Raising the Green Banner: Islamist Student Politics in Israel

© 2015 by the Institute for Palestine Studies. All rights reserved. Student activismhas been a route into politics for Israel\u27s Palestinian citizens since the 1970s. Until 2008, secular parties and groupings, whether communist, socialist, or nationalist, dominated Arab student politics in Israel. But in 2008, a student association of the Islamic Movement in Israel won Arab student council elections at the three largest Israeli universities. Based on in-depth interviews with Islamist student activists between 2008 and 2012, the present article traces the Islamic Movement\u27s journey to prominence, examining the student associations\u27 agenda as well as their praxis. In addition to contextualizing Islamist students within the generational analysis of the so-called Stand-Tall Generation, the discussion compares the Islamic Movement\u27s successful mobilization of Palestinian students with the efforts of similar groups elsewhere in the region

Greening the desert: Emirati youth\u27s perceptions of green branding

This chapter focuses on Emirati youth’s understanding of and practices related to a green shift in the UAE and how this correlates with the state’s efforts to brand the UAE as green and sustainable. This is part of a larger research project that investigates Emirati youth’s understanding of climate change. The UAE experience of environmental sustainability is unique as its green shift was initiated by the government in a top-down approach compared to the bottom-up green movements in most western states that has been the focus of most environmental studies so far. Environmental sustainability is part of UAE’s national Agenda for 2021 and it is considered a national priority and part of its attempts to project a favourable and progressive image of its state as being amongst the most economically and socially advanced nations. Methodologically, this project is conducted by collecting and analysing qualitative data about awareness of and attitudes to sustainability among young Emirati women in higher education. The data analysed is from a focus group conducted in Fall 2020 and from students’ participation in the annual Emirates Environmental Group’s Inter-college public speaking competition 2016 - 2020. Thematic analysis of the data collected is applied with focus on environmental awareness, perceptions and activities in relation to emerging aspects of branding. Emerging themes of place’s and commodities’ branding is clearly manifested in the participating young Emiratis’ perceptions and daily practices. These themes were intertwined with and driven by two main factors; the local cultural understanding of nature and the state’s top-down approach to implement sustainable practices, as well as branding the UAE as “green”

SHAS The Sephardi Torah Guardians : and their Construction of the New Jewish Israeli Identity

Synopsis The Israeli party-movement Shas is usually described by academics as Haredi, (Ultra Orthodox). Based on data collected during fieldwork in Israel this dissertation questions this academic categorisation of Shas, and argues that it does not take into consideration the historical, sociological or religious roots of Shas, nor its interaction in the Israeli society and state. Shas was established in 1983 and is now the third largest party in the Knesset after the elections in 1999. In addition to being a political party, Shas operates a variety of institutions and organisations focusing on religious and other education, and welfare. The leadership and the supporters of Shas are mainly Jews from North African and Middle Eastern countries who immigrated to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. These Jews have experienced discrimination from the national Ashkenazi establishment and from the Ashkenazi Haredi institutions in Israel. Shas is a Sephardi party-movement, i.e. the leaders and supporters follow the Sephardi edition of the Halacha, the Jewish religious law, and the Sephardi religious customs. The Haredi identity refers to a particular Jewish relationship with modernisation formed in a European context in the 17th and 18th centuries, and developed further in Israel and other places. This identity and lifestyle is by academics characterised as anti-Zionist, segregated from the surrounding Israeli society, holding a passive attitude to historical development and aiming to copy a fixed type of observance of the religious law practiced in Europe before modernisation. The present study argues that Shas has a different relationship with modernisation than that described as Haredi. This is interpreted by investigating the relationship of Shas with individualisation, the party-movement’s understanding and use of past and future, its relationship with the traditional religious power institutions and with the central state. Furthermore, this study looks into the various strategies applied by Shas to recruit supporters, the relationship of Shas with technology and with the social and economic situation of the individual, the new model for Sephardi women created by Shas, and finally the practical politics of Shas. The “New Jewish Israeli” identity of Shas is Sephardi and Torahni, defined as following the Torah, which refers to religious and historical traditions that are reformed to the modern Israeli context of Shas. This identity opens up to all Jews who chooses to follow the Sephardi edition of the Halacha and to Jews with different levels of religious observance. The conclusion of this study is that Shas has an attitude of inclusiveness toward individuals and a future outlook, which reflects an active relationship with modernisation and history

"Israel can hardly be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time"

Israel should divide religion and politics. Today's system encourages ethnic discrimination towards the Arab Israelis, and having a minority who lives on crumbs is a recipe for political instability and a flawed democracy

To folk bytter plass?

Før 1948 bodde omlag 900.000 jøder i Midtøsten og Nord-Afrika. Vel nitti prosent av disse utvandret til Israel, USA eller Europa i årene mellom 1948 og 1967. Nå raser debatten om årsakene for denne utvandringen, og om den kan forstås som en befolkningsutveksling av jøder og palestinere

Israelsk film - sionismens kulturelle støttespiller?

Den israelske publikumssuksessen i 2004, «Snu venstre ved verdens ende», handler om indiske og marokkanske jødiske immigranter på slutten av 1960-tallet og deres isolasjon i det israelske samfunnet. Filmen har dratt rekordmange israelere til kinoene siden premieren sommeren 2004. Til tross for dette ble den ikke nominert til beste film i Israel, noe som ble kraftig kritisert av filmens støttespillere. Hva sier dette om israelsk filmindustri? Og øker distansen mellom kinopublikummet og politisk agenda i offentlig kulturliv

The Islamic Movement in Israel

Since its establishment in the late 1970s, Israel’s Islamic Movement has grown from a small religious revivalist organization focused on strengthening the faith of Muslim Palestinian citizens of Israel to a countrywide sociopolitical movement with representation in the Israeli legislature. But how did it get here? How does it differ from other Islamic movements in the region? And why does its membership continue to grow? Tilde Rosmer examines these issues in The Islamic Movement in Israel as she tells the story of the movement, its identity, and its activities. Using interviews with movement leaders and activists, their documents, and media reports from Israel and beyond, she traces the movement’s history from its early days to its 1996 split over the issue of its relationship to the state. She then explores how the two factions have functioned since, revealing that while leaders of the two branches have pursued different approaches to the state, until the outlawing of the Northern Branch in 2015, both remained connected and dedicated to providing needed social, education, and health services in Israel’s Palestinian towns and villages. The first book in English on this group, The Islamic Movement in Israel is a timely study about how an Islamist movement operates within the unique circumstances of the Jewish state

Agents of Change: How Islamist Women Activists in Israel Are Challenging the Status Quo

© 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. From the public profile and media reporting on the Islamic Movement in Israel (al-araka al-islāmiyya fī Isrā\u27īl), the impression given is that this movement is run by men, and that women are, if visible, in the background. However, when looking behind the façade it becomes clear that women are not only active, but are at the forefront of Islamist activism, spearheading change in their community. In their organizations for women, and through informal channels, they educate women, and indirectly men, about the role and position of women in Islam. Their activism also contributes to creating awareness about their Palestinian Arab Muslim history and predicament, thus also empowering women vis-à-vis Israeli domination. The women interviewed for this article all studied or study at Israeli universities, and as educated women they are reshaping the ideal of the traditional Muslim mother into that of a Muslim professional working mother. Based on the logic behind and content of their Islamist activism, the present article argues that these women are agents of change who contest the traditional ideal and practical role of Muslim Palestinian women in Israel. They are challenging patriarchal traditions and domination in their community through their Islamist activism; however, this frame simultaneously produces limitations to their opposition

Myter og sannheter om israelske kibbutzer

Tusentalls skandinaver har vært frivillige på kibbutz i Israel. Ifølge myten er disse kollektive jødiske bosetningene basert på egalitære, sosialistiske, progressive og demokratiske ideer. Stemmer disse idealene med kibbutzenes rolle i den sionistiske kolonialisering og etniske rensing av Palestina, samt diskriminering mot både palestinere og ikkeeuropeiskættede jøder