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Part 1 of Modern Israel Lecture...

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Modern Israel: Recitation 1/26/18 -

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Jews tried to integrate into the communities but realized that it doesn’t work and were always treated unfairly o Always reminded that they are a Jew, anti-Semitism o The Zionist movement came to give a solution to the Jewish problem, wanted to give hope the Zionist wanted to be a signal of hope and create a sense of national identity among Jews around the world the only way to do this was to have one place/territory, common history – this will show how the Bible connects Jews – one common language, Jews didn’t speak Hebrew as the daily vernacular language, had a revival of Hebrew into a secular, modern language there was a fight between the Yiddish and the Hebrew, Hebrew won; however, some religious individuals believe Hebrew is a holy language and refuse to use it the Zionist movement was the most supportive of the plan to go to Palestine the old Jew, is the passive Jew, the Jew that submits to persecution and violence – the Jew that doesn’t fight back and only involved in academic action o Zionist looked to create the new Jew – strong Jew, one that will fight back o “the negation of exile” to negate anything that relates to exile and persecution without fighting back Sabra: like a pear, Israel is like Sabra and has a tough exterior but sweet interior – symbolizes the new, Jew/Israel o First used in 1930 Muscular Judaism coined by Max Nordau, reject the weak old Jew and show a stronger new Jew Zionists took religious terms and secularized them Declaration of Independence: May 14, 1948 o The Land of Israel means they are justify Jewish existence on this land in the first sentence

2/2/18 -

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The law of return in very important – “return” suggests that Jews were there before and are coming back; according to Ben gurion the law of return was for the Jewish people and that they have an inherent right to come back to Israel – this right is the very reason they established the state Major Waves of Immigration to Israel: o 1948-1950s Jews from Arab countries

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o 1990s – post soviet immigration – between 1989-2006, about 1.6 million soviet jews and their non jewish relatives and spouses as defined by the law of return emigrated from the former soviet union o 1984 and early 1985, 6700 Ethopians were taken to Israel in what came to be known as “Operation Moses” o 1991 over 14,000 “Operation King Solomon” Tent cities, ma’abarot, development towns Potential points of departure: religion, socioeconomic factors, ideology, culture Socioeconomic unrest: o Wadi Salib riots (1959): mistreatment by the police o David Ben haroush o Black panthers (Jerusalem 1971) Rupture and Return: Since the Arabs were now the enemy of Israel, how could Jews be Arabs – the Zionists wanted Arabic Jews to abandon their Arabic identities Ella Shohat: majority of Mizrahi jews were sprayed with DDT because thought were disease-ridden; State kidnapped mostly Yemeni kids and sold for adoption – State kept the money – believed children would live better under Ashkenazi families with less children and more resources Political Changes of 70s and 80s: o First time the labor party was not in control; Herut victory in 1977 (right wing party) o Founder Menachem Begin; acknowledged the discrimination of Mizrahi Jews, the Mizrahi granted Begin the victory – they show the labor party resentment and thus will always vote for the Herut o Begin was a good speaker, talked of corruption by the Labor party o Founding of Shas by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 1984; Mizrahi jews founded their own party Many sociopolitical changes and cultural changes thanks to the Herut o Miri Regev (Minister of culture and Sport) helped to promote Mizrahi Jews by spreading art, poetry etc.; Ars (Mizrahi were bad) poetica – transformed a negative term into a positive term o Lots of changes culturally including marriage between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Religion and State: Israel is Jewish and democratic – dangerous bedfellow? How can it be both? o Judaism, Islam, Christianity (10 denominations), Druze, Baha’l o Declaration of Independence gave freedom of religion to all o Uktra orthodox: “haredi” community o Reform Judaism is not recognized in Israel – allow women to be rabbi, but this clashes with orthodox (conflict with Judaism could be a good topic to write on) Staus Quo Arrangement (July 1947 and after)

o No public transportation on Sabbath (with exceptions) o Public institutions serve only kosher food o Chief Rabbinate courts responsible for marriage, divorce and conversion – only men can grant divorce (get) o Best rabbinical (yeshiva) students exempt from military service o Religious girls do not have to serve in Army Gett - The Trial of Vivian Amsalem (2014) Directed by Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz (leading actress) 2/9/18 March 2nd must submit a term paper proposal of 250 words. Why I chose it and the argument I wish to make. Must have 5 bibliography items outside of the class readings March 9th is the last class before the break – March 28th term paper is due, midterm is March 22nd Blaustein only got private assurance to consider American Jews in exile – Blaustein wanted an official statement, which would create a foreign statement of policy Blasutein was more aggressive in his speech than ben gurion; Aliya vs immigration: the need for individuals rather than a community collective value 2/23/18 Israeli political patronage was a reason for military government remaining so long; land policy – military governed to manage land First period: 1948-1967 Arab majority under British mandate became minority in Israel – population breakdown, voted for Jewish parties – either communist of satellite parties Second Period: 1967-1993 -

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6 day war From Arab nationalism to PLO (Palestinian identity) The balance between Arab-Palestinian and the Israeli-civil shifted – Palestinization was brought to table meaning the could identify more with Palestine PLO was recognized as sole representative of Palestinian people in 1974

Third period: 1993 to present -

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Began with Oslo Accords: more focus on the national struggle, aligning with Palestinians Alternative models to reflect the national needs of the Arab minority more equitably, and resolve the inherent conflict between Israel’s Jewish nature and democracy 2000 Intifada- first time Israeli Arabs express mass public solidarity with the Palestinians riots and protests occurred

The future vision documents: - 4 position papers - Rejects the definition of Israel as a Jewish democratic state The Key Problem: basically there were more Arabs surrounding the Jews at the beginning of the start of nation and made difficult create a Jewish state with an Arab minority -

Democracy vs Jewishness Democracy that is Jewish requires a Jewish majority; if Israel encompasses the west bank and Gaza, Arabs will become a majority Democracy is chained by Jewishness, and Jewishness is chained by democracy

3/2/18 -

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Collective memory: Ashkenazi said Mizrahi should be thankful, and that they had it hard in Israel also due to mass immigration, Mizrahi said they were discriminated against Cultural Hegemony: Ashkenazi came first and thus created a culture first; Smooha said although cultural alienation declined, still people suffered form cultural stigma and some cultures are still held as low Spoke of social separation: some lived toward outskirts with lesser education and resources, those who lived closer to center had more resources and were cared for more Education was divided by secular and religion, synagogues were divided for Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, furthermore for ultra orthodox Politics: Mizrahi associated with the right wing, opposition party – did not like labor party since felt discriminated against by them Class: there is an apparent component of ethnic divide, Mizrahi not able to rise in social class, could not get better jobs and had lesser, higher education

Central Demands of the Mizrahi Struggle and the Major Aspects of Discrimination

1. Housing a. Maabarot/ Shikkunim b. Periphery and development towns c. Abandoned Arab properties 2. access to welfare systems 3. Education: vocational vs academic 4. Religious and cultural marginalization Cultural Marginalization: - Meir Gal, “Nine out of Four Hundred” o History of jews and there were only 9 pages dedicated to Mizrahi history Specific events, actions and polices, mostly during 1950s that have drawn public outrage over the years - DDT spraying in immigration camps - Radiation treatment for a relatively minor skin infection - Kidnapping of children (mostly Yemenite); gov denies Major Protests/Movements - 1959: Wadi Salib, centered around housing and unemployment and maltreatment by the authorities - 1970s: black panthers focused on socioeconomic gaps, neglect of country’s periphery and on cities’ peripheral neighborhoods 3/9/18 March 30th recitation canceled Peak of 6 day way was capturing the old city Paper should have mixed voice, analytic and reflexive, objective and based on facts, generalizations are not good, look for a limited scope, accurate language Citations Full name, full title, [if source is a part of a book/journal – title of the book/journal], place of publication, name of publisher, year of publication, page numbers Internet links are not full citation; find different way to site internet source

4/6/18

Background of Lebanon War (1982) and First Intifada (1987): Lebanon War was caused by the many PLO militia groups in southern Lebanon that were previously expelled out of Jordan; Sharon wanted to expel them out of Lebanon, told Begin they needed a small military incursion but became much larger Worked with Christian militias – Israel wanted Christians in power; Christian militias attacked Palestinian refugee camps, the massacre was bad, and some thought Israel knew about it but not sure, Sharon resigned because of it First Intifada: the frustration of the new generation of Palestinians, a truck accident initiated protests and demonstrations; brought international attention but no progress Spread rapidly from Gaza to west bank; Palestinians used stones and Israel used mass incarceration Oslo Accords: September 1993 Labor party won the election in 1992; first Israeli born PM, chief of staff in 6-day war 4/13/18    

Kibbutzim is very important part of Israel; everything is shared, nothing was privately owned including the upbringing of children (bourgeois idea to stay in the traditional family) o Replaced traditional family with the common one The first aspect of kibbutzim that collapsed was raising children collectively

Jerusalem o Religious cultural center; opposite of Tel Aviv (modern secular) o Tel Aviv was the focus of Zionism and the kibbutzim o Jerusalem was not important to Jerusalem; was made of the Yishuv that was not similar to the socialist European Zionists o People wanted to move away from the old Jew and look to the “new man” o 1967 war was an important point when Jerusalem was captured o Jerusalem syndrome – number of tourists who upon arriving in Jerusalem may suffer psychotic reaction

4/20/18  

Settler movement consisted of a group of religious Jews who supported the Zionist movement – see the Zionist movement as part of the redemption of Israel Proof the redemption already took place

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Zionist movement forgot its original goals/origin and neglected the more Jewish aspects of the national movement which belongs to the sacredness of the land o They feel because the secular Jews forgot the meaning the religious Jews sees themselves as true Zionists o They saw the blindness of secular Zionists in accepting the divinity of Zionism; blindness of ultra orthodox to not see Zionists as divine redemption Gush Enumim established in response to Yom Kippur War (1974) o Reaction to the trauma that this war caused in Israel o Derived from Rabbi Kook o Took Zionism ideology to an extreme

Exam: 20 multiple choice: 3 (out of 5 choices) essays, 3-4 pages per essay How to answer essay question: - Read the question carefully - Answer every part of the question - Essay questions are cumulative; essay might be from first half of semester - Should be able to make connections and demonstrate understanding – not just state facts - Be as specific and clear as possible Sample: Discuss the role of religion in Israeli society. Address both the formal role or religion and the role of the ultra-orthodox in society. -

Can start by mentioning declaration of independence and role religion played Israel is Jewish and democratic Law of return mention status quo of 1948, context around it – background time period, problems and conflict school/education systems Judaism and other religions Religious Zionism Is the role of religion large or small? Ultra-orthodox men rebuilding Jewish culture – holocaust In reference to ultra-orthodox: military service

The intifadas, or uprisings, were two significant events in which Palestinians challenged Israeli rule. Compare the first and second intifada: in what way both uprisings differ? What were the major outcomes of each intifada, and how did the Israeli society respond to each of them?

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First intifada happened because Palestinians were against occupation in west bank, second Sharon First more peaceful, second more militaristic List differences: dates, context, motivations, organization, level of violence Outcomes: political, economic, military, loss of life Israeli society’s response: peace? separation? Electoral response?

How to organize studying: - Major wars - Peace processes: Egypt (?) and Jordan (1994) - Social groups: Arab Israelis, Mizrahi, kibbutz, settlers, ultra-orthodox, Ethiopian, Russian (be able to relate to major waves of immigration - Border issues: Jerusalem, settlements, separation barrier - Government policy: eg. Major debates on German reparations - Key documents: UN security resolution 242 (Nov. 22 1967)2 - Ideological movements...