TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Speaking through the mask'
T2 - Israeli Arabs and the changing faces of Israeli citizenship
AU - Bilsky, Leora
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to thank Michal Saliternik for her devoted research and insightful comments. This article was made possible thanks to a grant from the Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law. The title is partly inspired by Norma Claire Moruzzi, Speaking through the Mask: Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Social Identity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000). In this article I elaborate on the question of citizenship through the lens of the experience of Arab Israelis. I elaborate the more general theory of citizenship as mask on the basis of Hannah Arendt’s theory in my forthcoming article, “Citizenship as Mask: Hannah Arendt between the Imposter and the Refugee,” which will be published in Constellations.
PY - 2009/8/1
Y1 - 2009/8/1
N2 - On May 14, 2006 The Israeli Supereme Court issued its decision in a case known as the 'family unification case' that dealt with the constitutionality of an amendement to the Citizenship and Entry to Israel Law. The temporary amendment prevents Palestinian residents of the occupied territories (of certain age) from entering the territory of Israel and gaining citizenship or residence status through family unification. A divided court upheld the amendment, against a very strong dissent written by former chief Justice Aharon Barak. This article takes to explore the origins of this crisis, by positing the Israeli model of citizenship (Jewish and democratic) against an alternative ideal of 'citizenship as mask', one that was articulated by Hannah Arendt. This ideal positions the citizen between two figures the 'imposter' and the 'refugee'. The article begins with three seemingly marginal criminal prosecutions of imposters, and connects them back to a rich body of literary writings by Arab citizens of Israel who took to challenge the limits of Israeli citizenship through the figure of the Arab who 'passes' as a Jew. With this juxtaposition of literary works with current court decisions the article takes to expose blind spots in Israeli public discourse of citizenship, and to argue that the current citizenship crisis should not be understood as temporary but rather as bringing to the fore contradictions that accompanied Israeli citizenship law from its inception.
AB - On May 14, 2006 The Israeli Supereme Court issued its decision in a case known as the 'family unification case' that dealt with the constitutionality of an amendement to the Citizenship and Entry to Israel Law. The temporary amendment prevents Palestinian residents of the occupied territories (of certain age) from entering the territory of Israel and gaining citizenship or residence status through family unification. A divided court upheld the amendment, against a very strong dissent written by former chief Justice Aharon Barak. This article takes to explore the origins of this crisis, by positing the Israeli model of citizenship (Jewish and democratic) against an alternative ideal of 'citizenship as mask', one that was articulated by Hannah Arendt. This ideal positions the citizen between two figures the 'imposter' and the 'refugee'. The article begins with three seemingly marginal criminal prosecutions of imposters, and connects them back to a rich body of literary writings by Arab citizens of Israel who took to challenge the limits of Israeli citizenship through the figure of the Arab who 'passes' as a Jew. With this juxtaposition of literary works with current court decisions the article takes to expose blind spots in Israeli public discourse of citizenship, and to argue that the current citizenship crisis should not be understood as temporary but rather as bringing to the fore contradictions that accompanied Israeli citizenship law from its inception.
KW - Anton Shammas
KW - Citizenship
KW - Family unification
KW - Israel
KW - Sayed Kashua
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=73849149910&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/187633708X396469
DO - 10.1163/187633708X396469
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.systematicreview???
AN - SCOPUS:73849149910
SN - 1876-3367
VL - 1
SP - 166
EP - 209
JO - Middle East Law and Governance
JF - Middle East Law and Governance
IS - 2
ER -