The Modern Israeli and Palestinian Diasporas
The Modern Israeli and Palestinian Diasporas
A Comparative Approach
A comparative study of contemporary Israeli and Palestinian diasporas.
Exilic and diasporic experience have become ubiquitous in recent decades. Jews, lacking a homeland, spread to various parts of the world, making the Jewish diaspora paradigmatic. But after the establishment of Israel in 1948, a different kind of diaspora emerged, as more than a tenth of Israeli citizens have chosen to leave their newly established state and resettle. Meanwhile, about half of all Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, now reside in exile, predominantly as a result of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Recognizing that Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian-Arab societies coexist and are engaged in constant relations, Nahum Karlinsky has assembled an impressive array of contributors to explore these diasporas alongside one another and in dialogue with other diasporic communities. The collected essays cover such topics as Palestinian exiles and diasporas, the demographics of today’s Israeli diaspora, immigrant enterprises, transnationalism and development, the unique place of Israeli Jews in the United States, the literature of Palestinian transnationals, and the emergence of Berlin as a queer Israeli-Jewish immigrant enclave.The Modern Israeli and Palestinian Diasporas challenges and reimagines the very notion of a homeland.
Theorized from a broad comparative perspective and insightful historical framing, this rich volume brings together wide-ranging accounts that examine the Palestinian and the Israeli diasporas as they inform each other and engage with the deeply divided homeland. It is a timely contribution to understanding how the diaspora has become the locus of voicing dissent to the colonial politics and genocidal war raging since October 7.
The essays, articles, interviews, and memoirs in this rich and pathbreaking book are as moving as they are enlightening. From a variety of perspectives, they explore the predicaments of homelessness that Palestinians and Israelis contend with, no matter where they live.
The Israeli and Palestinian diasporas, inherently linked for historical and political reasons, have seldom been jointly examined. This book addresses this significant void, aligning with the growing interest of historians in ‘intertwined histories’ and, it could be argued, ‘intertwined presents.’ It not only contributes to existing research but also offers a fresh perspective on the entire field, and will surely be a cornerstone for future explorations in this area.
Nahum Karlinsky is a visiting associate professor at Boston University’s Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies. He is the author of several books and the coauthor with Mustafa Kabha of The Lost Orchard: The Palestinian-Arab Citrus Industry, 1850–1950.
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction. Exile, Diaspora, Transnationalism: Israeli, Palestinian, and Other Diasporas in Comparative Perspective (Nahum Karlinsky and Amal Jamal)
- Part I. Palestinians, Israelis, and Other Migrants: Between Exile and Diaspora
- 1. The Israeli Diaspora: A Socio-Demographic Portrait (Uzi Rebhun)
- 2. Exiled in Their Homeland: The Case of the Naqab Arab Bedouins (Safa Aburabia)
- 3. Why Are These Immigrants Different from All Other Immigrants? The Uniqueness of the Israeli Diaspora in American Jewish History (Jonathan D. Sarna)
- Part II. Berlin: A Transnational Haven?
- 4. A Murder in Kreuzberg: The Death of the Turk and the Diasporization of Migrants from Turkey (Meltem Toksöz and Utku Balaban)
- 5. Queer Israelis in Berlin: The Other Story of Israeli Emigration (Hila Amit)
- 6. Sex and the City in Berlin: Female Jewish Israeli Immigrants between Heteronormativity and Singlehood (Hadas Cohen)
- Part III. Diasporic and Transnational Art
- 7. Secret Codes: Symbolic Language in Iranian Art and in the Iranian Diaspora (Sheida Soleimani)
- 8. Palestinian Writings in the World: A Polylingual Literary Category Between Local and Transnational Realms (Maurice Ebileeni)
- Part IV. The Economies of Transnationalism
- 9. They Are Not All the Same: Immigrant Enterprises, Transnationalism, and Development (Alejandro Portes and Brandon P. Martinez)
- 10. The Diaspora Advantage for Entrepreneurship (Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff)
- 11. Work, Identity, and Communal Life Among Israeli Emigrants: A Comparison of Enclave and Infotech Entrepreneurs (Steven J. Gold)
- Part V. Autobiographical Reflections
- 12. Alejandro Portes, a Scholarly Life: The Personal, the Scholarly, and the Enduring (Interview by Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff)
- 13. Writing in the Diaspora (Omer Bartov)
- 14. Reflections of a Palestinian Israeli Self-Exile: Interview by Nahum Karlinsky (Sayed Kashua)
- Afterword
- Contributors
- Index
The Iranian Diaspora
Challenges, Negotiations, and Transformations
Edited by Mohsen Mostafavi Mobasher
