Contemporary Israel: The Politics of Ethnic Difference

The course explores the politics of ethnic difference in Israel through a combined historical-sociological perspective, using diverse textual and visual materials. After tracing the origins of the ethnic categories of “Ashkenazi” (Western) and Mizrachi (Middle Eastern/North African) Jews, we examine the history of immigration to Israel in the 1950s, considering how ethnicity came to define class and geography. In subsequent units, we will deal with Mizrachi protest movements such as the Israeli 1970s “Black Panthers” and the more recent trend of Mizrachi intellectuals to reclaim the “Arab-Jew” identity, and in comparison, the Mizrachi traditional support of hawkish positions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the concluding units, we will utilize comparative tools to conceptualize this internal Jewish dynamic.