Oriental Neighbors

Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine

Abigail Jacobson, Moshe Naor

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781512600063, 9781512600056
• eBook ISBN: 9781512600070
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

Focusing on Oriental Jews and their relations with their Arab neighbors in Mandatory Palestine, this book analyzes the meaning of the hybrid Arab-Jewish identity that existed among Oriental Jews, and discusses their unique role as political, social, and cultural mediators between Jews and Arabs. Integrating Mandatory Palestine and its inhabitants into the contemporary Semitic-Levantine surroundings, Oriental Neighbors illuminates broad areas of cooperation and coexistence, which coincided with conflict and friction, between Oriental and Sephardi Jews and their Arab neighbors. The book brings the Oriental Jewish community to the fore, examines its role in the Zionist nation-building process, and studies its diverse and complex links with the Arab community in Palestine.

Notes

Introduction

1. “A New Spirit—An open letter from Israeli Descendants of the Countries of Islam.” “Ruch Jadidah/Ruach Hadasha: Young Mizrahi Israelis’ Open Letter to Arab Peers.

2. See, for example, Eyal, Hasarat hakesem min hamizrah, 22–23; Hochberg, “The Mediterranean Option”; Ohana, The Origins of Israeli Mythology, 182–221; A. Rubinstein, From Herzl to Rabin, 54–81; Tal, “Israel in or of the Middle East.”

3. See, for example, Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs; Heller, Mibrit shalom le’ichud.

4. Irwin Cotler, “The Double Nakba,” Jerusalem Post, June 30, 2008.

5. M. Cohen, “Islam and the Jews.” See also Lewis, The Jews of Islam and Islam in History, 137–52.

6. Memmi, “Who Is an Arab Jew?” For a different version of this text, see Memmi, Jews and Arabs, 21–22. For more recent works on this issue, see, for example, Gilbert, In Ishmael’s House; Weinstock, Nokhekhut ko arukah.

7. On the policy of the Zionist movement toward the Arab Question, see, for example, Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs; Mandel, The Arabs and Zionism before World War I; Shapira, Land and Power.

8. On the cultural connections between Palestine and the Levant, see, for example, Alcalay, After Jews and Arabs.

9. Tsur, “Hahistoriographya haisraelit vehabe’aya ha’adatit,” 19.

10. Bar-On, “Hahistoriographya haisraelit shel hasihsukh haisraeli-‘aravi”; Gelber, Historia, zikaron veta‘amula, 400–403; Shapira, “Hahistoriographya shel hatziyonut vemedinat israel beshishim shnot medina.”

11. Horowitz and Lissak, Origins of the Israeli Polity, 16–35. For more on the dual-society model and the social and economic differences between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, see Khalidi, The Iron Cage, especially. 1–31; Metzer, The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine.

12. Halamish, “Eretz Israel hamandatorit.”

13. Lockman, “Railway Workers and Relational History,” 604. For more on this issue, see, for example, Bernstein, Constructing Boundaries; Gozanski, Hitpathut hakapitalism befalestina; Lockman, Comrades and Enemies; Metzer, “Kalkalat eretz Israel beyemei hamandat”; Segev, One Palestine, Complete; Shafir, Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Smith, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine.

14. Halamish, “Eretz Israel hamandatorit.”

15. For studies that discuss the connections between Sephardi and Oriental Jews and the Arab Question, see, for example, Alboher, Hizdahut, histaglut vehistaygut; M. Behar and Benite, Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought; Bezalel, Noladetem Ziyonim; Haim, Yihud vehishtalvut.

16. Razi, “Yehudiot ‘arviot?”

17. See, for example, Herzog, ‘Adatiyut politit; Kats, “Zikatam shel sefaradim ubney ‘edot hamizrah batnu‘ot hadatiyot leumiyot hamizrahi vehapo‘el hamizrahi be’eretz Israel 1918–1947”; Levi, “Hape‘ilut hapolitit vehairgun shel hakehila hasfaradit bayeshuv ubemedinat Israel, 1945–1955”; Lissak, “Habe‘aya ha‘adatit veirgunim ‘adatiyim bitkufat hayeshuv”; Morag-Talmon, Ha‘eda hasfaradit bitkufat hayeshuv.

18. On joint Ottoman citizenship, see Campos, Ottoman Brothers; J. Cohen, Becoming Ottomans.

19. Exceptions are Alboher, Hizdahut, histaglut vehistaygut; Bezalel, Noladetem Ziyonim; Haim, Yihud vehishtalvut; Kats, “Zikatam shel sefaradim ubney ‘edot hamizrah batnu‘ot hadatiyot leumiyot hamizrahi vehapo‘el hamizrahi be’eretz Israel 1918–1947”; Levi, “Hape‘ilut hapolitit vehairgun shel hakehila hasfaradit bayeshuv ubemedinat Israel, 1945–1955”; Razi, “Yehudiyot ‘arviyot?” and Yaldei hahefker.

20. “Memorandum Presented to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine by the Sephardic Communities in Palestine,” February 1946, 6209/10, Jerusalem Municipal Archive, Jerusalem (hereafter JMA).

21. “Hayeshuv ha‘ivri besof 1936,” Davar, February 11, 1937.

22. “Be-1946 hegi’a mispar hayehudim be’eretz Israel le-592,000,” Hamashkif, September 2, 1946.

23. Lissak, ‘Iyunim behistorya hevratit shel Israel, 43 and 48.

24. Klein, Lives in Common, ix–xi and 19–64.

25. For the different terminology that was used in different contexts, see “al-Mu’tamar al-‘Arabi al-Yahudi,” Filastin, August 2, 1938; “Mushkilat Filastin,” Filastin, August 9, 1938; “Nahna wa-almadaris al-tanawiyah,” Filastin, February 11, 1945; “Wataniyat al-mahajjir: yahud filastin,” Filastin, May 30, 1931.

26. Avraham Elmaleh, “Histadrut halutzey hamizrah (hirhurim),” Doar Hayom, November 30, 1923. On the term “Musta’arvim,” see Ben Zvi, Mehkarim umekorot, 15–20; Rozen, “Ma’amad hamusta’arvim vehayahasim bein ha‘edot bayeshuv hayehudi be’eretz Israel mishalhey hameah ha-15 ve‘ad shalhey hameah ha-17.”

27. For more on the frontier, periphery neighborhoods in the mixed cities, see chapter 4.

28. See, for example, Abbasi, Zefat bitkufat hamandat 1918–1948; Bernstein, “South of Tel Aviv and North of Jaffa”; Goren, Shituf betzel ‘imut; Helman, Or veyam hekifuha; Kidron, Bein leom lemakom; LeVine, Overthrowing Geography; Razi, Yaldei hahefker.

29. Several studies published in recent years demonstrate the exciting research directions that are being pursued. See, for example, Ben-Bassat, Petitioning the Sultan; Campos, Ottoman Bro...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• One: The Road Not Taken: The Ethnic Problem and the Arab Question
• Two: Natives of the Orient: Political and Social Rapprochement
• Three: Cultural Politics: Journalistic, Cultural, and Linguistic Mediation
• Four: Mixing and Unmixing in the Oriental Ghettos
• Five: Crossing the Lines: The Security Border between Jews and Arabs
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index