synagogues and communal institutions. Yet in the early years of the twentieth century, Hebrew erupted into the city's urban space. It appeared in rabbinical proc
Sandy Kedar: Emptied Lands - A Legal Geography of Bedouin Rights in the Negev.
Prof. Sandy Kedar (Haifa) discusses his co-authored book on the legal rights of the Bedouin in the Negev. Kedar presents his book, Emptied Lands (co-authored with Amara and Yiftachel). Emptied Lands investigates the protracted legal, planning, and territorial conflict between the settler Israeli state and indigenous Bedouin citizens over traditional lands in southern Israel/Palestine. The authors
Hizky Shoham - The Emotional Scripting of Boycotts: The Nazi-Zionist Agreement in Jewish Public Culture During the 1930s
Hizky Shoham discusses the 'emotionologies' surrounding the Nazi-Zionist 'Transfer agreement.' Are boycotts emotional outbursts or practical political tools? The proposed paper looks at the emotional aspects of the public debate that raged in Jewish Palestine in the 1930s about the Nazi-Zionist agreement, in order to suggest a theory of boycotts as emotional scripts. The Ha'avara ('transfer') agre
Larissa Remennick - The Israeli Diaspora in Berlin: Back to Being Jewish?
Larissa Remeniick discuss the origins and present condition of the new (post-2010) Israeli diaspora in Berlin In this lecture, I reflect on the origins and present condition of the new
(post-2010) Israeli diaspora in Berlin. Based on 10 months of participant
observation, I map out the main sub-streams of this emigration, elicit the
economic, professional, and political reasons for leaving Isr
Lotem Perry-Hazan: Ethnic segregation in the Haredi education in Israel: Policies and practices
Lotem Perry-Hazzan discusses ethnic discrimination in admissions to Haredi schools in Israel Haredi education has been dominated by the Ashkenazic Haredi Independent Education school network since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. During the 1980s the Sephardic Haredi community established its own school network so as to avoid the discriminatory practices of the Ashkenazi-dominated
Heather Munro: Ashkenazi Hegemony in Haredi Israeli Society and Implications for the Future
Heather Monro discusses the implications of Ashkenazi Hegemony in the Israeli Haredi society. Discrimination against Sephardim has become a growing issue in the Haredi world in Israel, but one which has taken a backseat to the more pressing questions of gender inequality and the religious-secular divide. Heather Munro's research has revealed that new Haredi feminist movements are increasingly enga
The Making of the Israeli Far Right Book Talk by Peter Bergamin
Peter Bergamin discusses his new book: The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology Abba Ahimeir (1897 –1962) writer, journalist and historian began his public life as a socialist, but subsequently moved toward the rightward extreme of Zionist ideology. One of the earliest opponents of the British Mandate, in 1930 he founded a radical organization called Brit Habiryonim (
Seyed Ali Alavi - Iran and Palestine: Past, Present and Future
Ali Alavi discusses the history of Iran's relations with Palestinian organisation and the Palestinian cause, and their implication to Iranian-Israeli relations. Examining the nature of relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Palestine, the talk investigates the relationship between state and authorities in the Middle East. Analysing the connections of the Iranian revolutionary movements
Tamar Calahorra, Competition between Members of Parliament and Governmental ministries on Policy Outcomes through Legislation – Israel as a Test case
Dr. Calahorra studies some dramatic changes in the ways legislation is conducted in Israel Politicians, whether they be ordinary MPs and or government ministers (GMs), compete on the ability to influence policy outcomes. After elections and the formation of government, they do that through legislation ("Competition through Legislation"), in parliamentary democracies that allow such competition. Th
Nancy Hawker - Palestinian multilingualism: A perfectly normal adaptation to colonialism, conflict and late capitalism
Nancy Hawker (The Aga Khan University) considers the developing place of Arabic in official nation-statist platforms in Israel In the governing institutions of Israel, Arabic is suppressed. This practice crystallised in the early years of the state: there were points in history where it might not have gone in the direction of suppression; some activists in the 1960s had campaigned for some kind of
Yoav Ronel - 'Love, Zionism and Melancholy in the Prose of Micha Yosef Berdichevsky'
Yoav Ronel (Bezalel and BGU) considers representations of a melancholic national and subjective desire in the prose of Micha Yosef Berdichevsky (1865-1921) This talk deals with the representations of a melancholic national and subjective desire, in the prose of Micha Yosef Berdichevsky (1865-1921), one of the prominent figures of the revival period of modern Hebrew Literature. Berdichevsky – as cr
Avihu Shoshana - 'Nocturnal Inequality: Ethnographies of Social Selection and Waiting in Line for Night Clubs in Tel-Aviv'
Avihu Shoshana (Haifa University) discusses findings from his ethnography of social selection in Israeli night-clubs. This ethnographic study examines how micro-inequality operates face-to-face in everyday (or actually everynight) context of the nocturnal space of night clubs, focusing in particular on the long line awaiting entry to the club and undergoing the selection process to determine who i
Jonathan Leslie - Fear and Insecurity: Competing Narratives of the Iran-Israel Relationship
Jonathan Leslie considers the history of Iran's "becoming" and existential threat in Israel Years after the Islamic Republic of Iran resumed its nuclear development program, Israeli leaders began constructing a narrative aimed at instilling in their polity the fear of Iran as an existential threat to the Jewish State. Building upon Israel’s geopolitical insecurity, politicians, assisted by societ
Moriel Ram, 'A tale of sand and snow: Bar-Lev line and the Hermon ski site as material fantasies'
Moriel Ram (SOAS) discusses how sand and snow produce potent imageries and physical realities in Israeli political culture. The talk examines how sand and snow produce potent imageries and physical realities which both solidify and undermine social hierarchies, cultural imagination and power relations. Focusing on Israel's fortification campaign in the Sinai Peninsula and touristic schemes in the
The Folly of Secularism Dialogues on the theopolitics of the nation-state: Israel in a wider context. Session 3: Israel: a dialogue between Yehouda Shenhav (Tel Aviv) and Yaacov Yadgar (Oxford)
Yehouda Shenhav and Yaacov Yadgar discuss the uses and misuses of a discourse on “Judaism” in Israel. Session 3 in a series of three.
The Folly of Secularism Dialogues on the theopolitics of the nation-state: Israel in a wider context. Session 2: Liberalism and Secularism: a dialogue between Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern) and Yolanda Jansen (Amsterdam)
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Yolande Jansen discuss the notion of the “secular,” liberal politics of the nation-state. Session 2 in a series of three
The Folly of Secularism Dialogues on the theopolitics of the nation-state: Israel in a wider context. Session 1 Religion and Politics: a dialogue between William Cavanaugh (DePaul) and Timothy Fitzgerald (Centre for Critical Research on Religion)
Timothy Fitzgerald and William Cavanaugh discuss the politics and history of the conceptual duality and its current usages. First session in a series of three
Avner Offer: Quality of Life and Well-being in Israel Today
Avner offer discusses how to measure -- and how to understand the measurements -- of quality of life and well-being in Israel. Israel scores very high internationally in the reported happiness of its Jewish inhabitants, and government politicians make much of that survey result. On the face of it there is a paradox: the country does not score high on other quality-of-life indicators and is not an
Eyal Chowers - The emerging notion of sovereignty in contemporary Israel
Eyal Chowers considers Israeli democracy, liberalism, and the emerging notion of sovereignty in the state
Guy Burton - Rising Powers and the Arab-Israeli Conflict since 1947'
How have rising power engaged with the Arab-Israeli conflict? What does this tell us about rising powers and conflict management as well as their behaviour in international politics more generally? How have rising power engaged with the Arab-Israeli conflict? What does this tell us about rising powers and conflict management as well as their behaviour in international politics more generally? The
Ibrahim Khatib - Identity, Conflict perception and Reconciliation in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict
Ibrahim Khatib discusses the correlations between identity, conflict perception, and willingness to reconcile. In the context of protracted conflict, is there a relation between identity and willingness for reconciliation, and in what way does this relation exist? The current study checks the relation between individual differences in identity perceptions of a given protracted conflict along relig
Menachem Klein - Abbas' Leadership in a State Postponed
Menachem Klein discusses the political biography and leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Professor Klein presents a portrait of Abbas as PA President including in comparison to his predecessor - Arafat. Klein deals with these two leaders in his forthcoming book Arafat and Abbas: Portraits of Leadership in a State Postponed (C Hurst and Co Publishers, July 2019)
Khaled Furani - Putting Israel on the Couch: A Palestinian challenge from within the Leviathan
Khaled Furani deconstruct sovereignty, and considers some alternatives. The deceits and deficiencies of the workings of sovereignty have received noticeable attention among generations of writers in Israel/Palestine. However, the sovereignty of sovereignty itself as a reigning paradigm in the Western tradition of political thought remains unduly recognized. Taking this insufficient attention as an
Netta Cohen - When climate takes command: Jewish-Zionist scientific approaches to climate in Palestine 1900-1948
How did Zionist scientist see climate in Palestine? Netta Cohen presents her doctoral research which occupies the intersection between modern Jewish history, climate and environmental history, the history of knowledge, and colonial history. Her talk focuses on Jewish physicians, architects, and botanists as they examined the potential ramifications of climate on the success of the Zionist project
Brian Klug - Defining antisemitism, demonizing Zionism, excoriating Corbyn: The current controversy over the left and the Jews
Brian Klug analyses the controversy around antisemitism in the Labour Party and the limits on the criticism of Zionism. In July 2018 a storm of controversy broke out in the UK when the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party published a draft code of conduct to tackle antisemitism. Ostensibly, the controversy was about Labour's failure to adopt the definition of antisemitism formula
Orna Sasson-Levy - Gendered citizenship: The case of Women Breaking the Silence
Orna Sasson-Levy discusses the cast of women soldiers who decide to speak Women's military service has dual meanings: on the one hand, it includes women in the institution of citizenship and enhances their feelings of belonging to the national collective. On the other hand, the women's encounter with the state at such a formative time, becomes an initiation process into gendered citizenship, where
Adriana X Jacobs - A gift from Sinai: Translation and nation-building
Adriana Jacobs (Oxford) discusses the role of translation in the constitutive era of modern Hebrew literature. In the early decades of the twentieth century, as the European literary enclaves of Hebrew literature began to move and consolidate their operations in Palestine, translation reinforced its status as a major, indispensable component of modern Hebrew literary production. In this talk, I wi
David Tal - The making of alliance: The making and history of US-Israel relationships
David Tal discusses the making and history of US-Israel relationships. In December 1962 President John F. Kennedy told Israel’s foreign minister, Golda Meir that “the United States has a special relationship with Israel in the Middle East really comparable only to that which it has with Britain.” While agreeing that indeed, the Israeli- American relations could be labelled as ‘special,’ most stude
Yakov Rabkin - Israel: The Russian Connection
Yakov Rabkin (University of Montreal) discusses the roots of Israeli political culture in the Zionist beginnings in the Yiddish speaking regions of the Russian Empire.
Yaacov Yadgar - The Nation-State bill and the meaning of Israel’s Jewish identity
Yaacov Yadgar discusses the recently passed Basic-Law: Israel the Nation State of the Jewish People, and discusses how it plays into Israel's Jewish Identity Crisis
Kfir Cohen - Israeli Literature as Global Literature
Kfir Cohen discusses Israeli literature as global literature (broadly defined)
