1st Edition

Ethnic Politics in Israel The Margins and the Ashkenazi Centre

By As'ad Ghanem Copyright 2010
    240 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book offers an analysis on contemporary Israeli democracy, examining in particular society and politics from the perspectives of the different ethnic groups outside of the Ashkenazi mainstream.

    The book explores the political expressions of the secondary groups in Israel (Mizrahim, Religious, Russians and Palestinian-Arab) and how these groups where treated by the Ashkinazim as a threat to its hegemony over the state. Looking at the instability created by the struggle of these marginal groups against the state, and the discrimination policy practiced by the Ashkenazi 'hegemonic ethnic state' regime against the other, non-Ashkenazi, groups, the book illustrates how this has contributed to the failure to establish an ‘Israeli people’.

    Ethnic Politics in Israel will be of great interest to students and researchers in the fields of Middle East, Palestinian, Arab, Jewish and Israeli studies, political science, sociology and psychology.

    1. Israel as Hegemonic Ethnic State and the Politics of Groups Identity  2. The Palestinian Minority in Israel: Resisting the 'Ethnocratic' System  3. Oriental Jews and the Ashkenazi System: Incorporation Vs. Separation Politics  4. The Jewish Religious Groups and the Politics of Identity in the 'Secular-Jewish' State  5. The Russian Immigrants: Imposing Multi-Culturalism in the Public Sphere in Israel  6. Groups Divisions, External Conflict and Political Instability in Israel since Oslo  7. Conclusion: The Future of Group Politics in Israel

    Biography

    As'ad Ghanem is senior lecturer at the school of political science at the University of Haifa. His theoretical work has explored the legal, institutional and political conditions in ethnic states, covering issues such as Palestinian political orientations, the establishment and political structure of the Palestinian Authority, and majority-minority politics in a comparative perspective.