Speaking through the Mask': Israeli Arabs and the Changing Faces of Israeli Citizenship (original) (raw)

Half-Statelessness and Hannah Arendt's Citizenship Model: The Case of Palestinian Citizens of Israel

This article explores Hannah Arendt's conceptualization of half-statelessness, theorized as the partial invasion of citizenship by characteristics of statelessness. It is a process of dehumanization, since according to Arendt, human beings can realize their humanness only within the confines of genuine citizenship. Explicating Arendt's conceptualization of half-statelessness helps us better understand her dynamic citizenship theory and better explain contemporary developments, characterizing ethnic national states in which populist trends lead to gradual substantial revocation of national minorities' citizenship status. We illustrate the analytical advantages of Arendt's conceptualization and demonstrate the meaning of dehumanization by examining the reaction of Palestinian citizens of Israel to recent radicalization of state policies towards them.

Israel’s citizenship policy since the 1990s—new challenges, (mostly) old solutions

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 2018

Israel's highly restrictive citizenship policy constitutes the clearest indicator of its dominant ethnic model of citizenship. However, this policy has faced new challenges since the early 1990s, following the mass migration of non-Jewish immigrants. This paper examines and characterizes changes in immigrants' entitlement to Israeli citizenship since the 1990s. It indicates that while Israel's traditional citizenship policy has not undergone any significant change, two trends are evident: a much more restrictive policy towards Arab immigrants; and a somewhat more inclusive policy concerning other immigrants. To explain how these conflicting trends have coexisted, this study identifies three major characteristics of the Israeli policy: widespread use of the 'divide and rule' technique; managing policy through bureaucratic decisions; and the growing assimilation of liberal and republican principles into Israel's citizenship policy, although without undermining-on the contrary, even reinforcing-the dominant ethnic model of citizenship. These findings indicate that although the dominant ethnic citizenship model in Israel remains stable, and can successfully tackle significant obstacles, limited opportunities exist for greater inclusion of specific non-Jewish populations within the Israeli polity. Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has both defined itself and been perceived by others as a Jewish state. Expressions of its Jewish character include the wording of the Declaration of Independence, its symbols and formal legislation, as well as the allocation of surplus resources to the Jewish population. Although scholars disagree regarding how this affects the precise definition of Israel in comparative and theoretical terms-whether it is a liberal democracy, 1 an 'ethnic democracy' 2 or a non-democratic 'ethnocracy' 3-they generally agree that Israel is characterized by a dominant ethnic model of citizenship. However in Israel, as elsewhere, citizenship is not monolithic and alternative concepts, more inclusive

Citizenship as Domination: Settler Colonialism and the Making of Palestinian Citizenship in Israel

Arab Studies Journal, 2019

This article traces the making of the Israeli citizenship regime, focusing on the period between 1948 and 1952. During these formative years, the 1950 Law of Return, which governs Jewish entitlement to citizenship, and the 1952 Citizenship Law, which governs the status of ’48 Palestinians, were enacted. Situating the Israeli case within the broader history of citizenship-making in Anglophone settler colonial sites and drawing on analogies with Australia, the United States, and Canada, this article is interested in what this formative period, in which the constitutional cornerstones of Israel’s citizenship regime came into being, can tell us about Palestinian citizenship in Israel and about the institution of citizenship in settler-colonial contexts more broadly. Drawing on original archival material, it argues that in Israel, as in other settler polities, citizenship has figured as an institution of domination, functioning as a mechanism of elimination, a site of subjectivation, and an instrument of race making. Racial subjects, space, and citizenship were constituted in relation to each other in intimate ways. Citizenship transformed space from Arab/Palestinian to Jewish, rendered settlers indigenous, and produced Palestinian natives as alien. Israel’s citizenship regime was predicated on the racial demarcation between Palestinians, whose citizenship was governed by the logic of naturalization, and Jewish settlers, viewed as natural and authentic subjects of citizenship.

Rights Beyond Borders: Everyday Politics of Citizenship in the Israeli Diaspora

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2011

This article examines the process by which Israeli migrants define, perceive and negotiate their diasporic citizenship rights and duties as regards their home state. Rights are a bundle of symbolic and material services conferred by the state upon citizens abroad and include among other things ceremonies marking national holidays, language enrichment classes for the 1.5 and second generations, and homeland art and literature fairs. Recognition of the entitlement of nationals residing abroad to these rights is accompanied by a demand for symmetry manifested by the fulfillment of cultural duties. I focus in this article on the case of the Israeli community in Los Angeles and its members' quest to be recognised as diasporic citizens. By analysing narratives of state officials and local activists in the context of Israel's Independence Day Festival, I show how a discourse of citizenship beyond borders is framed within different articulations of rights and duties.

The Israeli Nationality Law – A Blueprint for a 21st Century Settler Colonial State

2019

The author argues that the ‘New’ Israeli Nationality Law is, despite its name, a natural, almost inevitable, product of the Zionist project in Palestine. Besides representing Zionist ideology, the law is part of a long-term attempt by the Israeli government to adjust Zionism to present-day realities and solve the so-called ‘demographic problem’ of the Jewish State.