Being Israeli : The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship

by Shafir, Gershon

• ISBN13: 9780511031731
• ISBN10: 0511031734
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-02-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

A timely study by two well-known scholars offers a theoretically informed account of the political sociology of Israel. The analysis is set within its historical context as the authors trace Israel's development from Zionist settlement in the 1880s, through the establishment of the state in 1948, to the present day. Against this background the authors speculate on the relationship between identity and citizenship in Israeli society, and consider the differential rights, duties and privileges that are accorded different social strata. In this way they demonstrate that, despite ongoing tensions, the pressure of globalization and economic liberalization has gradually transformed Israel from a frontier society to one more oriented towards peace and private profit. This unexpected conclusion offers some encouragement for the future of this troubled region. However, Israel's position towards the peace process is still subject to a tug-of-war between two conceptions of citizenship: liberal citizenship on the one hand, and a combination of the remnants of republican citizenship associated with the colonial settlement with an ever more religiously defined ethno-nationalist citizenship, on the other.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Fragmented Citizenship in a Colonial Frontier Society	p. 36
	p. 37
Mizrachim and Women: Between Quality and Quantity	p. 74
The Frontier Within: Palestinians as Third-Class Citizens	p. 110
The Wages of Legitimation: Zionist and Non-Zionist Orthodox Jews	p. 137
The Frontier Reopens	p. 158
New Day on the Frontier	p. 159
The Frontier Erupts: the Intifadas	p. 184
The Emergence of Civil Society	p. 212
Agents of Political Change	p. 213
Economic Liberalization and Peacemaking	p. 231
The "constitutional Revolution"	p. 260
Shrinking Social Rights	p. 278
Emergent Citizenship Groups? Immigrants from the Fsu and Ethiopia and Overseas Labor Migrants	p. 308
Conclusion	p. 335
Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 387
Cambridge Middle East Studies 16
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