Masri, M.

Journal of Palestine Studies

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Mazen Masri

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Review: <i>Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State</i>, edited by Nadim N. Rouhana, assisted by Sahar S. Huneidi

City Research Online

              City, University of London Institutional RepositoryCitation: Masri, M. ORCID: 0000-0003-4587-5751 (2018). Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State. Journal of Palestine Studies, 47(3), pp. 110-111. doi: 10.1525/jps.2018.47.3.110 This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link:  http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/21431/Link to published version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jps.2018.47.3.110Copyright and reuse: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to.City Research Online:            http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/            publications@city.ac.ukCity Research OnlineIsrael and its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State, edited by Nadim N. Rouhana and assisted by Sahar S. Huneidi. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 448 pages. n.p.   A new book on the topic of Palestinian citizens of Israel gets published every few years. Many of those regurgitate old and discredited theories developed by the Israeli establishment and academia about ‘modernisation’, ‘majority-minority relations’, ‘Israelisation’ or ‘radicalisation’. Few of the books on the topic manage to challenge the official narrative. In Israel and its Palestinian Citizens, Nadim Rouhana, who is considered one of the leading figures in challenging the dominant (Israeli) ways of thinking about the Palestinians in Israel, brings together an impressive range of scholars who work in the area to produce a volume that critically approaches the topic from various disciplinary perspectives which include, history, political psychology, political theory, law, geography, economy, surveillance, social movements and mobilisation. Israel and its Palestinian Citizens tackles one of the more puzzling issues about Palestinians in Israel and by extension the nature of the Israeli regime: that fact that they are considered citizens with nominally equal rights, and at the same time the same regime subordinates them legally, politically and economically. To tackle this question, the book is framed in terms of ethnic privileges, which “extend to all areas of political, legal, constitutional, urban, and economic power structures” (p. 5). These privileges do not stem out of nowhere, but are inherently related to settler-colonialism, or as Rouhana puts in the introduction: “the substance of the Arabs’ citizenship rights are emptied not by simple discriminatory policies that can be remedied, but by the settler-colonial structure from which these policies are derived” (p. 7).  The chapters in the volume adhere largely to the ethnic privilege framework discussed in the introduction, though the discussion of settler-colonialism is not uniform. Some chapters do not even mention it, others allude to it in passing, and some, like the chapter on surveillance by Naderea Shalhoub-Kevorkian, the chapter on law by Nimer Sultany, and the chapter on memory and history by the Rouhana and Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, provide a more sophisticated analysis informed by theories of settler-colonialism. Nevertheless, the book is coherent and each chapter provides a piece of the puzzle that contributes to the big picture. At times the chapters seem to be in conversation with each other, providing different perspective on the same issue. For example, Hillel Cohen’s chapter on the equality discourse of the Israeli governments in the first decade of the state seems to take official statements about commitment to equality at face value despite the environment that prevailed then, while Ian Lustick and Matthew Berkman take a more critical stance that highlights continuity with the Zionist movement’s past practice of audience-specific messaging and tactics of dissimulation.  While most of the chapters provide a good overview of ethnic privilege and its dynamics and how it developed and changed over the years in the relevant areas, some provide novel contribution to the existing body of research. But the main contribution of this volume as a whole is in the diversity of areas covered: it goes beyond the classic issues discussed in the context of the Palestinians in Israel such as land policy to cover new areas such as economic development, education and surveillance. Having a chapter dedicated to social movements and resistance (written by Ahmad Sa’di) helps complete the picture by showing that this group, despite the tremendous challenges, was not a passive community even if the relative success of the struggle is debatable. This diversity of topics and the balance between the breadth of scope and the depth of analysis makes the volume ideal for use in postgraduate teaching. Another important contribution is that it discusses matters, trends and policies that are relevant beyond the Palestinians in Israel. The analysis provided is helpful in understanding Israeli policies in general with respect to other segments of the Palestinian people and indeed helpful for understanding the nature of the Israeli regime and Zionist ideology. The chapter by Lustick and Berkman on Israel’s double discourse –one discourse for external consumption to satisfy foreign nations and audiences, and another which reflects the material policies adopted- is relevant for understanding current Israeli policies towards Palestinians in general and Israel’s approach to the negotiations with the PLO. Similarly, Sultany’s analysis of the modes of operation of the Supreme Court of Israel and the different techniques used to create the impression of objective engagement while at the same time upholding the status quo applies to the Court’s attitude towards the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Yosef Jabareen’s discussion of territorial and demographic dominance can also inform studies about Israeli policies in the West Bank. Israel and its Palestinian Citizens is a welcome contribution to the literature the Palestinians in Israel. Its focus on the foundational underpinnings of ethnic privilege means that will be relevant for years to come, as these foundational underpinnings are not likely to change anytime soon.   Mazen Masri, Senior Lecturer at City University of London, is the author of The Dynamics of Exclusionary Constitutionalism: Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2017.   

Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State

https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/21431/1/Book%20review%20Israel%20and%20Its%20Palestinian%20Citizens%20Ethnic%20Privileges%20in%20the%20Jewish%20State.pdf

Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State

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