Smadar Lavie | University of California, Davis (original) (raw)
Books by Smadar Lavie
University of Nebraska Press, Jul 2, 2018
What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relev... more What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to the 2014 Gaza War and Israel’s foreign policy?
Wrapped in the Flag of Israel Second Edition examines neoliberal bureaucracy in the Global South using feminist critical race theories. It interrogates the relationship between the State of Israel and its Mizrahi single mothers who are at the forefront of Mizrahi feminism. It also presents a model of bureaucracy as divine cosmology that preempts the agency of disenfranchised Mizrahim who are Israel’s demographic majority. Mizrahi protests fall flat when the Israel-Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. While most studies of neoliberal bureaucracy employ a Foucauldian or Marxian lens, this book illustrates how Israeli bureaucracy draws on a theological essence that fuses religion, gender, and race into the foundations of citizenship. It sets out to understand why Mizrahi mothers remain loyal to a state that injures them though its bureaucratic system.
The extensive Afterword to the Second Edition connects intra-Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel’s political right. In between came bloodletting between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed, but not only in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reform. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizrahi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel’s Mizrahi-Ashkenazi rift.
Jadaliyya, 2020
This author interview narrates the surreal adventures of publishing Wrapped in the Flag of Israel... more This author interview narrates the surreal adventures of publishing Wrapped in the Flag of Israel's 2nd edition.
From the interview:
'...I called the first indexer for an update, only to be told the manuscript went against everything she was raised to believe about Israel. Indexer number two used the index as a tool of censorship. Categories such as “apartheid,” “Zionism,” “Palestine,” and “race” were nowhere to be seen. She insisted her categorization improved the book, refusing to change them before sending me a pricey invoice via her attorney. It took the third indexer, who had no expertise in Middle East Studies, to treat the manuscript with the professionalism it required...'
Berghahn Books, Apr 15, 2014
The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity Under Israeli and Egyptian Rule, 1990
TO READ THE WHOLE BOOK -- PLEASE GO TO THE "CHAPTER" SECTION FOR POETICS WHERE EACH CHAPTER HAS I... more TO READ THE WHOLE BOOK -- PLEASE GO TO THE "CHAPTER" SECTION FOR POETICS WHERE EACH CHAPTER HAS ITS OWN PDF. It has been published in 1990 and is also available for free download from the University of California Press.
The romantic, nineteenth-century image of the Bedouin as fierce, independent nomads on camelback racing across an endless desert persists in the West. Yet since the era of Ottoman rule, the Mzeina Bedouin of the South Sinai desert have lived under foreign occupation. For the last forty years Bedouin land has been a political football, tossed back and forth between Israel and Egypt at least five times.
Duke University Press, 1996
"Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity challenges conventional understandings of id... more "Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity challenges conventional understandings of identity based on notions of nation and culture as bounded or discrete. Through careful examinations of various transnational, hybrid, border, and diasporic forces and practices, these essays push at the edge of cultural studies, postmodernism, and postcolonial theory and raise crucial questions about ethnographic methodology.
This volume exemplifies a cross-disciplinary cultural studies and a concept of culture rooted in lived experience as well as textual readings. Anthropologists and scholars from related fields deploy a range of methodologies and styles of writing to blur and complicate conventional dualisms between authors and subjects of research, home and away, center and periphery, and first and third world. Essays discuss topics such as Rai, a North African pop music viewed as westernized in Algeria and as Arab music in France; the place of Sephardic and Palestinian writers within Israel’s Ashkenazic-dominated arts community; and the use and misuse of the concept “postcolonial” as it is applied in various regional contexts.
In exploring histories of displacement and geographies of identity, these essays call for the reconceptualization of theoretical binarisms such as modern and postmodern, colonial and postcolonial. It will be of interest to a broad spectrum of scholars and students concerned with postmodern and postcolonial theory, ethnography, anthropology, and cultural studies.
Contributors. Norma Alarcón, Edward M. Bruner, Nahum D. Chandler, Ruth Frankenberg, Joan Gross, Dorinne Kondo, Kristin Koptiuch, Smadar Lavie, Lata Mani, David McMurray, Kirin Narayan, Greg Sarris, Ted Swedenburg."
Cornell University Press, 1993
"Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape tradition... more "Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape traditional forms in the light of changing historical circumstances. In this lively volume, fourteen distinguished anthropologists explore the role of creativity in social life across the globe and within the study of ethnography itself.
Dedicated to the memory of Victor Turner, the volume is at once playful and political, bridging innovative theory and practice."
Wrapped in the Flag of Israel -- Book Reviews by Smadar Lavie
“While the title of this book suggests that it covers a single topic, nothing could be farther fr... more “While the title of this book suggests that it covers a single topic, nothing could be farther from the truth....[Lavie's] unflinching exposure of intra-Jewish racism and its political consequences is unmatched."
“Lavie illustrates how asking difficult, troubling questions that disturb taken-for-granted silen... more “Lavie illustrates how asking difficult, troubling questions that disturb taken-for-granted silences can be an important strategy of resistance. In doing so, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel offers theoretical and political insights that extend beyond Israel’s undeclared borders.”
"Lavie’s ethnography fills a chasm in the anthropology of Israel that documents inter-ethnic hier... more "Lavie’s ethnography fills a chasm in the anthropology of Israel that documents inter-ethnic hierarchies and how these are impacted and enforced by the state….She situates the Mizrahim not only in relation to their own subordination within Israel, but also in relation to the on-going inability of the Israeli government to forge peace with Palestine.”
![Research paper thumbnail of Social Security: Journal of Welfare and Social Security Studies (Bitahon Sotziali, Hebrew) No. 99 (pp. 156-159) Review of Wrapped In the flag of Israel: Mizrahi single mothers and bureaucratic torture. Chen Misgav. [in Hebrew]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/48033321/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel analyses Mizrahi protest at the intersection of race, religion, na... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel analyses Mizrahi protest at the intersection of race, religion, nationality, and gender. Lavie’s meticulous ethnographic work and pointed theoretical analysis explain the hopelessness of social protest and problematize the concept of agency in the context of intra-Jewish conflict in Israel; in this Lavie also addresses the ramifications of Mizrahi marginalization on the wider Israeli–Palestinian conflict."
“This rigorously researched book is incredibly uncomfortable to read and exactly, therefore, it d... more “This rigorously researched book is incredibly uncomfortable to read and exactly, therefore, it deserves a wide audience….Innovative, uncomfortable….thick, accusative, and critical, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is indeed a must-read for all."
"At the crossroads between a coursebook, a piece of writing about life and a feminist manifesto, ... more "At the crossroads between a coursebook, a piece of writing about life and a feminist manifesto, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel….is….both an enlightening insight into Israeli intra-racism and an original and valuable connection between two seemingly unrelated concepts: bureaucracy and torture."
"Lavie has written a brave and scholarly autoethnography using an extended case study method, of ... more "Lavie has written a brave and scholarly autoethnography using an extended case study method, of a social movement in contemporary Israel….With theoretical sophistication and granular accounts of day-to-day struggles of her own and other single mothers’ efforts to survive and gain access to resources and entitlements as Israelis….This is a painful account well worth reading. Social workers from many nations who are involved in difficult macro- and mezzo- practice would find illuminating the many elements of social movement activity and peer-group support that Lavie characterizes and theorizes so powerfully.”
"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel brings together foundational principles….detrimental to the lives ... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel brings together foundational principles….detrimental to the lives of many poor women in the Middle East and beyond [that] are not explored systematically: gender and race are intertwined deeply and cannot be understood separately; poverty destroys bodies, minds, and spirits, its effects long-lasting and often deadly; the state can be ruthless in its mundane management of its most vulnerable citizens while still enjoying their wholehearted loyalty….Wrapped is incredibly insightful conceptually but also powerful politically. It does not merely challenge conceptual frameworks and academic canons but actively undoes them through shifting and diverse modes of writing.”
“This review cannot do full justice to Lavie’s detailed and insightful analysis of the Israeli bu... more “This review cannot do full justice to Lavie’s detailed and insightful analysis of the Israeli bureaucracy and its ‘cosmology.’ The book features a rich Turnerian and Foucauldian description of a ritual universe divided between Jews and Goyim….Lavie’s study is solid, scrupulously researched and documented, and has the ring of truth that comes from the personal experience of a researcher who has had to live through her fieldwork situation in a manner that few anthropologists experience. It should be no great stretch for readers of Lavie’s excellent study to project her analysis to populations elsewhere in the world who are disadvantaged by the political systems under which they live, but, nonetheless, support those systems against their own self-interest….Lavie has created a text whose insights and analysis extend far beyond her admirable Israeli study.”
"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an engaging and insightful autoethnography… On a more general l... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an engaging and insightful autoethnography… On a more general level, Lavie addresses the paradox of the Mizrahi community staying loyal to the state that has repeatedly discriminated against them through its bureaucratic practices… Lavie traces this back to the role of the Zionist left political parties, which established the intra-Jewish racial formations in Israel… The book makes an important contribution to the literature, demonstrating that throughout the history of Israel, the Jewish immigrants of European descent have retained their privileged socioeconomic position and maintained claims to cultural superiority over communities coming from Asia and the Middle East. Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important ethnography of Mizrahi women and an excellent addition to anthropology of Israel."
“Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important and provocative book that deserves to be widely re... more “Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important and provocative book that deserves to be widely read well beyond anthropology. The book has two main contributions. The first is to take us away from the Israel-Palestinian binary … In doing so, the volume provides an analysis of the potential and limitations of forms of identity politics that move beyond the opposition between Arab and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian. The second, major contribution is to add political economy to our understanding of the religiosity of the state… Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is recommended to researchers, postgraduate students, and undergraduates who are interested in Israel/Palestine, political protest, discrimination, and the anthropology of the state.”
"... Despite her fears to the contrary, Lavie’s erudition, well applied as it is, does not silenc... more "... Despite her fears to the contrary, Lavie’s erudition, well applied as it is, does not silence the victimhood to which she bears heart-breaking testimony. Whether or not it transcends the barriers of contemporary academia, this impressive text deserves a large readership."
"...Lavie raises important questions about victimhood and agency pertinent to the study of the su... more "...Lavie raises important questions about victimhood and agency pertinent to the study of the subaltern… questions about how the Israeli state subverts any collective action by rerouting global media attention from social justice issues to national security and terrorism…This book is not just a unique contribution to understanding gender and race in state bureaucracy and the operations of nationalism in the Middle East; it will interest anyone studying the disenfranchised and their everyday life, something that almost always involves “bureaucratic torture.””
University of Nebraska Press, Jul 2, 2018
What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relev... more What is the relationship between Mizrahi feminism and Israeli ultranationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to the 2014 Gaza War and Israel’s foreign policy?
Wrapped in the Flag of Israel Second Edition examines neoliberal bureaucracy in the Global South using feminist critical race theories. It interrogates the relationship between the State of Israel and its Mizrahi single mothers who are at the forefront of Mizrahi feminism. It also presents a model of bureaucracy as divine cosmology that preempts the agency of disenfranchised Mizrahim who are Israel’s demographic majority. Mizrahi protests fall flat when the Israel-Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. While most studies of neoliberal bureaucracy employ a Foucauldian or Marxian lens, this book illustrates how Israeli bureaucracy draws on a theological essence that fuses religion, gender, and race into the foundations of citizenship. It sets out to understand why Mizrahi mothers remain loyal to a state that injures them though its bureaucratic system.
The extensive Afterword to the Second Edition connects intra-Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel’s political right. In between came bloodletting between the IDF, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed, but not only in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reform. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizrahi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel’s Mizrahi-Ashkenazi rift.
Jadaliyya, 2020
This author interview narrates the surreal adventures of publishing Wrapped in the Flag of Israel... more This author interview narrates the surreal adventures of publishing Wrapped in the Flag of Israel's 2nd edition.
From the interview:
'...I called the first indexer for an update, only to be told the manuscript went against everything she was raised to believe about Israel. Indexer number two used the index as a tool of censorship. Categories such as “apartheid,” “Zionism,” “Palestine,” and “race” were nowhere to be seen. She insisted her categorization improved the book, refusing to change them before sending me a pricey invoice via her attorney. It took the third indexer, who had no expertise in Middle East Studies, to treat the manuscript with the professionalism it required...'
Berghahn Books, Apr 15, 2014
The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity Under Israeli and Egyptian Rule, 1990
TO READ THE WHOLE BOOK -- PLEASE GO TO THE "CHAPTER" SECTION FOR POETICS WHERE EACH CHAPTER HAS I... more TO READ THE WHOLE BOOK -- PLEASE GO TO THE "CHAPTER" SECTION FOR POETICS WHERE EACH CHAPTER HAS ITS OWN PDF. It has been published in 1990 and is also available for free download from the University of California Press.
The romantic, nineteenth-century image of the Bedouin as fierce, independent nomads on camelback racing across an endless desert persists in the West. Yet since the era of Ottoman rule, the Mzeina Bedouin of the South Sinai desert have lived under foreign occupation. For the last forty years Bedouin land has been a political football, tossed back and forth between Israel and Egypt at least five times.
Duke University Press, 1996
"Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity challenges conventional understandings of id... more "Displacement, Diaspora, and Geographies of Identity challenges conventional understandings of identity based on notions of nation and culture as bounded or discrete. Through careful examinations of various transnational, hybrid, border, and diasporic forces and practices, these essays push at the edge of cultural studies, postmodernism, and postcolonial theory and raise crucial questions about ethnographic methodology.
This volume exemplifies a cross-disciplinary cultural studies and a concept of culture rooted in lived experience as well as textual readings. Anthropologists and scholars from related fields deploy a range of methodologies and styles of writing to blur and complicate conventional dualisms between authors and subjects of research, home and away, center and periphery, and first and third world. Essays discuss topics such as Rai, a North African pop music viewed as westernized in Algeria and as Arab music in France; the place of Sephardic and Palestinian writers within Israel’s Ashkenazic-dominated arts community; and the use and misuse of the concept “postcolonial” as it is applied in various regional contexts.
In exploring histories of displacement and geographies of identity, these essays call for the reconceptualization of theoretical binarisms such as modern and postmodern, colonial and postcolonial. It will be of interest to a broad spectrum of scholars and students concerned with postmodern and postcolonial theory, ethnography, anthropology, and cultural studies.
Contributors. Norma Alarcón, Edward M. Bruner, Nahum D. Chandler, Ruth Frankenberg, Joan Gross, Dorinne Kondo, Kristin Koptiuch, Smadar Lavie, Lata Mani, David McMurray, Kirin Narayan, Greg Sarris, Ted Swedenburg."
Cornell University Press, 1993
"Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape tradition... more "Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape traditional forms in the light of changing historical circumstances. In this lively volume, fourteen distinguished anthropologists explore the role of creativity in social life across the globe and within the study of ethnography itself.
Dedicated to the memory of Victor Turner, the volume is at once playful and political, bridging innovative theory and practice."
“While the title of this book suggests that it covers a single topic, nothing could be farther fr... more “While the title of this book suggests that it covers a single topic, nothing could be farther from the truth....[Lavie's] unflinching exposure of intra-Jewish racism and its political consequences is unmatched."
“Lavie illustrates how asking difficult, troubling questions that disturb taken-for-granted silen... more “Lavie illustrates how asking difficult, troubling questions that disturb taken-for-granted silences can be an important strategy of resistance. In doing so, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel offers theoretical and political insights that extend beyond Israel’s undeclared borders.”
"Lavie’s ethnography fills a chasm in the anthropology of Israel that documents inter-ethnic hier... more "Lavie’s ethnography fills a chasm in the anthropology of Israel that documents inter-ethnic hierarchies and how these are impacted and enforced by the state….She situates the Mizrahim not only in relation to their own subordination within Israel, but also in relation to the on-going inability of the Israeli government to forge peace with Palestine.”
"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel analyses Mizrahi protest at the intersection of race, religion, na... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel analyses Mizrahi protest at the intersection of race, religion, nationality, and gender. Lavie’s meticulous ethnographic work and pointed theoretical analysis explain the hopelessness of social protest and problematize the concept of agency in the context of intra-Jewish conflict in Israel; in this Lavie also addresses the ramifications of Mizrahi marginalization on the wider Israeli–Palestinian conflict."
“This rigorously researched book is incredibly uncomfortable to read and exactly, therefore, it d... more “This rigorously researched book is incredibly uncomfortable to read and exactly, therefore, it deserves a wide audience….Innovative, uncomfortable….thick, accusative, and critical, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is indeed a must-read for all."
"At the crossroads between a coursebook, a piece of writing about life and a feminist manifesto, ... more "At the crossroads between a coursebook, a piece of writing about life and a feminist manifesto, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel….is….both an enlightening insight into Israeli intra-racism and an original and valuable connection between two seemingly unrelated concepts: bureaucracy and torture."
"Lavie has written a brave and scholarly autoethnography using an extended case study method, of ... more "Lavie has written a brave and scholarly autoethnography using an extended case study method, of a social movement in contemporary Israel….With theoretical sophistication and granular accounts of day-to-day struggles of her own and other single mothers’ efforts to survive and gain access to resources and entitlements as Israelis….This is a painful account well worth reading. Social workers from many nations who are involved in difficult macro- and mezzo- practice would find illuminating the many elements of social movement activity and peer-group support that Lavie characterizes and theorizes so powerfully.”
"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel brings together foundational principles….detrimental to the lives ... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel brings together foundational principles….detrimental to the lives of many poor women in the Middle East and beyond [that] are not explored systematically: gender and race are intertwined deeply and cannot be understood separately; poverty destroys bodies, minds, and spirits, its effects long-lasting and often deadly; the state can be ruthless in its mundane management of its most vulnerable citizens while still enjoying their wholehearted loyalty….Wrapped is incredibly insightful conceptually but also powerful politically. It does not merely challenge conceptual frameworks and academic canons but actively undoes them through shifting and diverse modes of writing.”
“This review cannot do full justice to Lavie’s detailed and insightful analysis of the Israeli bu... more “This review cannot do full justice to Lavie’s detailed and insightful analysis of the Israeli bureaucracy and its ‘cosmology.’ The book features a rich Turnerian and Foucauldian description of a ritual universe divided between Jews and Goyim….Lavie’s study is solid, scrupulously researched and documented, and has the ring of truth that comes from the personal experience of a researcher who has had to live through her fieldwork situation in a manner that few anthropologists experience. It should be no great stretch for readers of Lavie’s excellent study to project her analysis to populations elsewhere in the world who are disadvantaged by the political systems under which they live, but, nonetheless, support those systems against their own self-interest….Lavie has created a text whose insights and analysis extend far beyond her admirable Israeli study.”
"Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an engaging and insightful autoethnography… On a more general l... more "Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an engaging and insightful autoethnography… On a more general level, Lavie addresses the paradox of the Mizrahi community staying loyal to the state that has repeatedly discriminated against them through its bureaucratic practices… Lavie traces this back to the role of the Zionist left political parties, which established the intra-Jewish racial formations in Israel… The book makes an important contribution to the literature, demonstrating that throughout the history of Israel, the Jewish immigrants of European descent have retained their privileged socioeconomic position and maintained claims to cultural superiority over communities coming from Asia and the Middle East. Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important ethnography of Mizrahi women and an excellent addition to anthropology of Israel."
“Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important and provocative book that deserves to be widely re... more “Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is an important and provocative book that deserves to be widely read well beyond anthropology. The book has two main contributions. The first is to take us away from the Israel-Palestinian binary … In doing so, the volume provides an analysis of the potential and limitations of forms of identity politics that move beyond the opposition between Arab and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian. The second, major contribution is to add political economy to our understanding of the religiosity of the state… Wrapped in the Flag of Israel is recommended to researchers, postgraduate students, and undergraduates who are interested in Israel/Palestine, political protest, discrimination, and the anthropology of the state.”
"... Despite her fears to the contrary, Lavie’s erudition, well applied as it is, does not silenc... more "... Despite her fears to the contrary, Lavie’s erudition, well applied as it is, does not silence the victimhood to which she bears heart-breaking testimony. Whether or not it transcends the barriers of contemporary academia, this impressive text deserves a large readership."
"...Lavie raises important questions about victimhood and agency pertinent to the study of the su... more "...Lavie raises important questions about victimhood and agency pertinent to the study of the subaltern… questions about how the Israeli state subverts any collective action by rerouting global media attention from social justice issues to national security and terrorism…This book is not just a unique contribution to understanding gender and race in state bureaucracy and the operations of nationalism in the Middle East; it will interest anyone studying the disenfranchised and their everyday life, something that almost always involves “bureaucratic torture.””
...Lavie makes an important contribution in challenging traditional methods of ethnographic resea... more ...Lavie makes an important contribution in challenging
traditional methods of ethnographic research and emphasizing the
necessity of subaltern auto-ethnography, particularly in the study of marginalized groups... Scholars of social movements
should follow [Lavie's] lead by focusing on similar cases of unsuccessful mobilization, or indeed those that have minimal possibility for mobilization. Furthermore, for those engaged in anthropological and ethnographical research methods, this book provides an excellent justification for appealing to subaltern auto-ethnographies of marginalized groups to truly grasp their predicament. As Lavie says herself, “as luck would have it, I was a welfare mother in the lines when I conducted my research” (23). Another approach would not have produced as rich a study as she has achieved.
" Rarely one encounters a comprehensive, nuanced, insightful, and realistic exposition on Israeli... more " Rarely one encounters a comprehensive, nuanced, insightful, and realistic exposition on Israeli society packaged in such a slim book. Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture is such a research and book. The work is extraordinary, imaginative, and creative; it is a fruitful presentation of the anthropological imagination’s tremendous abilities to see a social world
encapsulated in a drop of “fieldwork.” Indeed, this is a tour de force of the unique abilities reserved to anthropology’s insight production.
"Far from traditional anthropology, Lavie’s work is a contribution to the legacy of women of colo... more "Far from traditional anthropology, Lavie’s work is a contribution to the legacy of women of color feminist works of autoethnography and documentations of affect in poetic and scholarly prose…. Readers will encounter worlds of knowledge placed in proximity, affinity, and opposition, resulting in a dynamic narrative and an informative, academic text… While the book has been lauded in fields of Anthropology and Middle East Studies, it contributes uniquely to feminist studies of race, nationalism, the state, and capital…. a masterwork of transnational feminist studies and critical theory, a teachable work of feminist anti-Zionism from the perspective of a Mizrahi welfare mother and critical scholar—the like of which does not exist."
"The book... is Lavie’s ensuing analysis not only of the Knafo protest, but also – and more impor... more "The book... is Lavie’s ensuing analysis not only of the Knafo protest, but also – and more importantly – of the infrastructure that put Knafo, Lavie and many other Mizrahi single mothers in their precarious position. Lavie’s book is a political book, in the sense that it addresses the socio-political head on, refusing to accept, as did Knafo, the divinity of the
state as a given... The book thus deals – explicitly and straightforwardly – with the very historical, political, social and cultural realities that lie at the basis of the circumstances that eventually brought about Knafo’s failed protest. These have to do, first, with the history of Zionism and Mizrahi women, and the wider socio-politics of Mizrahim in Israel. Lavie offers a masterful analysis of the historical Mizrahi support of the Right..."
Tikkun Magazine, Mar 8, 2019
"... Wrapped in the Flag of Israel couples sophisticated concept-work with Lavie's own blistering... more "... Wrapped in the Flag of Israel couples sophisticated concept-work with Lavie's own blistering testimony as a Mizrahi single mother thrown into the welfare bureaucracy by the Israeli state... a rigorous refusal of those desires common on the Euro-American Left to see agency as integral to the live activity of those, like Mizrahi single mothers, who sit at the vertex of intersecting oppressions. Rather, 'the mothers totalistic love for the state of Israel nullified the agency immanent in the act of identity politics.' "
E3W (Ethnic and Third World Literatures) Review of Books -- Afterlives: Futures of Resistance, 2018
"Lavie's examination how pain is routinely inflicted by the Zionist state government not only thr... more "Lavie's examination how pain is routinely inflicted by the Zionist state government not only through military occupation and assault campaigns but through the tiring and humiliating processes of daily interrogation of low-income citizens of color in office spaces... A distinct attribute that characterizes Lavie's analysis is how religious life and bureaucracy are intertwined in the Israeli nation-state... The text sheds light on the comparative possibilities that exist between Mizrahi women and other racialized women... With prose that seamlessly weaves together vignettes of lived reality and informed theoretical discussion, every one of Lavie's chapters delivers impactful testimony of motherhood coupled with critical anticolonial interventions... Lavie examines colorism and classism within broader feminist thought while drawing from women of color feminist theorists...The unique auto-ethnographic approach Lavie employs contains many lessons for feminist theorists, Ethnic Studies scholars, and socio-cultural Anthropologists... For those of us raised by marginalized single mothers, who are disproportionately subject to monotonous bureaucratic procedures resulting in detrimental psycho-somatic impacts, Lavie's defiant story of struggle hits close to home and fuels our motivation to seek further avenues to challenge racism and empower women."
Village Literary Voice, 1992
Middle East Report (MERIP), 1992
Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1992
This is by far the most thorough review of The Poetics of Military Occupation!
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, 1991
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Journal of Islamic Studies , 1991
BOOK REVIEWS about one author or another are quoted and this enriches bibliographic information. ... more BOOK REVIEWS about one author or another are quoted and this enriches bibliographic information. Each glossary entry starts with the Arabic word, but according to its root in Arabic script, not as it appears in the original. The glossary contains phrases (e.g. amr, pi. umur, comprises twelve such phrases) in the text in Arabic. However, these are not translated in the glossary and not all of them occur in the English text of the work, as mentioned above. Thus the glossary mainly helps readers who are not ignorant of Arabic. Despite these remarks the publication under review is definitely a contribution. It exhibits precision and high skill. The only transcript, ascertained for the time being, of Ar-Risala as-salahiyya ft ihya" as-sina'a as-sihhiyya has gained academic currency. This enriches literature on the history of medieval Arab medicine. The faithful and intelligible translation makes Ibn Jumay"s work accessible to readers who are ignorant of the language of the original.
American Anthropologist , 1993
Journal of Palestine Studies, 1991
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critic... more This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
Passages: A Journal of Transnational & Transcultural Studies, 1999
American Anthropologist , Mar 1998
Palestine/Israel Review, Jun 26, 2024
A critical read of Hillel Cohen's book, Enemies, a Love Story is the point of departure to examin... more A critical read of Hillel Cohen's book, Enemies, a Love Story is the point of departure to examine Mizrahi-Palestinian relationships through the optics of decolonial feminist theory.
El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the 2019 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua , 2022
Anzaldua’s autohistoria-teoria presents subaltern theorization and autoethnography as testimony. ... more Anzaldua’s autohistoria-teoria presents subaltern theorization and autoethnography as testimony. Nevertheless, subaltern women scholars from the Global South such as Mizrahi feminists are not part of the North American “woman of color” classification of Latinas, African-Americans, and Asians, are expected to use the U.S.-U.K. formula of dispassionate scholarship. The underlying assumption for the unclassified woman scholar from the Global South is that she comes from her country’s cosmopolitan elite and is required to deploy the detached Northern social science language. This essay calls academic publishers to remove the elite label from the unclassified woman-of-color scholar’s authorship and publish her in the emotive Anzaldua auto-ethnography of bearing witness.
Journal of Academic Freedom, 2021
This autoethnography unveils its thesis as the biographic narrative unfolds. Ashkenazi upper-clas... more This autoethnography unveils its thesis as the biographic narrative unfolds. Ashkenazi upper-class Israeli faculty make Palestine advocacy their international career. When threatened, North American-Western European white colleagues, employing the dualism Israel-Palestine, obtain for these Ashkenazi upper-class Israeli faculty cushy Western positions. Mizrahi anti-Zionist intellectuals and activists are not the secular Ashkenazim with whom Western academics are familiar. Shunned from professorships due to the whiteness of Israel's academe, their activism is in dialogue with the traditional Judaism of right-wing Mizrahi communities. Ashkenazi anti-Zionists have minimal constituencies in Israel and converse in English with Palestine scholars and activists outside Israel. Their impact on Israel's Mizrahim (roughly half of Israel's citizen body) is negligeable. Mizrahi exiles, however, converse in Hebrew with their constituencies.
PoLar: Political and Legal Anthropology Review , 2019
What is the relationship between Mizraḥi feminism and Israeli ultra-nationalism? What is the rele... more What is the relationship between Mizraḥi feminism and Israeli ultra-nationalism? What is the relevance of gender justice activism to Operation Protective Edge (the 2014 Gaza War) and Israel’s foreign policy? Mizraḥi protests dissipate and disappear when the Israel-Palestine conflict dominates the headlines. This essay connects intra-Jewish racial and gendered dynamics to the 2014 Gaza War. It tracks sequences that began with social protest and ended with elections that bolstered Israel’s political right wing. In between came bloodletting between the Israeli Defense Forces, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel’s neighboring Arab states. The 2014 Gaza War was a watershed not only for the Israel-Palestine conflict; under the smokescreen of war, Israel accelerated neoliberal economic reforms. The first victims of this restructuring were Mizraḥi single mothers. Palestinians, however, would pay the highest price for Israel’s Mizraḥi-Ashkenazi rift.
Corrigendum:
Please note the following reference was inadvertently omitted from Smadar Lavie’s “Gaza 2014 and Mizrahi Feminism” PoLar 22(1) 85-109. The reference that should have been 2014b is:
Knesset of the State of Israel. 2014b. Plenum no. 157. Second Session Meetings 157-159 [in Hebrew]. no. 35: 14-16, July 14, 16:01. https://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/plenum/Pages/SessionItem.aspx?itemID=555497
The omission impacted the sequence of references in the bibliography. The previous “Knesset of the State of Israel 2014b” is now “Knesset of Israel 2014c”:
Knesset of the State of Israel. 2014c. “Ratification of Amendment to Ḥok HaHesderim” [in Hebrew] The Book of Laws 2461: 638, July 27. http://fs.knesset.gov.il//19/law/19_lsr_303825.PDF
Page numbers are from the final PoLar printed version of the article.
American Ethnologist, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 779–803, Nov 2012
Publication Name: Published in Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 36(1), pp 101–121. More Info: N... more Publication Name: Published in Anthropology and Humanism, Vol. 36(1), pp 101–121.
More Info: NOTE: This material is intended for purposes of education, research, scholarly communication, or critical commentary, all in conformity with “fair use” and the established practice of authors’ providing single offprints for noncommercial use. Any other use is unauthorized and may violate copyright.
Please note: Because of technical difficulties, this paper had to be re-uploaded. Before the upload, the paper had 379 views.
Published in Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Vol. 7 (2), pp. 56-88.
Published in Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, Vol. 6, pp. 9-15.
New Formations 18, pp. 84-106. , 1992
[
1996 “Blowups in the Borderzones: Third World Israeli Authors' Gropings for Home.” [Revised and e... more 1996 “Blowups in the Borderzones: Third World Israeli Authors' Gropings for Home.” [Revised and expanded version of 1992 above.] In Displacement, Diaspora and Geographies of Identity, pp. 55-96.
“The Knafo Chronicles: Marching on Jerusalem with Israel’s Silent Majority.” Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work. Vol. 27 (3): 300-315. , Aug 2012
Published in Cultural Studies Vol. 10(1), pp. 154-179 - this is the better version of the introduction to the Displacement book
Published in Women Writing Culture, Ruth Behar and Deborah A. Gordon, eds., pp. 412-427.
Please note that the footnotes to this piece tell the theoretical story of it. I avoided weaving ... more Please note that the footnotes to this piece tell the theoretical story of it. I avoided weaving the theory inside the main text so as not to interrupt its narrative aesthetics.
Co-authored with Rafi ShubeliPublished in Anthropology News, November 2006, pp. 6-7.
Published in Anthropology News, April 2006, pp. 9-10.
Published in Anthropology News, January 2005, pp. 8-9.
Left Curve, 2013
This was the first-ever article to describe and analyze the possibility of a One-State Solution f... more This was the first-ever article to describe and analyze the possibility of a One-State Solution for Palestine/Israel from a Mizrahi positionality both in the Hebrew original and the English translation. Its composition -- like all of Lavie's writing about the Mizrahi feminist struggle in the context of the Question of Palestine -- has been fraught with all manner of relentless campaigns by those elements in academia that
would rather have Lavie and her research disappear. Needless to say that shortly after this article saw print in the Hebrew original in 2008 its analysis of the possibility for a one state solution for the Israel/Palestine conflict was appropriated and published without proper quotation or citation.
Published in Anthropology News, October 2003, pp. 10-11.
Chapter 7 from Creativity/anthropology, published by Cornell University Press, 1993.
Co-authored with Hajj A. and Forest RousePublished in American Ethnologist Vol. 20(2), pp. 363-384.
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, 2015
This is a video recording of a lecture about Wrapped in the Flag of Israel (Berghahn 2014, Nebras... more This is a video recording of a lecture about Wrapped in the Flag of Israel (Berghahn 2014, Nebraska UP 2018). It explores the relationship between Mizrahi social protest movements in the State of Israel, violence in Gaza, protest movements in the surrounding Islamic World, and the possibility of further conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, or Israel and its Arab neighbor states. The lecture also addresses critically key issues in the history of anthropology of the Middle East such as classification theory, ritual theory, and Durkhemian solidarity from through a decolonial, World Anthropologies lens. Sadly, the ongoing IDF operations in Gaza, renewed violent Jewish chauvinism in Israel, and the muffling of anti-war protests across the region, demonstrate the lecture's continued relevance.
הרצאה ב"בית אחותי" 23 דצמבר 2018 – ט"ו טבת תשע"ט 55 דקות. ההרצאה עוסקת בהיותן של תנועות חברתיו... more הרצאה ב"בית אחותי"
23 דצמבר 2018 – ט"ו טבת תשע"ט
55 דקות.
ההרצאה עוסקת בהיותן של תנועות חברתיות המונהגות ע"י פמיניסטיות מזרחיות חוד החנית במאבקים לצדק חברתי, במחירים האדירים שהן משלמות על כך, ובצורה שפעילותן מנוכסת אל המיינסטרים הישראלי.
בעזרתה של נעמי צרפתי המוכשרת, העלתי לדף הבית שלי ב"אקדמיה דוט קום" את ההרצאה שנתתי ב"בית אחותי" לפני שנה, על הקשר בין פוליטיקת הזהויות האקדמית והאקטיביסטית והצורה בה המאבק המזרחי, הנוטה בעקבותיה שמאלה, לא מצליח לייצר שינוי מבני במערכות הממשל בארץ, מערכות הנוטות כל הזמן ימינה -- כלכלית, פוליטית וחברתית
Noé Hakim Serfaty
למרבה הצער הבטרייה נגמרה כך שהדיון המרתק אחרי ההרצאה לא מופיע.
The award winning Noemie Serfaty's short about Smadar Lavie's feminist role model, her Yemeni gra... more The award winning Noemie Serfaty's short about Smadar Lavie's feminist role model, her Yemeni granny, Rachel Gamliel. In so doing this short serves as an example for the intergenerational transmission of patriarchy and the resistance to it among Mizrahi feminists in mandatory Palestine and the racially constructed state of Israel.
""This is a recording of a long dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A, held at the Cork chapter... more ""This is a recording of a long dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A, held at the Cork chapter of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign on January 17, 2009. The topic covers the position of Mizrahim within the Israel-Palestine conflict. It provides a good introduction to the dilemmas and predicaments faced by Mizrahim as Jewish Israeli citizens who have origins in the Muslim World. The talk also analyzes the reasons why the Israeli political center moves farther and farther toward the right wing.
This talk coincided with the IDF Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009) and with the Israeli elections on February 10, 2009.
This is a re-load of the talk, which was presented here December 2012, because of the elections in the State of Israel that were scheduled for January 22, 2013. These early elections came on the heels of the IDF "Pillar of Clouds" operation (November 14-21, 2012).
Due to length considerations, the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has edited the audience's questions and comments out of the video.
One problem caused by the shallow mainstream media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict i... more One problem caused by the shallow mainstream media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that most people are unaware of the causal relationship between this conflict and intra-Jewish racism.
In Israel, racism exists between Jews of European origin (also known as Ashkenazim) and Jews from North Africa and the Middle East (also known as “Mizrahim”, the Hebrew for “Easterners”). Even though the Mizrahim form the majority of the Israeli Jewish population, they do not control the policies of the Israeli state, which are still driven by a ruling elite which comes from the Ashkenazi minority. It is worth noting that it was this Ashkenazi elite, rather than the Mizrahim, who planned and executed the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
This talk will suggest that the 2014 Israeli War on Gaza was partly motivated by a desire among the ruling elite to pre-empt a summer outbreak of violent protests, mainly by Mizrahim, against the effects of the neo-liberal economic policies introduced by the Ashkenazi elite.
In striving to prove themselves to be just as Israeli as the Ashkenazi elite, many Mizrahim have become the strongest supporters of Israeli ultra-nationalism and, therefore, of the 2014 war. Thus, there is the paradox that a war which was partly intended to squelch Mizrahi protest, a war in which most of the Israeli casualties, both civilian and military, are Mizrahim, is a war that is strongly supported by most Mizrahim.
The tragedy is that the Palestinians are, yet again, paying the price of these intra-Jewish ethnic tensions: in this war, the main victims are the people of Gaza, who have suffered a man-made disaster worse than anything else that has happened to the Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948.
Prof. Smadar Lavie is a Mizrahi Jewish anthropologist who was a co-founder of Ahoti, the feminist-of-colour movement in Israel. A winner of several prominent prizes in the disciplines of Anthropology and Women’s Studies, she is affiliated with both University College Cork and the University of California at Berkeley. Her most recent book deals with the predicament of Mizrahi women in Israel; it is called “Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture”.
My lecturer wishes to explore the racial formation of Israel’s Eurocentered IP settlers’ regime t... more My lecturer wishes to explore the racial formation of Israel’s Eurocentered IP settlers’ regime through the interplay between the Zionist appropriations of Arab-Jewish TK [traditional knowledge] and folklore and the proliferation of Ashkenazi [European Jewish] academic careers. Critical studies on the structure and meaning of Israeli academe have found out that it is mainly deployed by the Ashkenazi liberal-progressive hegemony as an arm of governance over Mizrahim [Jews who immigrated to Israel mainly from the Arab World] and Palestinians.
Salvaging Mizrahi cultures, the Israeli academe-regime has established a financial monopoly over the materiality of exotic Judaica discourse not only in scholarly knowledge production but also in the expert trade of intellectual, cultural and real properties. When it comes to protecting Mizrahi TK and folklore, WIPO’s 2002 post-TRIPS forum recommendations interrelating IP and TK are yet to arrive to Israel from Oman. As is Israel’s compliance with the 1886 Berne Convention, or with the Hague 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property, or with the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – when these treaties are scrutinized through the optics of collective Mizrahi IP.
My talk will be very preliminary – a collection of ruminations stemming out of my archival research into the Yemeni-Jewish scriptures and ornaments affair of the 1950s, its brief surface into the Israeli public sphere in the mid 1980s, and the possibilities for post-TRIPS Mizrahi activism against the appropriation and commodification of Mizrahi identity in light of the current postcolonial reshapings of the notion of authorship, and the repatriation of cultural properties from the Eurocenter back to communities of color.
Printed, expanded Hebrew version available here: 2007.
“Cultural Property Rights and the Racial Construction of the Mizrahi as a Trade-Mark: Notes on the Revolving Door of Israel’s Academe-Regime.” In 2007. A Rainbow of Opinions: The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow’s First Decade. (Keshet Shel De`ot: `Asor LaKeshet HaDemokratit HaMizrahit, Hebrew) Pp. 198-204. Tel Aviv: November Press. REPRINTED IN 2008 Mahbarot Kolno`a Darom (“South Cinema Notebooks”, Heb. – a Humanities periodical) 2:161-166.
""This is a recording of a long dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A, held at the Cork chapter... more ""This is a recording of a long dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A, held at the Cork chapter of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign on January 17, 2009. The topic covers the position of Mizrahim within the Israel-Palestine conflict. It provides a good introduction to the dilemmas and predicaments faced by Mizrahim as Jewish Israeli citizens who have origins in the Muslim World. The talk also analyzes the reasons why the Israeli political center moves farther and farther toward the right wing.
This talk coincided with the IDF Operation Cast Lead (December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009) and with the Israeli elections on February 10, 2009.
This is being presented now, in December 2012, because of the forthcoming elections in the State of Israel scheduled for January 22, 2013. These early elections come on the heels of the IDF "Pillar of Clouds" operation (November 14-21, 2012).
Due to length considerations, the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign has edited the audience's questions and comments out of the video.
Please contact Palestine: Information with Provenance for a copy of the talk via email at jbdatabase@cs.ucc.ie
On 21 May 2013, I was bestowed the Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque in Tel Aviv's Cinema... more On 21 May 2013, I was bestowed the Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque in Tel Aviv's Cinematheque. “Heart at East” is a coalition of 20 NGOs dedicated to promote community consciousness as it exposes and defies Israel’s folkloric marginalization of Mizrahi cultures. Formed in 2009, Heart at East was meant to remedy the extreme inequality in the allocation of public funds and other resources distributed by the Israeli regime to cultural institutions. The Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque was established by these Mizrahi NGOs as an alternative to the Israel Prize, the state’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award. The Israel Prize recognizes contributions to the categories of humanities, natural sciences, culture and arts, and national contributions. Its award ceremony is on Israel’s independence day. Most recipients of this award, however, have been Ashkenazi. The Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque aims to remedy this bias by recognizing the lifetime achievements of Mizrahi community authors, artists, musicians, scientists, and grassroots leaders coming from Israel’s majority citizenry. Below is a link to the Hebrew-to-English translation of the powerpoint presented by the Heart at East MC at the ceremony:
Four years ago, on 21 May 2013, I was bestowed the Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque in T... more Four years ago, on 21 May 2013, I was bestowed the Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque in Tel Aviv's Cinematheque. “Heart at East” is a coalition of 20 NGOs dedicated to promote community consciousness as it exposes and defies Israel’s folkloric marginalization of Mizrahi cultures. Formed in 2009, Heart at East was meant to remedy the extreme inequality in the allocation of public funds and other resources distributed by the Israeli regime to cultural institutions. The Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque was established by these Mizrahi NGOs as an alternative to the Israel Prize, the state’s most prestigious lifetime achievement award. The Israel Prize recognizes contributions to the categories of humanities, natural sciences, culture and arts, and national contributions. Its award ceremony is on Israel’s independence day. Most recipients of this award, however, have been Ashkenazi. The Heart at East Lifetime Achievement Plaque aims to remedy this bias by recognizing the lifetime achievements of Mizrahi community authors, artists, musicians, scientists, and grassroots leaders coming from Israel’s majority citizenry. Below is a link to the Hebrew-to-English translation of the powerpoint presented by the Heart at East MC at the ceremony:
Awarded for Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture
Awarded for Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture: “Lav... more Awarded for Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture:
“Lavie offers an unflinching political analysis and cultural critique of the struggles of Mizrahi single mothers and their relationship with the domestic policies of the state of Israel and the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict….The Award Committee recognizes Lavie’s innovative approach to academic writing that combines critical theory, autoethnography, and memoirs to animate the lives of women in a community that has long been disenfranchised, particularly in light of limited scholarship on the topic.”
Awarded for Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture
Awarded for "Staying Put: Crossing the Israel-Palestine Border with Gloria Anzaldua"
Awarded for The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity under Egypt... more Awarded for The Poetics of Military Occupation: Mzeina Allegories of Bedouin Identity under Egyptian and Israeli Rule (University of California Press, 1990).
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin , 1990
Professional associations ought to represent their members alongside other pursuits. So I hope to... more Professional associations ought to represent their members alongside other pursuits. So I hope to have follow-up conversations with the AAA so that “fake academic news” such as the ones discussed in this letter does not pose a threat to their membership.
I wish to highlight a lesser known, but just as insidious, infringement on scholars to freely exc... more I wish to highlight a lesser known, but just as insidious, infringement on scholars to freely exchange ideas. For several years, scholars--myself among them--have been subject to untruths spread via websites intentionally made to look legitimate, but which are in fact fronts for individuals to spread libel. My case involves a site targeting supporters of the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement. I have been involved in divestment campaigns since Berkeley’s Measure E campaign in 1984. I am a co-signatory to the MESA and the American Anthropological Association calls for boycotting Israeli academic institutions.
קל"ף חזק, 1994
מאמר על האלבום "שם" של יהודית רביץ שהתפרסם ב"קל"ף חזק" זכרונה לברכה ב 1994 , ועוסק באפשרויות לחתר... more מאמר על האלבום "שם" של יהודית רביץ שהתפרסם ב"קל"ף חזק" זכרונה לברכה ב 1994 , ועוסק באפשרויות לחתרנות קווירית בתוך המיינסטרים של הפופ הישראלי ובסקס לסבי .
אני מעלה אותו במסגרת המבצע להעלאת מעט מאמרי שנכתבו בעברית, או שתורגמו לעברית, אל הדף שלי באקדמיה דוט קום, כשאני קוראת את המאמר העתיק הזה עכשיו אני מלאת הערכה להתפתחות הנועזת והשיטתית של תחום התיאוריה הקווירית בשני העשורים האחרונים, ושמחה על כך, שעיסוקי הפואטיים בתיאוריה הביקורתית של גזע ובפמיניזם כהה הוליכו אותי ברבות השנים אל הכלכלה הפוליטית וההבנייה הדתית של הגזענות.
זמן ישראל, Jun 18, 2020
This autoethnography unveils its thesis as the biographic narrative unfolds. Ashkenazi upper-clas... more This autoethnography unveils its thesis as the biographic narrative unfolds. Ashkenazi upper-class Israeli faculty make Palestine advocacy their international career. When threatened, North American–Western European white colleagues, employing the dualism Israel-Palestine, obtain for these Ashkenazi upper-class Israeli faculty cushy Western positions. Mizrahi anti-Zionist intellectuals and activists are not the secular Ashkenazim with whom Western academics are familiar. Shunned from professorships due to the whiteness of Israel’s academe, their activism is in dialogue with the traditional Judaism of right-wing Mizrahi communities. Ashkenazi anti-Zionists have minimal constituencies in Israel and converse in English with Palestine scholars and activists outside Israel. Their impact on Israel’s Mizrahim (roughly half of Israel’s citizen body) is negligeable. Mizrahi exiles, however, converse in Hebrew with their constituencies.
Psak Din, Oct 2002
**Attachment in Hebrew though Google Translate does the job** Finally, the United Nation is inve... more **Attachment in Hebrew though Google Translate does the job**
Finally, the United Nation is investigating the worldwide prevalence of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as abusive tactic in divorce custody cases. Given its exceptionalism, Israel is missing from this UN initiative -- see the Guardian link below.
For the occasion, I've uploaded the 2002 article I wrote about this phenomenon. It was an expert opinion in the Israeli Supreme Court Judgment 6041/02, and since its publication has assisted many mothers, children, and the attorneys who represent them in cases of alleged PAS.
When this article first saw print, the Israeli women studies professors accused it of being "extremist" and "hallucinatory" -- yet another reason for the Israeli and Euro-American pro-Israeli boycott of me (it started in 1993). Nevertheless along the years, as more articles in Israel's major Hebrew media exposed "the only democracy in the Middle East" as pedophile and rapist heaven, Israeli academic gender studies experts used this article's data in their publications, but without any reference or quotation. One major scholar honored me (not the piece itself) with a footnote.
Elaborate discussion of PAS, and how it is used mainly against Mizrahi mothers of color in Israeli courts, can be found in my 2018 book, Wrapped in the Flag of Israel, see under book section here.
מסה על הספר "שונאים, סיפור אהבה: על מזרחים וערבים (ואשכנזים גם) מראשית הציונות ועד מאורעות תשפ"א"... more מסה על הספר
"שונאים, סיפור אהבה:
על מזרחים וערבים (ואשכנזים גם) מראשית הציונות ועד מאורעות תשפ"א"
הלל כהן
ראשון לציון: עברית הוצאה לאור, 2022
סמדר לביא © 2022
כל הזכויות שמורות
+972 Magazine: Independent Journalism from Palestine-Israel, Mar 28, 2023
Prof. Smadar Lavie discusses the possibilities and contradictions of the 2023 Ashkenazi-dominated... more Prof. Smadar Lavie discusses the possibilities and contradictions of the 2023 Ashkenazi-dominated protests against the Israeli regime, and traces the efforts of a small cohort of Mizrahi activists to make their voices heard. She reviews the emergence of Israel's alt-Right on the Mizrahi majority vote and its turn toward fascism based on charismatic leaders. Emphasized as well are Israel's feminist struggles and achievements that the present regime now plans to nullify.
University of California e-Scholarship, Jun 2023
This catalog is a memorial for a film series that never launched, and a resource for future unive... more This catalog is a memorial for a film series that never launched, and a resource for future universities, NGOs, film festival curators and queer community groups who are interested in queer of color (QOC) cinema.
Many Baltic people first encounter black, brown or Asian folks through TV. The queer culture now blossoming in Baltic cities is quite monochromatic – white-on-white. Yet the influx of asylum seekers and refugees from the Global South, including many queers fleeing persecution, demands that LGBTQ+ people in the North reorient themselves toward a more global understanding of their struggle. To shatter stereotypes, reveal the lived realities of racial inequity, and build community, our film series draws on an abundance of excellent cinema representing queer people of color in Asia, Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, and Europe.
ur Queers of Color (QOC) film series includes high-impact, prestigious, award-winning classics and new films that authentically depict the lives of people of color. In telling twenty-first century stories, we acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of giants – the classic queer filmmakers who paved the way for the current, flourishing era of queer arts and culture. These films highlight a spectrum of gender and sexual identities, informed by a range of cultures and communities – queers from Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Indigenous communities in North America; those from Muslim, Christian, and Jewish backgrounds; Latinx, Black British, African-American, and mixed-race queers. It was to be a Baltic first.
Many of the films portray the clash of queers of color with their biological families on the one hand, and state bureaucracy and religious institutions on the other. As they fight for their rights to parenthood, employment, inheritance, love and marriage, these queers must grapple with both civil and “divine” authority. The film series also sheds light on the dangers, possibilities, oppressions, and joys of queers as they migrate from South to North. All films create viable alternatives to the traditional patriarchy. Together, we make our families of choice.Social justice queer cinema not only endeavors to bring communities of color to power through image. It is also characterized by humor, pleasure, abundant love and hot, unapologetic sex. These stories push our communities toward compassion, equality, and greater inclusivity.