Contents List of Tables 8 List of Figures 9 Typography, Translations

Copy Link

Contents List of Tables 8 List of Figures 9 Typography, Translations and Transcription 10 Transcription 11 Abbreviations 13 Introduction 14 Background 14 Review of literature and research questions 18 Data and methodology 20 Theoretical framework 22 The Structure of the thesis 23 Limitations of the study 24 1. Arabic and Hebrew in one text: Early potentials, current perspective 26 1.1 Judeo-Arabic: general remarks 27 1.2 Judeo-Arabic texts: Early potentials of Arabic/Hebrew in one text 30 1.3 Iraqi Judeo-Arabic 35 1.3.1 Iraqi Judeo-Arabic literature 36 1.3.2 The linguistic features of Iraqi Judeo-Arabic: General remarks 37 1.4 Iraqi Jewish Novelists: From Arabic to Hebrew 40 1.4.1 Socio-political background: First-generation Mizrahi Jews in Israel 41 1.4.2 The cultural identity of first-generation Iraqi Jews 43 1.4.3 Shimon Ballas: Adlb al-Qas 44 1.4.4 Sami Michael: 'Saleh-Menashe' or 'Samir-Marid'? 46 1.4.5 Eli Amir: Ibn-'Arab 48 1.5 The Novels 50 1.5.1 Scapegoat- Eli Amir (1983) 50 1.5.2 All Men are Equal - But Some are More - Sami Michael (1974) 53 1.5.3 The Transit Camp - Shimon Ballas (1964) 56 1.5.4 Farewell Baghdad - Eli Amir (1992) 57 1.5.5 Victoria - Sami Michael (1993) 61 1.5.6 The Other One - Shimon Ballas (1991) 64 1.5.7 What's Left - Eli Amir (2010a) 67 1.5.8 The Flight of the Swans - Sami Michael, (2011) 68 1.5.9 The End of the Visit - Shimon Ballas (2008) 70 2. Stylistics: an approach to exophonic texts 71 2.1 Exophonic texts 72 2.1.1 Bilingualism and exophonic writing 72 2.1.2 Exophonic texts, stylistics and foregrounding 75 2.2 Approaches to exophonic texts 79 2.2.1 Conversational code-switching 79 2.2.2 Code switching in written discourse: Review of the literature 83 2.3 Aspects of non-code-switching in exophonic texts 86 2.4 Style as choice and exophonic texts 87 2.5 Why stylistics? 91 2.6 Toward a new approach to exophonic text 92 2.6.1 Literary code-switching: New perspective 92 6 http://d-nb.info/1082785202 2.6.2 Non-CS aspects: syntagmatic and paradigmatic choices 96 2.6.3 The suggested model 98 2.7 Conclusion 102 3. Stylistic analysis of Arabic use in the Iraqi Jewish Hebrew novels 103 3.1 Data 104 3.2 Numerical results 104 3.2.1 Counting method 105 3.2.2 The comparison of Arabic use counts 105 3.3 Code-Switching in the Hebrew novels 106 3.3.1 Easy-Access Code-Switching 108 3.3.2 Hard-Accessed Code-Switching 113 3.3.3 Ambiguous-Access Code-Switching 118 3.4 Syntagmatic/Paradigmatic deviations 124 3.4.1 Syntagmatic deviation 125 3.4.2 Paradigmatic deviations 127 3.4.3 Arabic in Hebrew: Foregrounding or Deviance? 132 3.5 Iraqi Judeo-Arabic and Arabic dialects in the novels 134 3.5.1 Iraqi Judeo-Arabic 134 3.5.2 Arabic dialects 139 3.6 Conclusion 141 4. The style of Arabic use between authors and novels 142 4.1 Diachronic analysis of Arabic use in the selected Hebrew novels 143 4.1.1 Early Hebrew novels (corpus 1) 143 4.1.2 Hebrew novels written in the middle period, corpus 2 147 4.1.3 The late Hebrew novels, corpus 3 149 4.1.4 General remarks on the diachronic analysis of Arabic use 150 4.2 The style of Arabic use as compared between novels and authors 153 4.2.1 Shimon Ballas 153 4.2.2 Sami Michael 159 4.2.3 Eli Amir 164 4.3 Conclusion 170 5. Iraqi Jewish authors between Iraq and Israel 172 5.1 Places and narratives 173 5.1.1 Ha-ma'abara: the narratives of Baghdad and Israel 174 5.1.2 Baghdad 179 5.1.3 Israel 184 5.2 Cultural translation in Iraqi Jewish fiction 186 5.3 The Arabic-Hebrew conflict 192 5.3.1 Acquiring Hebrew 193 5.3.2 "To be like them" 194 5.3.3 Arabic as a saviour 196 5.3.4 The language of the enemy 197 5.3.5 Do they know it? 197 5.4 Conclusion 199 6. Summary and concluding remarks 200 7. Bibliography 214 7.1 The novels in the analysis: 214 7.2 Consulted references: 215 7 8. Appendices 232 8.1 The list of Arabic lexical items with frequencies 232 8.2 The list of Arabic lexical items according to semantic fields 242 .

Recommended publications

Curriculum Vitae and List of Publications

Batya Shimony April 2013 CURRICULUM VITAE AND LIST OF PUBLICATIONS Personal Details Name: Batya Shimony Date and place of birth: June 15 1967 Israel Regular military service (dates): 23/12/85-22/6/88 Address and telephone number at work: Hebrew Literature Department. Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, ISRAEL Tel. 08-6461132 , Mobile 052-3459749 [email protected] Address and telephone number at home: 42/10 Rachel Imenu Street, Modiin, 71724 Tel. 08-9708379 Education B.A. 1990-1993- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew Literature and Comparative Literature, with distinction. M.A. 1994-1998- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hebrew Literature, with distinction. Name of advisor: . Prof Yigal Shcwartz Title of thesis: The Construction of cultural Identity of the Other in Yehuda Burla’s Novels Ph.D. 1998-2004- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew Literature Name of advisor: Prof. Yigal Shcwartz Title of thesis: The Story of the Ma'abara (transition camp) - Between the Dominant Voice and the Subversive Voice Batya Shimony Page 2 Employment History: 2012- present Lecturer (tenure track position) in Achva Academic College. 2005 - present Lecturer (tenure track position) in the Department of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University. 2004 - 2011 External Teacher and academic coordinator in the Department of Hebrew Literature, Achva Academic College 2000-2005 Teacher/ assistant (as a Ph.D student) in Department of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University 1996-2000 Assistant in the Department of Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Professional Activities: (a) Positions in academic administration: 2011-2012: Member of Committee: Self Evaluation Report 2010 – Department of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Historical Memory and History in the Memoirs of Iraqi Jews*

Historical Memory and History in the Memoirs of Iraqi Jews* Mark R. Cohen Memoirs, History, and Historical Memory Following their departure en masse from their homeland in the middle years of the twentieth century, Jews from Iraq produced a small library of memoirs, in English, French, Hebrew, and Arabic. These works reveal much about the place of Arab Jews in that Muslim society, their role in public life, their relations with Muslims, their involvement in Arab culture, the crises that led to their departure from a country in which they had lived for centuries, and, finally, their life in the lands of their dispersion. The memoirs are complemented by some documentary films. The written sources have aroused the interest of historians and scholars of literature, though not much attention has been paid to them as artifacts of historical memory.1 That is the subject of the present essay. Jews in the Islamic World before the Twentieth Century Most would agree, despite vociferous demurrer in certain "neo-lachrymose" circles, that, especially compared to the bleaker history of Jews living in Christian lands, Jews lived fairly securely during the early, or classical, Islamic * In researching and writing this paper I benefited from conversations and correspondence with Professors Sasson Somekh, Orit Bashkin, and Lital Levy and with Mr. Ezra Zilkha. Though a historian of Jews in the Islamic world in the Middle Ages, I chose to write on a literary topic in honor of Tova Rosen, who has contributed so much to our knowledge of another branch of Jewish literature written by Arab Jews.
The Exilic Literature of Iranian and Iraqi Jews

Lost Homelands, Imaginary Returns – The Exilic Literature Of Iranian And Iraqi Jews Ella Shohat – Ills.: Joseph Sassoon Semah When I first contemplated my participation in the“Moments of Silence” conference, I wondered to what extent the question of the Arab Jew /Middle Eastern Jew merits a discussion in the context of the Iran- Iraq War. After all, the war took place in an era when the majority of Jews had already departed from both countries, and it would seem of little relevance to their displaced lives. Yet, apart from the war’s direct impact on the lives of some Jews, a number of texts have engaged the war, addressing it from within the authors’ exilic geographies where the war was hardly visible. And, precisely because these texts were written in contexts of official silencing of the Iran-Iraq War, their engagement of the war is quite striking. For displaced authors in the United States, France, and Israel, the Iran-Iraq War became a kind of a return vehicle to lost homelands, allowing them to vicariously be part of the events of a simultaneously intimate and distant geography. Thus, despite their physical absence from Iraq and Iran, authors such as Nissim Rejwan, Sami Michael, Shimon Ballas, and Roya Hakakian actively participate in the multilingual spaces of Iranian and Iraqi exilic literature. Here I will focus on the textual role of war in the representation of multi-faceted identities, themselves shaped by the historical aftermath of wars, encapsulated in memoirs and novels about Iraq and Iran, and written in languages that document new stops and passages in the authors’ itineraries of belonging.
The Dove Flyer Free

FREE THE DOVE FLYER PDF Eli Amir,Hillel Halkin | 560 pages | 18 Feb 2010 | Halban Publishers | 9781905559183 | English | London, United Kingdom The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir: | : Books The Jews The Dove Flyer Iraq. Set in Baghdad,a young man named Kabi Daniel Gad sees his family as the final person in a legacy of seventy generations in the making. His family faces the news that the Jewish community is being forced to leave Iraq and depart the land where their ancestors lived for many years. Kabi finds himself with a mission for which he is much too young but for which he nevertheless steps up to— helping find justice for Hazkel. His The Dove Flyer Abu Uri Gavrielfinally, just wants to take care of his doves in peace and pretend that good. The film strongly conveys the political ideologies, religious affinities, and cultural identities that clashed at the time and still do today around the globe. It gives us a portrait of collective loss by intersecting various family members throughout their own journeys. He flirts with romance with his aunt- by-marriage Rachelle and his friend Adnan Tawfeek Barhoum teaches Kabi that revolution and sex go hand-in-hand. He is an innocent who goes through his own awakening as he cannot hold onto the conviction behind the play on home, family, and connection that his family emphasizes as The Dove Flyer try to hold onto their homeland and the home of seventy generations of his family. Gad as Kabi gives a very strong performance as Kabi searches for answers and guidance along the way.
Tufts Arabic Program Presents: Layali Cinema

Tufts Arabic Program Presents: Layali Cinema Layali Cinema this year aims to shed light on the diversity and complexity of the Middle East, telling stories ranging from the Jewish community of Iraq, to the Amazigh/Berber populations of North Africa, the Druze and Christian communities of the Levant, the Kurds, and more. September 21 Forget Baghdad is a reflection about the stereotypes of “Jew” and “Arab” through one 7:30pm Olin 11 hundred years of film, told through the personal stories of four Iraqi Jewish communists. The protagonists are Shimon Ballas, a writer and professor of Arabic studies living between Tel Aviv and Paris; the best‐selling Israeli author Sami Michael; Moshe Houri, a real estate developer; and Samir Naqqash, an author who writes exclusively in Arabic. October 26 7:30pm Olin 11 Set in the Golan Heights, The Syrian Bride follows Mona (Clara Khoury), an Arab Druze woman about to be married to a Syrian soap opera star. Once she crosses from the Israeli‐occupied Golan Heights into Syria, she will be unable to ever return, forcing her to leave her family and the life she had behind. November 15 7:30pm Olin 11 West Beirut is set in April 1975, as civil war breaks out in the cosmopolitan city known as the “Paris of the Middle East”. The Lebanese capital quickly divides along Muslim‐Christian lines into East and West. Tarek, an easygoing high school student passionate about filmmaking, doesn’t take the fighting seriously at first. Schools are closed, the violence is fascinating, and sneaking across no man’s land to the other side is a game.
From Left to Right: Israel's Repositioning in the World

2015 年 3 月第 2 号 The 2nd volume 【編集ボード】委員長：鈴木均内部委員：土屋一樹、Housam Darwisheh、渡邊祥子、石黒大岳外部委員：清水学、内藤正典、池内恵本誌に掲載されている論文などの内容や意見は、外部からの論稿を含め、執筆者個人に属すものであり、日本貿易振興機構あるいはアジア経済研究所の公式見解を示すものではありません。中東レビュー第 2 号 2015 年 3 月 16 日発行Ⓒ 編集：『中東レビュー』編集ボード発行：アジア経済研究所独立行政法人日本貿易振興機構〒261-8545 千葉県千葉市美浜区若葉 3-2-2 URL: http://www.ide.go.jp/Japanese/Publish/Periodicals/Me_review/ ISSN: 2188-4595 IDE ME Review Vol.2 (2014-2015) FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ISRAEL’S REPOSITIONING IN THE WORLD 左から右へ：イスラエルの政治的な長期傾向 Yakov M. Rabkin* 第二次大戦時に大量のユダヤ人避難民を受け入れたイスラエルは、1946 年の建国時には共産主義的な社会改革思想に基づくキブツ運動などの左翼的思潮を国家建設の支柱にしていたが、その後の政治過程のなかで一貫して右傾化の方向をたどり、現在では国際的にみても最も保守的な軍事主義的思想傾向が国民のあいだで広く共有され、国内のアラブ系住民の経済的従属が永く固定化するに至った。現在のイスラエル国家を思想的にも実体経済的にも支えている基本的な理念は、建国時のそれとは全く対極的な新保守主義とグローバル化された「新自由主義」的な資本主義であり、それは当然ながら国内における安価な労働力としてのアラブ系住民の存在を所与の前提条件として組み込んでいる。これは具体的にどのような経緯によるものであり、またイスラエル国家のどのような性格から導き出されるものなのか。本論稿では政治的シオニズムがイスラエル建国後から現在までにたどってきた思想的な系譜を改めて確認し、現在のイスラエルが国際的に置かれている特異な立場とその背後にある諸要因を説明する。 * Professor of History, University of Montreal. His two recent books are: A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (Palgrave Macmillan/Zed Books) that appeared in fifteen languges and and Compendre l’État d’Israël (Écosociété). Both have been published in Japanese by Heibonsha. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ISRAEL’S REPOSITIONING IN THE WORLD In its pioneer years, Israel 1 was largely associated with the leftist ideas of collective endeavour and socialist solidarity. Early Israeli elites often came from the kibbutz and were vocal in their allegiance to social justice and equality. This, in turn, brought them admiration and support from socialists around the world. Few noticed that while praised by the left, Israeli society was steadily moving to right. Nowadays Israel has earned the admiration of the right and the extreme right in most Western countries. This paper should explain this apparently puzzling transformation in the international position of this small country in Western Asia.
Conference Program

Connecting Jewish Theatre To the World CONFERENCE PROGRAM AJT Board/Staff Staff Executive Director: Jeremy Aluma Registrar/Finance: Marcy Segal Website Creative/Graphic Designer: Michelle Shapiro Conference Stage Manager/Program Designer: Danny Debner Executive Board President: Hank Kimmel Vice-president: Wendy Kout Vice-president: Ralph Meranto Vice-president: Deborah Baer Mozes Secretary: Jesse Bernstein Treasurer: Susan Lodish Immediate Past President: David Y. Chack Members-at-Large Social Media Manager: Danielle Levsky Toby Klein Greenwald Ronda Spinak Adam Immerwahr Robyn Israel Ex Officio Mira Hirsch Ellen Schiff Robert Skloot Honorary Board Tovah Feldshuh Adam Kantor Theodore Bikel (z”l) We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists (Tessa Aubergenois, Arye Gross, Karen Malina White, Sally Wingert, Minka Wiltz, and Aviva Pressman) to appear on this program. Program Contents Day One Schedule – Sunday October 25 4 Mara Isaacs 5 Debórah Eliezer 6 Seraph-Eden Boroditsky 7 Lindsey Newman 8 Stories of Jewish Holidays 9 The Great Escape 10 Bubble Schmeisis (excerpt) 11 BJW (excerpt) 12 Imagining Heschel (excerpt) 13 Day Two Schedule – Monday October 26 14 Shimrit Ron 15 Igal Ezraty 16 Hadar Galron 17 Maya Arud Yasur 18 Noam Gil 19 Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari 20 Udi Ben Moshe 21 Joshua Harmon 22 Anike Tourse 23 András Borgula 24 Helen Marcos 25 Rachel
At the Periphery of the Kibbutz: Palestinian and Mizrahi Interlopers

During the kibbutz movement’s now distant halcyon days, even Zionism’s most severe crit- ics succumbed to its charms. Yet what many sojourners easily overlooked amidst their euphoric discovery was that the kibbutz was markedly unwelcoming to Israel’s internal ethnic others. As the late historian Tony Judt came to recognize, “the mere fact of collective self-government, or egalitarian distribution of consumer durables, does not make you either more sophisticated or more tolerant of others. Indeed, to the extent that it contributes to At the Periphery an extraordinary smugness of self-regard, it actually reinforces the worst kind of ethnic of the Kibbutz: solipsism” (“Kibbutz,” New York Review of Books, February 11, 2010). Here I briefly sketch the Palestinian and intriguing contours of two young literary Mizrahi Interlopers protagonists, ethnic “others” whose identities clash harshly with the self-idealizing commu- in Utopia nities to which they yearn to belong. Atallah Mansour’s (b. 1934) In a New Ranen Omer-Sherman Light (B’or Hadash, 1966), the first Hebrew novel published by a Palestinian Israeli, scrutinizes the kibbutz’ willingness to live by its own values through the eyes of a lonely outsider. Born and raised in Palestine, Mansour briefly resided in a kibbutz in northern Israel. His novel highlights the poignant failures of the lofty Zionist dream of utopia even as it expresses significant empathy for those struggling on its behalf. At one starkly revealing moment, an observant kibbutz character ruefully acknowl- edges the disillusioning reality exposed in other works of the era: “We wanted to redeem the land, to protect Jewish labour and to secure peace, and it looks as if it isn’t easy to fulfill all three wishes” (63).
Almog Behar E La Letteratura Mizrahi in Israele

Annali di Ca’ Foscari ISSN 2385-3042 Vol. 50 – Dicembre 2014 Di generazione in generazione ’Almog Behar e la letteratura mizrahi in Israele Dario Miccoli (Aix-Marseille Université, France) Abstract This essay focuses on a very interesting Israeli novelist and poet of mizrahi origin, ’Almog Behar (b. 1978), clarifying the most salient characteristics of his works – especially the novel Tchahlah ve-Hezqel – and the main issues there discussed. In order to better understand the works of Behar. The first three generations ofmizrahi literature will be discussed: from the «transit camp» novels of the 1950s to the new wave of the 1980s, up to today. By focusing on Behar, it will be explained how it is nowadays possible to rewrite Israeli culture and society basing upon one’s family past and memories and, in so doing, open new scenarios for Israeli literature, as well as for mizrahi identity and Arab-Jewish relations. Sommario 1. I mizrahim tra storia e letteratura. — 2. Dalla «letteratura del campo di transito» al «ritorno del rimosso»: la prima e seconda generazione mizrahi — 3.Un vento nuovo? La terza generazione mizrahi. — 4. ’Almog Behar e la sua opera letteraria. — 5 Note conclusive. 1 I mizrahim tra storia e letteratura A partire dagli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta del ’900, centinaia di migliaia di ebrei provenienti dal Medio Oriente e dal Nord Africa emigrarono verso lo Stato d’Israele, sorto nel 1948. Le migrazioni dei mizrahim (pl. di mizrahi: «orientale») – costretti a lasciare i propri Paesi a seguito dello scoppio del conflitto arabo-israeliano, o perché spinti dal desiderio di tornare in ’Eretz Israel (Terra d’Israele) e prendere parte alla rinascita nazionale ebraica – determinarono nel giro di pochi anni la scomparsa di comunità che per secoli avevano vissuto in modi più o meno armonici all’interno di società a maggioranza musulmana.
Arabic And/Or Hebrew: the Languages of Arab Writers in Israel 151

132 Arnold]. Band neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986) ate standard for "cultural crit ics," particularly those who follow the postcolonialist theories of Edward Said. The applicability of these theories are convincing in Hever's article on Sham mas's ArabeJqlles, "Hebrew in an Israeli Arab Hand: Six Miniatures on Anton Shammas's Arabesql/CS," Cultural Critique 7 (1987): 47-76, reprinted in Tbe Nature and Context of Minority Discourse, eds. Abdul R. and David Lloyd (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 264-93. They 8 become less convincing as he attempts to apply his ideas to the entire corpus of Israeli literature. In a subsequent article, "Lehakot ba'aqevo shel Achilles," in Alpayim 1 (June 1989): 186-93, [English version in Tikkun 4/5 (Sept.lOcc. 1989): 30-33], Hever considers the new openness of Israeli literature to Palestinian writers, usually translated from Arabic, as a major cultural break- Arabic and/or Hebrew: The Languages of an attack on the "Achilles heel" of the Zionist narrative that has Arab Writers in Israel * dominated Israeli Hebrew literature. The theories of Deleuze and Guattari, especially "deterritorialization," support Hever's argument only if inverted, only if the features of the minority culture are appropriated--consciously or Ami Elad-Bouskila unconsciously-by the majority literature, 12. The first appearances of these stories are noteworthy: A.B. Yehoshua's "Fac- the Forests" (Mul haya'arot), Qesbet 5 (Spring 1963):18-45; Amos Oz's "Nomad and Viper" (Navvadim vatsefa), Ha'arets, Feb. 7. 1964; Amaliah Ka hana-Carmon's "Heart of Summer. Heart of Light" (Lev haqayits.
Sde Boker Campus, the Ben Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism

"The Struggle for Israeli Identity" Spring Semester – 2016 Sde Boker Campus, The Ben Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism Dr. Nahum Karlinsky Email: [email protected] Phone: (08) 659-6973 (office); 052-295-8758 (mobile) Office hours: Sde Boker Campus, Dondish Building – Thursdays, 16:00-17:00, or by appointment Office location (Sde Boker): Building: Dondish, The BG Research Institute Course Description: We will start by outlining the construction of Israel’s collective identity during the State's formative years. We will then discuss the shattering of that collective outlook in subsequent years and will proceed to examining its transformation into its current condition of a kaleidoscopic set of different and even contrasting identities. The theoretical notions of individual and collective identities will guide us throughout the course. Among the topics to be explored are: Israel's political system and society; ethnic relations in Israel; the Arab minorities in the Jewish state; is there a unique Israeli culture?; Israeli Occupation and settlement projects; the struggle for a unifying Israeli identity. The course will conclude with a staged peace conference on the conflict between Israel and Palestine Course Objectives: The object of this course is to provide an advanced understanding of modern Israeli politics, culture and identity(ies). The theoretical prisms of both collective and individual identities will serve us as an analytical tool in our examination of Israeli society, culture and politics. Course Structure: Each class will be composed of lectures, discussions and short presentations. Total # of Credits: 4 Teaching Method: The course will be conducted through a combination of formal lectures, independent study and class discussions.
Karlinsky -- Syllabus -- Updated-1

Karlinsky – Israel – Fall 2014 - 1 - "Israel: History, Politics, Culture, Identity" HI 392 DR. NAHUM KARLINSKY [email protected] Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-11:00 Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:30 pm, Elie Wiesel Center (147 Bay State Road), or by appointment. The object of this course is to provide basic understanding of modern Israeli politics, culture and identity through lectures, discussions and projects. Among the topics to be explored are: Israel's political system and society; ethnic relations in Israel; the Arab minorities in the Jewish state; is there a unique Israeli culture?; Israeli Occupation and settlement projects; the struggle for Israel's identity. A broad array of genres and modes of expression - not only academic writings, but also literature, popular music, film, documentaries and art - will be incorporated into our discussion. CLASS SCHEDULE I. Theoretical and historical considerations 1. Opening remarks: Israel today – the complexity of contemporary Israeli society. Individual and collective identity formation: theoretical underpinnings. The Zionist meta-narrative: basic characteristics of the Zionist meta-narrative – the New Jew and the return to the old-new homeland; Palestine and the Palestinians before Zionism; the Zionist movement; Zionist colonization; the British Mandate period (1917-1948) 2. World War Two – the Holocaust; 1948 -- the establishment of the State of Israel and the Palestinian "catastrophe" (al Nakba); A brief survey of Israel's wars, 1948-present; The Palestinians today: the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank, the Hamas and the Gaza strip; Israel’s formative years, 1948-1967 [I]: Civil Religion in Israel and the formation of Israel’s core identity, the "Sabra" 3.