Israel and its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State

Description

This volume presents new perspectives on Israeli society, Palestinian society, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Based on historical foundations, it examines how Israel institutionalizes ethnic privileging among its nationally diverse citizens. Arab, Israeli, and American contributors discusses the paradoxes of democratic claims in ethnic states, as well as dynamics of social conflict in the absence of equality. This book advances a new understanding of Israel's approach to the Palestinian citizens, covers the broadest range of areas in which Jews and Arabs are institutionally differentiated along ethnic basis, and explicates the psychopolitical foundations of ethnic privileges. It will appeal to students and scholars who seek broader views on Israeli society and its relationship with the Arab citizens, and want to learn more about the status of the Palestinian citizens in Israel and their collective experience as both citizens and settler-colonial subjects.

Nadim N. Rouhana is Professor of International Affairs and Conflict Studies, and Director of the Program on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts. He is also the Founding Director of Mada al-Carmel - Arab Center for Applied Social Research, Haifa. His research includes work on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli and Palestinian societies, the dynamics of protracted social conflict, collective identity and democratic citizenship in multi-ethnic states, the questions of reconciliation and multicultural citizenship, transitional justice, and international negotiations. His publications include Palestinian Citizens in an Ethnic Jewish State: Identities in Conflict (1997) and numerous academic articles. Sahar S. Huneidi holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Manchester and is author of A Broken Trust: Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians (2001). Huneidi has been Director of East and West Publishing Ltd since 2008.

'The essays in this volume incisively and insightfully explore key dimensions of the status of the Palestinian minority in Israel, a state which structurally privileges its Jewish majority. Anyone interested in a fuller understanding of the collective experience of Palestinians in Israel, and the means by which they have been subordinated and relegated to second-class citizenship, will find Israel and its Palestinian Citizens very useful.' Zachary Lockman, New York University 'The demise of the two state solution is likely to increase the political role of the Palestinian citizens inside Israel and intensify their relations with other Palestinians in the West Bank and beyond. This book is thus timely as it provides a concise, clear and factual introduction to the group's history and to their present social, economic, legal and political situation. The essays puncture one after the other the myths of Israeli internal democracy. They illustrate the disenfranchisement of the Palestinian minority, through open legal discrimination, segregated schooling, political manipulation and exclusion, cultural denigration, and more. The book's admirable social science vindicates critiques familiar to the participants but long denied by supporters of Israeli state policy. Some readers may find it shocking, but hopefully others will also find it compelling.' Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School 'Israel and its Palestinian Citizens is a welcome contribution to the literature about the Palestinians in Israel. Its focus on the foundational underpinnings of ethnic privilege means that it will be relevant for years to come, as these foundational underpinnings are not likely to change anytime soon.' Mazen Masri, Journal of Palestine Studies