Clash of Identities

Explorations in Israeli and Palestinian Societies

Baruch Kimmerling

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2008
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780231512497
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

By revisiting the past hundred years of shared Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli history, Baruch Kimmerling reveals surprising relations of influence between a stateless indigenous society and the settler-immigrants who would later form the state of Israel. Shattering our assumptions about these two seemingly irreconcilable cultures, Kimmerling composes a sophisticated portrait of one side's behavior and characteristics and the way in which they irrevocably shaped those of the other.

Kimmerling focuses on the clashes, tensions, and complementarities that link Jewish, Palestinian, and Israeli identities. He explores the phenomena of reciprocal relationships between Jewish and Arab communities in mandatory Palestine, relations between state and society in Israel, patterns of militarism, the problems of jurisdiction in an immigrant-settler society, and the ongoing struggle of Israel to achieve legitimacy as both a Jewish and a democratic state. By merging Israeli and Jewish studies with a vast body of scholarship on Palestinians and the Middle East, Kimmerling introduces a unique conceptual framework for analyzing the cultural, political, and material overlap of both societies. A must read for those concerned with Israel and the relations between Jews and Arabs, Clash of Identities is a provocative exploration of the ever-evolving, always-contending identities available to Israelis and Palestinians and the fascinating contexts in which they take form.

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents 
• Preface
• 1. A Model for Analyzing Reciprocal Relations Between the Jewish and Arab Communities in Mandatory Palestine
• 2. Collective Identity as Agency and Structuration of Society: The Israeli Example with Dahlia Moore
• 3. The Formation Process of Palestinian Collective Identities: The Ottoman and Colonial Periods
• 4. Between Primordial and Civil Definitions of the Collective Identity: Eretz Israel or the State of Israel?
• 5. State Building, State Autonomy, and the Identity of Society: The Case of the Israeli State
• 6. Patterns of Militarism in Israel
• 7. The Social Construction of Israel’s National Security
• 8. Jurisdiction in an Immigrant-Settler Society: The Jewish and Democratic State
• 9. Exchanging Territories for Peace: A Macrosociological Approach
• 10. Nationalism, Identity, and Citizenship: An Epilogue to the Yehoshua-Shammas Controversy: A Non-Platontic Dialogue
• 11. The Power-Oriented Settlement: PLO-Israel: The Road to the Oslo Agreement and Back?
• 12. Politicide: Ariel Sharon’s Legacy and the Palestinians
• Epilogue
• Chronology of Major Events
• Notes
• Index