The eastern world depicted in The Snake Charmer(1880) by Jean-Leon Gerome. Wikicommons. Some right reserved.I work on the discursive construction of categories of identity - what they allow and disallow, how they define and exclude and what kinds of political practices they support. Here, I investigate three such elements: a reinvigorated Israeli anti-Arabism and its contradictions; Jewish antisemitism and the need to historicise socio-cultural categories; and a possible political recuperation of the ‘Semites’.
Israeli anti-Arabism
By the end of summer 2014 in Israel, there was widespread evidence of a more vigorous and widespread anti-Arabism. This was not a new phenomenon by any means, but the force with which both the state and ordinary people indulged in it was perhaps unprecedented. There is plenty of evidence that demonstrates this, so the following examples are just a taste:
