2002/05/01 by Yehouda Shenhav · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Middle East Politics and Society #Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration #Nationalism #Ethnic group #Subversion #Context (archaeology) #National identity #Sociology #Gender studies #Nazism #Contradiction #Political science #Political economy #Law #History #Politics
paper · doi:10.1080/13530190220124052
openalex publication_date 2002/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The article examines the World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries (WOJAC) as a community of memory, operating within the realms of Israeli national memory, endeavouring to refurbish them but dismantling them instead. A central thrust of the analysis (which refers to the period 1975-1999) concerns the anomalous relationship between nationalism and ethnicity. WOJAC's aspiration was to operate in the national arena, to counterbalance the claims of the Palestinian leadership on the right to the Land and on the refugee question. But to its chagrin the State institutions construe its activity as ethnic subversion. The fluid transition from national to ethnic interpretation reflects the contradiction that underlies Jewish nationalism and its ambivalence towards practising 'Mizrahi ethnicity'. Deriving from this contradiction, and from the praxis of construction and dismantlement that characterizes the activity of WOJAC, a contingent examination is undertaken of analytical categories such as 'national identity', 'Zionism', 'history', 'place', and 'territory' in the Middle East.