Islamists in a Zionist Coalition

The Political and Religious Origins

By Uriya Shavit

Rutgers University Press

Islamists in a Zionist Coalition: The Political and Religious Origins explores the decision made in 2021 by the United Arab List, the political arm of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel (SIM) to join the Israeli Zionist coalition for the first time, and specifically how and why it was possible for an Islamist movement to become the enabler of a Zionist government without losing the support of its religious scholars or political base. Through analyses of hundreds of books, columns, fatwas, media interviews, and posts on social media, as well as interviews conducted by the author with all the living leaders of the SIM and the United Arab List, Uriya Shavit demonstrates that the Islamic premises on which the SIM operates, rather than limit the party's flexibility, made it possible for the United Arab List to advance a pragmatic polticial agenda. This book argues that while the decision of the United Arab List to join a Zionist coalition led to dramatic consequences, it was grounded in decades of religious writings that prepared the ground for its legitimization, and aligned with a political orientation with which significant segments of the Arab population identified since the founding of the modern state of Israel.

Shavit has produced a masterful analysis of the remarkable role played by an Islamist party in Israeli politics, by exploring the historical and ideological significance of the first participation ever of an independent Arab party in a ruling Zionist coalition. Shavit concludes that the future of the Jewish State’s democracy depended, at least in part, on none other than this Islamist party. Asher Susser, professor emeritus of Middle Eastern history at Tel Aviv University, Israel

This is the first full-scale account of the political and ideological developments that in 2021 led the Islamic movement in Israel to ally with a Zionist coalition. In solving this riddle, Shavit provides invaluable insights into contemporary Islamist pragmatic discourse and into the unsurmountable hurdles of Israeli minority politics. Itzchak Weissman, author of Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi: Islamic Reform and Arab Revival

What were the historical and political configurations in Israel that forced a manifestly Islamic Party to enter a Zionist coalition led by Orthodox Jews? Grappling with this question, Uriya Shavit offers a subtle and sophisticated history that brings to the fore the deep-seated pragmaticism of the Islamic party and illuminates the role played by its exceptionally charismatic leaders. Ahmad T. Agbaria, author of The Politics of Arab Authenticity: Challenges to Postcolonial Thought

URIYA SHAVIT is professor of Islamic, Democracy and Migration Studies at Tel Aviv University. His recent books include Shari‘a and Life (2023), Scientific and Political Freedom in Islam (2017), Zionism in Arab Discourses (2016), and Shari‘a and Muslim Minorities (2015).

Contents
Introduction: Deep Currents and Butterflies’ Wings
1 Islamism in Israel: Its Origins and Rivals
2 The SIM and the Pro-Coalition Tendency
3 The Path of Idealist Pragmatism
4 Abyssinia, Antarctica, and the Pro-Participation Discourse
Conclusion: The “Experiment” and Its Aftermath
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Index

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