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Abstract
This paper explores the phenomenology of racism using the Israeli situation as a case study to examine if, when and how the concept of ‘racism’ is employed in local media discourse on policy towards Palestinian citizens.
Our central argument is that racism, as a signifier of policy, can be located in the dialectic between denial and affirmation of the category of race, while we link the scope and meanings of practices marked by the media as ‘racism’ to contingent cultural, social and historical conditions. The article proposes the periodization of the relevant discourse into three primary phases: from 1949 to the late 1970s, when the category of racism was ‘prohibited’ in Israeli discourse in the aftermath of the Holocaust; the mid-1980s, when this taboo was broken and the phenomena included in the category of racism expanded accordingly; and the 1990s to 2000, during which racism became an institutionalized, all-encompassing discursive term.
Acknowledgements
We thank Yehouda Shenhav, Dafna Hirsch, Regev Nathansohn and the anonymous readers for their constructive comments. The study was supported by Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and the Institute of Social Research of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University.
Notes
1. A consistent form of reference to this population has not yet crystrllized in either academic or public usage. We have chosen to use a term that takes into account the self-definition of broad segments of the coutemporary palestinian public, despite its problematic nature with regard to despite its problematic nature with regard to Arab citizens of Israel who are not Palestinians (see also Rabinowitz Citation1993).
2. In the early decades of Israel's existence, the range of newspapers included self-proclaimed party organs; in more recent decades, while the papers have not been directly affiliated with political bodies, they are identified with specific political attitudes that reflect, to a large extent, the worldview of the newspapers’ owners. Nevertheless, the journalistic tradition of ‘objectivity’ leads most papers to present the full gamut of opinions.
3. In most cases, public discussion abated after roughly a week to ten days.
4. Azriel Karlebach, ‘100,000 threats for peace’, Maariv, 1 August 1949.
5. See also Meir Grossman, ‘Population and properties exchanges between Israel and Arab countries’, Haboker, 5 August 1949.
6. ‘National discrimination’, editorial in Al Hamishmar, 9 August 1949.
7. Editorial, Al Hamishmar, 19 August 1949.
8. P. Bernstein, ‘On the Military Government’, Haboker 1 December 1962.
9. Hanoch Bartov, ‘The “pale”’, LaMerchav, 12 January 1962.
10. Aharon Megged, ‘Man day’, Davar, 2 April 1976.
11. Josef Algazi, ‘Voices of seducement and riotousness here – and disillusionment there’, Zo HaDerech, 7 April 1976.
12. Palgi, ‘Expropriated faith’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 9 April 1976.
13. Amos Keinan, ‘The March 30 war’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 2 April 1976.
14. Moshe Akiva Dror, ‘Back to the starting point of the Jew-Arab's conflict’, Hamodia, 2 April 1976.
15. The distinction between geopolitical and domestic changes is solely theoretical, since in practice the boundaries are blurred and the two analytical categories are interrelated.
16. Dani Rubinstein, ‘Putting Levi in his place and surviving’, Davar, 22 August 1986.
17. ‘“Area 9” returns to its owners’, editorial in Al Hamishmar, 14 August 1986.
18. Yehuda Zur, ‘Shots from Area 9’, Al Hamishmar, 26 August 1986.
19. Yehuda Zur, ‘Shots from Area 9’, Al Hamishmar, 26 August 1986.
20. Moshe Una, ‘The notion of choice, as the antithesis of the law against racism’, Maariv, 3 July 1986.
21. Yisrael Eilat, ‘Everyone's against racism, but …’, Davar, 6 March 1986; Gadi Yatziv, ‘What did they do for/against racism?’, Al Hamishmar, 16 February 1986.
22. Yirmiyahu Yovel, ‘A failing grade for the government’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 22 May 1987.
23. Nehemia, ‘No place for discrimination between two types of students’, editorial in Haaretz, 19 May 1987; Avishai Margalit, ‘Summer celebration’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 25 May 1987; Atallah Mansour, ‘Feel better, pay more’, Haaretz, 24 May 1987; Yitzhak Deutsch, ‘On the sidelines – baseless claims’, Hatzofeh, 22 May 1987.
24. Edna Razi, ‘Don't lose the shame’, Al Hamishmar, 22 May 1987.
25. Oded Lipschitz, ‘The yellow plague’, Al Hamishmar, 25 May 1987.
26. Yisrael Eldad, ‘Psychological blackmail’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 22 May 1987.
27. Yitzhak Shor, ‘Soldier's out, law's in’, Al Hamishmar, 19 May 1987.
28. Haaretz, 15 December 1992. ‘MK Burg apologized to the Education Committee for the survey he commissioned, but warned against the continuation of the cover-up on the subject of racism.’
29. ‘An insulting comparison’, editorial in Haaretz, 13 December 1992.
30. Shmuel Schnitzer, ‘We simply don't know how to hate’, Maariv, 18 December 1992.
31. Shmuel Schnitzer, ‘We simply don't know how to hate’, Maariv, 18 December 1992. A similar argument is raised by Yeshayahu Ben-Porat, ‘Without equating’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 13 December 1992.
32. Ada Ushpiz, ‘Racism in disguise’, Haaretz, 20 December 1992.
33. Aryeh Caspi, ‘Us? No way!’, Haaretz, 18 December 1992.
34. Koby Niv, ‘Four questions’, Maariv, 12 October 2000.
35. B. Michael, ‘Well, what did you think?’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 13 October 2000.
36. Sylvie Keshet, ‘Taking a life does not override Yom Kippur’, Yedioth Ahronoth, 13 October 2000.
37. Shevach Weiss, ‘No to the rioters’, Maariv, 11 October 2000.
38. Moshe Negbi, ‘The war of “sacred values”: a National Racism Government?’, Maariv, 20 October 2000.
