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Abstract
Responding to this journal’s call to establish new strategies of analysis that account for the circulation and contestation of power and agency, this article focuses attention on the socio-political mechanisms that link states and societies in Israel and Syria. We argue that the tensions between the powerful concept of a harmonious national body and the material realities of Israeli and Syrian societies reveal the extent to which the ‘national’ population arises not only through processes of social unification, but also—and perhaps most effectively—through active processes of fragmentation. Drawing together empirical research conducted in Damascus during 2009–2010 and in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem during 2010–2011, this article situates seemingly disparate contexts within a shared methodological and theoretical frame. In doing so, we highlight not only how continuities and contradictions link states with societies, but also how shared historical and structural formations importantly connect the Israeli and Syrian contexts.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the research participants in Syria and Israel-Palestine, who generously shared their time and experiences; the names of all participants are anonymized within this text. Our gratitude also goes to Banu Bargu, Rahul Rao and Andre Bank for their comments on earlier drafts. Research in Israel-Palestine was made possible in part through funding by SOAS, University of London, and the University of London Central Research Fund. Research in Syria was partly funded by the University of London Central Research Fund and the Council for British Research in the Levant.
Notes
1 M. Levine (2013) Theorizing Revolutionary Practice: Agendas for Research on the Arab Uprisings, Middle East Critique, 22(3), p. 194.
2 M. De Certeau (1987) The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press); T. Mitchell (1991) The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics, The American Political Science Review, 85(1), pp. 77–96; and S. Ismail (2006) Political Life in Cairo’s New Quarters (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press).
3 T. Mitchell (1991); and idem. (2002) Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).
4 M. Levine, Theorizing Revolutionary Practice, p. 194.
5 K. Schlosser (2007) The Bio-Politics of Bodies Politic: Nature and Intertextuality in Classic US Geopolitical Discourse, GeoJournal, 69(3), pp. 199–210; C. Rasmussen and M. Brown (2005) The Body Politic as Spatial Metaphor, Citizenship Studies, 9(5), pp. 469–484; D. Campbell (1992) Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity (Manchester: Manchester University Press); M. B. Salter (2002) Barbarians and Civilization in International Relations (London: Pluto Press); M. Foucault, M. Bertani & A. Fontana (2013) ‘Society Must Be Defended’: Lectures at the Collège De France, 1975–76 (London: Allen Lane).
6 Foucault, Bertani & Fontana, ‘Society Must Be Defended.’
7 D. Campbell, Writing Security, p. 75.
8 S. Mourad (2014) The Naked Body of Alia: Gender, Citizenship, and the Egyptian Body Politic, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 38(1), p. 64.
9 A. George (2003) Neither Bread Nor Freedom (London: Zed Books).
10 B. Haddad (2012) Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
11 S. Ismail (2013) Urban Subalterns in the Arab Revolutions: Cairo and Damascus in Comparative Perspective, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 55(4), 4, pp. 865–894; and George, Neither Bread Nor Freedom.
12 T. Blom Hansen & F. Stepputat (2005) Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants and States in the Postcolonial World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), p. 15.
13 As public perception of the Syrian conflict becomes increasingly dominated by religious and sectarian analyses, it is important to remember that any Alawite Syrians opposed to the government face as ruthless a crackdown as any other opposition figure. While the conflict has raised general suspicions and risks to foreign citizens, who could be journalists, spies or other forms of enemy, critical citizens are at an even greater risk of attack or arrest.
14 J. Massad (2006) The ‘Post-Colonial’ Colony: Time, Space, and Bodies in Palestine/Israel, in: J. Massad (ed.) The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians (New York & Abingdon: Routledge), p. 13.
15 E. Shohat (1992) Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’, Social Text, nos. 31/32, Third World and Post-Colonial Issues, pp. 105–107.
16 As numerous scholars of Israel-Palestine have argued, while the Israeli state officially defines its nation through religion and ethnicity, in practice it must be understood as a ‘racial state’; see S. Lowrance (2004) Deconstructing Democracy: The Arab-Jewish Divide in the Jewish State, Middle East Critique, 13(2), pp. 175–194; R. Lentin (ed.) (2008) Thinking Palestine (London & New York: Zed Books); and I. Pappé (2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: Oneworld). Through the lens of race, critical scholars shed light on the logics through which the Israeli state and society continues to subordinate Palestinians legally, juridically, economically, politically and socially. While the authors support these claims, ‘ethno-national’ is used here in order to draw attention to the language through which the Israeli state justifies marginalization, discrimination and social stratification on international stages. Doing so highlights the language of prevailing political and public discourses internal to Israel, and is not intended to neutralise or elide the racialized politics of the state.
17 A. Chrisafis & N. Kohmami (2015) Copenhagen Attacks Raise Fears of Anti-Semitism around Europe, The Guardian, February 16, 2015.
18 G. Shafir & Y. Peled (2002) Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press); O. Yiftachel (2006) Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press).
19 Shafir & Peled, Being Israeli; Yiftachel, Ethnocracy; Nahla Abdo (2011) Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship (London & New York: Zed Books).
20 This is not to argue that Israel is a ‘truer’ nation-state than Syria due to its favor with the United States. While foreign support necessarily impacts structures and experiences of statehood, this article focuses on the everyday micro-politics through which national bodies are fragmented and cohered.
21 We borrow this turn of phrase from Lisa Wedeen’s work on state legitimacy and domination in Syria; see L. Wedeen (1999) Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press). While Wedeen’s work focuses on individual political performance, we adopt this term to explain a key mechanism of social cohesion, which underwrites the body politic in post-colonial Middle Eastern states.
22 S. Ismail (2011) Authoritarian Government, Neo-Liberalism and Everyday Civilities in Egypt, Third World Quarterly, 32(5), pp. 845–862.
23 Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination; Ismail, Urban Subalterns; George, Neither Bread Nor Freedom.
24 V. Perthes (1991) Syria’s Bourgeoisie and the Ba`th, Middle East Report, 21(3, 170), pp. 31–37.
25 S. Hoffmann (2011) The Humanitarian Regime of Sovereignty: INGOs and Iraqi Migration to Syria, Refuge, 28(1), 59–70.
26 Iraqi pupils arriving in the middle of the year, or in upper grades faced problems due to the differing curricula and subjects taught in Syrian schools.
27 However, Iraqis were required to pay fees to attend Syrian public universities, which were free to Syrians.
28 A. Ali & K. Dorai (2010) Under the Radar, but Not Invisible: Iraqi Activity in Syria’s Informal Economic Sector (Damascus: UNHCR).
29 Ali & Dorai, Under the Radar.
30 Syrian man, conversation with co-author Hoffmann in Damascus, October 2009.
31 Co-author Hoffmann, Field notes, November 5, 2009.
32 Co-author Hoffmann, Field notes, January 23, 2010(a).
33 Co-author Hoffmann, Field notes, January 14, 2010(a).
34 L. Wedeen (2013) Ideology and Humor in Dark Times, Critical Inquiry, 39(4), pp. 841–873.
35 For a nuanced discussion about everyday-performances of loyalty in Syria see especially Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination. [Full citation at n. 25.]
36 Ismail, Authoritarian Government.
37 Iraqi woman, interview with co-author Hoffmann in Damascus, November 3, 2009.
38 IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees (2010) A Tough Road Home: Uprooted Iraqis in Jordan, Syria and Iraq (New York: IRC); UNHCR Syria (2009) UNHCR Syria Update Autumn 2009, in UNHCR Syria Updates (Damascus: UNHCR Syria).
39 K. Khaddour & K. Mazur (2014) The Struggle for Syria’s Regions, Middle East Report, no. 269.
40 F. al-Miqdad (2007) Iraqi Refugees in Syria, Forced Migration Review, Iraq Special Issue (June), pp. 19–20.
41 Syrian Arab Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2007) Paper presented by the Government of Syrian Arab Republic to the International Conference on Addressing the Humanitarian Needs of the Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons inside Iraq and in the Neighbouring Countries, Geneva.
42 B. Chalfin (2008) Sovereigns and Citizens in Close Encounter: Airport Anthropology and Customs Regimes in Neoliberal Ghana, American Ethnologist, 35(4), p. 519.
43 Lentin, Thinking Palestine, pp. 3, 7.
44 Lowrance, Deconstructing Democracy.
45 The term ‘Ashkenazi’ refers to Jews of European descent.
46 H. Sherwood (2011) Tel Aviv Tent City Erected in Protest against High House Prices, The Guardian, July 17, 2011; B. Mann (2001) Tel Aviv’s Rothschild: When a Boulevard Becomes a Monument, Jewish Social Studies, New Series, 7(2, Winter), pp. 1–38.
47 N. Belkind (2013) Israel’s J14 Social Protest Movement and Its Imaginings of ‘Home’: On Music, Politics and Social Justice, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 6, Special Issue: Geographies of Identity: (Per)Forming Space in Palestine and Israel, pp. 329–353.
48 O. Rosenberg, I. Lior & G. Cohen (2011) Some 450,000 Israelis March at Massive ‘March of Millions’ Rallies across Country, Ha’aretz, September 3, 2011; H. Sherwood (2011) Israeli Protests: 430,000 Take to the Streets to Demand Social Justice, The Guardian, September 4, 2011.
49 D. Sheen (2011) Could Israel’s Middle-Class Spearhead a National Revolution?, Ha’aretz, July 22, 2011.
50 Co-author Natanel, Field notes, August 1, 2011; emphasis in original exchange.
51 See also Y. Mendel (2013) Diary: Israel’s Election, London Review of Books, 35(4), pp. 38–39.
52 See A. Alessandrini, N. Üstündağ & E. Yildiz (eds) (2014) ‘Resistance Everywhere’: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey, JADMAG Issue 1.4, Tadween Publishing.
53 See E. Laclau (1996) Emancipation(s) (London: Verso Books), pp. 36–37.
54 C. Levinson (2011) Dozens of Hilltop Youth set up Camp in Israel’s biggest Tent City, Ha’aretz, August 3, 2011.
55 M. Blumenthal & J. Dana (2011) The Exclusive Revolution: Reflections on the Tent Protests, Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East, August 29, 2011.
56 A. Kopty (2011) Tent 1948, Mondoweiss: The War of Ideas in the Middle East, August 6, 2011.
57 Belkind, Israel’s J14 Social Protest Movement; C. Misgav (2013) ‘Shedding Light on Israel’s Backyard’: The Tent Protest and the Urban Periphery Theory and Criticism, 41(Summer), pp. 97–120 [in Hebrew].
58 S. Kashua (2011) Middle-class Heroes with a Shameful Secret, Ha’aretz, August 5, 2011.
59 Shafir & Peled, Being Israeli; Lowrance, Deconstructing Democracy; Abdo, Women in Israel; M. Semyonov & N. Lewin-Epstein (2004) Introduction: Past Insights and Future Directions: Studies of Stratification in Israel, in: M. Semyonov & N. Lewin-Epstein (eds) Stratification in Israel: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender (New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers), pp. 1–13.
60 Co-author Natanel, Field notes, August 1, 2011; emphasis in original exchange.
61 See also L. Berlant (1998) Poor Eliza, American Literature, 70(3), pp. 635–668.
62 L. Berlant (2008) The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture (Durham & London: Duke University Press), pp. 269–270.
63 Many thanks to an anonymous reviewer for drawing attention to this level of analysis.