The Postzionism Debates:
Knowledge and Power in Israeli Culture
by Laurence J. Silberstein



 
The growing use of the term postzionism is indicative of an increasing sense among many Israelis that the maps of meaning provided by zionism are simply no longer adequate. Among other things, postzionists have challenged the dominant versions of Israeli history and the ways in which Israeli society has been portrayed. The conflict over postzionism is, therefore, a conflict over national memory. Such conflicts are less about the past, than about the ways in which the past affects the present. Of particular concern to postzionists are the voices that have previously been marginalized or silenced, such as women, Jews of Middle-Eastern origin, and Palestinian Israelis. At stake in these struggles are such questions as: who is included in or excluded from Israeli cultural space? whose voice will be granted a hearing? which groups will be allowed to tell their story? The struggles over postzionism are struggles for the control of Israeli cultural space, that is, the spaces within which Israeli collective identity is constructed, produced and circulated.

While not comprising an organized political group, postzionists generally agree that Israel should be a democratic state of all of its citizens. They reject the zionist principle, inscribed in Israel's Declaration of Independence, that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, a Jewish state. There is no consensus among postzionists as to how to bring about the desired democratization. While some postzionists advocate repealing the law of return which grants immediate citizenship to all Jews desiring it, others, although advocating full and equal rights for the Palestinian minority, continue to see the need for this law.

The debates over postzionism are important on a number of levels. First of all, they concern relations of power that affect the lives of Israelis, Palestinians, and all others affected by events in the Middle East. In addition, they pertain to the unfolding character of the state and the place of democracy in it. Finally, the problems raised in these debates touch upon core issues of Israeli identity in particular, and Jewish identity in general. How these problems are resolved will have much to do with the ways in which these identities are understood and lived in the future. Postzionists strive to free Israeli public discourse from the limits imposed by zionism and produce new ways to talk about Israeli history, culture, and identity. In so doing, they strive to participate in producing a society that is democratic, creative, and humane. Postzionists argue that to protect democratic processes in Israel, new ways of thinking about power relations are required. Zionist critics of postzionism, committed to protecting zionism's dominant position, often identify postzionism with anti-zionism, sometimes going so far as to link postzionism to anti-Semitism. Those who identify with the postzionist position sharply reject this claim as well as the premise that loyalty to the state is synonymous with loyalty to zionism. While disagreeing with specific Israeli policies and military actions, they remain committed to the survival of the state and willingly serve in the military.

I seek to provide the reader with a map that will enable him/her to make sense of the debates over postzionism, understand their relation to previous debates, and grasp their significance for Israeli culture and identity in particular, and Jewish culture and identity in general.

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