New Article: Al-Haj, Ethnicity and Political Mobilization of Russian Immigrants

Al-Haj, Majid. “Ethnicity and Political Mobilization in a Deeply Divided Society: The Case of Russian Immigrants in Israel.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 28.2 (2015): 83-100.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10767-013-9171-6

 

Abstract

This paper deals with political mobilization among immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, who arrived in Israel in the 1990s. The data are based on two nationwide surveys, conducted 10 and 20 years after the arrival of the first wave of these immigrants. My analysis shows that immigrants’ voting behavior is dynamic, and is determined mainly by their perceived interest in and attitudes toward domestic matters rather than regional issues connected with the Israel–Palestine conflict. Immigrants have adopted a complex strategy of political mobilization over time, which has shifted from the formation of “ethnic” parties in the first decade into “hybrid-ethnic” parties in the second decade. This strategy allows flexibility in terms of support, recruitment, and coalition building; prevents ethnic exclusion, maximizes the gains of Russian immigrants; and minimizes the price of their ethnic mobilization in a deeply divided society.

Reviews: Weiss, Conscientious Objectors in Israel

Weiss, Erica. Conscientious Objectors in Israel. Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

 

Reviews

• Singeisen, David. “Review.” LSE Review of Books, August 2014.
• Shammas, Victor L. “Review.” Social Anthropology 22.4 (2014): 518-519.
• Stern, Nehemia. “Review.” American Ethnologist 42.1 (2015): 181-183.
• Aviram, Hadar. “Review.” Perspectives on Politics 13.2 (2015): 526-8.
• Linn, Ruth, and Renana Gal. “Review.” Israel Studies Review 30.1 (2015): 149-152.

 

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 21.2 (2015) – special issue: Israel at the Polls 2013

 

Israel Affairs, Volume 21, Issue 2, April 2015 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Special Issue: Israel at the Polls 2013: Continuity and Change in Israeli Political Culture

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles
The Run-Up to Israel’s 2013 Elections: A Political History
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Pages: 177-194
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008240

The Peculiar Victory of The National Camp in the 2013 Israeli Election
Arie Perliger & Eran Zaidise
Pages: 195-208
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008243

‘Something new begins’ – religious Zionism in the 2013 elections: from decline to political recovery
Anat Roth
Pages: 209-229
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008238

An uneasy stability: the Haredi parties’ emergency campaign for the 2013 elections
Nissim Leon
Pages: 230-244
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008241

The political transformation of the Israeli ‘Russian’ street in the 2013 elections
Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin
Pages: 245-261
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008244

The Transmigration of Media Personalities and Celebrities to Politics: The Case of Yair Lapid
Rafi Mann
Pages: 262-276
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008239

‘New politics’, new media – new political language? A rhetorical perspective on candidates’ self-presentation in electronic campaigns in the 2013 Israeli elections
Eithan Orkibi
Pages: 277-292
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008242

The 2013 Israeli elections and historic recurrences
Eyal Lewin
Pages: 293-308
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008245

New Book: Weiss, Conscientious Objectors in Israel

Weiss, Erica. Conscientious Objectors in Israel. Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

 
URL: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15212.html

 

In Conscientious Objectors in Israel, Erica Weiss examines the lives of Israelis who have refused to perform military service for reasons of conscience. Based on long-term fieldwork, this ethnography chronicles the personal experiences of two generations of Jewish conscientious objectors as they grapple with the pressure of justifying their actions to the Israeli state and society—often suffering severe social and legal consequences, including imprisonment.

While most scholarly work has considered the causes of animosity and violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Conscientious Objectors in Israel examines how and under what circumstances one is able to refuse to commit acts of violence in the midst of that conflict. By exploring the social life of conscientious dissent, Weiss exposes the tension within liberal citizenship between the protection of individual rights and obligations of self-sacrifice. While conscience is a strong cultural claim, military refusal directly challenges Israeli state sovereignty. Weiss explores conscience as a political entity that sits precariously outside the jurisdictional bounds of state power. Through the lens of Israeli conscientious objection, Weiss looks at the nature of contemporary citizenship, examining how the expectations of sacrifice shape the politics of both consent and dissent. In doing so, she exposes the sacrificial logic of the modern nation-state and demonstrates how personal crises of conscience can play out on the geopolitical stage.

Erica Weiss teaches anthropology at Tel Aviv University.

 

New Article: Beeri and Saad, Minorities-within-Minorities in Israeli-Arab Mixed Municipalities

Beeri, Itai and Mansur Saad. “Political Participation Unconditioned by Inequality and Discrimination: The Case of Minorities-within-Minorities in Israeli-Arab Mixed Municipalities.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (online first).

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2013.871490

 

Abstract

Against the backdrop of rising migration rates, the number of mixed communities in Western states has been growing. Such communities are populated not only by members of a national majority and national minority, but often, also by minorities-within-minorities. This study examines perceptions towards the equitableness of local policy, feelings of discrimination and participation in local politics among minorities and minorities-within-minorities in Israeli-Arab mixed municipalities comprised of Muslims, Christians or Druze, where most of the surrounding population is Jewish. The results confirm that among Israeli-Arabs in general, a perception of local policy as highly inequitable and a strong sense of local discrimination are both related to increased participation in local politics. However, among minorities-within-minorities this relationship did not obtain. Implications of the findings are developed and discussed in the context of local governance, communal abstention from local decision-making processes and the danger of illegitimate political behaviour.