Raef Zreik
Biographic Data
| ID | 823857 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Raef Zreik |
| GIVEN NAMES | Raef |
| FAMILY NAME | Zreik |
| SIGNATURE | ZREIK R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3972-4837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 77 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The tyranny of truth and the tyranny of opinion
This Article is an attempt to think with Arendt about the crisis of liberal democracy in the face of the populist attack in recent decades on judicial review, human rights, immigrants, minority rights, academic and judicial elites, etc. Most of the arguments deployed against populism draw on principles and vocabulary borrowed from the liberal tradition, while few come from the separate democratic tradition. Because of this, the debate has taken o…
Settler Colonialism and Decolonization
This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at times even predict certain future trends of the Israeli state and society, while putting aside questions of legitimation or justification. On the other hand, this analytical frame is underdetermined when it comes to offering possible solutions for the future of Palestine-Israel. From the mer…
Past, Present, and Future
In this paper I respond to the replies of David Heyd and Yitzhak Benbaji to my paper ‘War and Self-Defense: Reflections on the War on Gaza’. Heyd’s relativizing of narrative overlooks the epistemic hierarchy among narratives and their important role in establishing facts, and his claim that Israel’s history is not colonialist in character fails because it is based on a misunderstanding of colonialism in general and settler colonialism in particul…
War and Self-Defense
This paper reflects on the current war on Gaza in 2024 that followed the Hamas attack on October 7th 2023, reading the events is a wider historical context. The paper has three main parts. In the first part, the paper argues against the fragmentation of the question of Palestine historically and geographically, arguing instead for the importance of the overall context of the conflict. The second part considers the issue of Palestinian resistance.…
Zionism and Political Theology
This paper is an attempt to identify what is unique about the political theology of Zionism. It also explores what the consequences of this uniqueness might be, particularly with regard to future decolonization projects of Israel-Palestine. Dealing with the case of Zionism and Israel is interesting because it allows us – in fact, it forces us – to ask questions about the nature of modernity, liberalism, secularism, colonialism and nationalism wri…
The ethics of the intellectual
This article is a close reading of Edward Said’s image of the intellectual and offers a critique and restatement of that image. Said characterizes the intellectual in contrast to two other images: the political ideologue and the professional expert. The latter seeks knowledge and sees things as they are but does not see context. The former overlooks particulars, subsuming these within an ultimate context. Said attempts to situate the intellectual…
Historical Justice
This Article makes three moves. First it suggests and elaborates a distinction—already implicit in the literature—between what I will call the first and second order of arguments for justice (hereinafter FOAJ and SOAJ). In part, it is a distinction somewhat similar to that between just war and justice in war. SOAJ are akin to the rules governing justice in war or rules of engagement, while bracketing the reasons and causes of the conflict. FOAJ o…
What's in the Apartheid Analogy? Palestine/Israel Refracted
This article engages the analogy of Palestine/Israel to apartheid South Africa, and probes the political imaginary that contours this discussion while explicating the circumstances of its emergence. Accordingly, it contends that apartheid is not merely a system of institutionalized separation; rather, it organizes the facts and reality of separation(s) within a frame and against a background unity that effectively allows it to be perceived as suc…
Kant on Time and Revolution
When Does a Settler Become a Native? (With Apologies to Mamdani)
Why the Jewish State Now
Israel's raison d-être was as a Jewish state, yet for almost four decades after the 1948 declaration of its establishment its Jewishness was not inscribed in any law. This essay, a structural-historical discourse analysis, seeks to explore what led up to today's insistent assertion of the state's Jewish identity. To this end, the author traces Israel's gradual evolution from its purely ethnic roots (the Zionist revolution) to a more civic concept…
A one-state solution? From a 'struggle unto death' to 'master-slave' dialectics
An observer of the debates conducted amongst Palestinian intellectuals over the one-state solution in Palestine/Israel, will have perceived a surge of interest in these discussions in recent years. This article investigates the reasons for the mounting interest, and attempts to introduce a number of distinctions and parameters into the debate in order to create some order within it – an increasingly imperative task if these discussions are to pro…
When Winners Lose
This paper tells the story of a Palestinian village inside Israel from which the entire population of Palestinian citizens of Israel was deported and prohibited from returning. By relating the story of this village I aim to shed light on the nature and limits of legal discourse, the nature of legal reasoning itself, and the mechanism through which law conceals traces of violence. A major theme that runs through the paper is the distinction betwee…
Notes on the Value of Theory
The case of Israel generally, and specifically regarding the justifications put forth for the Law of Return by a wide range of liberal scholars, accents the main problems and weaknesses of liberal legality. Part one of the paper rethinks aspects of liberal legality and its artificial nature in light of debates surrounding the Law of Return. Debating both the case of Israel and the insistence of many Israeli scholars on justifying the Law using li…
The Israeli Palestinians
Additional informationNotes on contributorsRaef ZreikRaef Zreik is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University Law School
P Alestine , a Partheid , and the R Ights D Iscourse
Since the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the oft-made analogy between the South African and Israeli cases has been extended to suggest the applicability to the Palestinian quest for justice through the rights discourse, arguably the most effective mobilizing tool in the anti-apartheid struggle. This essay explores the suitability of the rights approach by examining the South Africa––Israel analogy itself and the relevance of the an…
The Palestinian Question
Ever since 1948, Palestinian politics have been stymied by two conflicting drives: on the one hand the reality of an overwhelming imbalance of power, which mandates major concessions, and on the other a deep conviction of the unassailable justice of the cause, which refuses to accept the dictates of power. Oscillating between these two poles, Palestinians have been unable to develop a clear and consistent strategy. The first part of this essay, b…
The Palestinian Question
This second of a two-part essay explores how the tension between the imperatives of justice and the realities of the balance of power, which the author contends has shaped Palestinian politics since 1948, affects the Palestinians of Israel, particularly with regard to such issues as citizenship and identity, "Israelization" and "Palestinianization," and demands for equality and autonomy. While the oscillation between the poles of justice/history …
When Does a Settler Become a Native? (With Apologies to Mamdani)
P Alestine , a Partheid , and the R Ights D Iscourse
Since the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the oft-made analogy between the South African and Israeli cases has been extended to suggest the applicability to the Palestinian quest for justice through the rights discourse, arguably the most effective mobilizing tool in the anti-apartheid struggle. This essay explores the suitability of the rights approach by examining the South Africa––Israel analogy itself and the relevance of the an…
The Palestinian Question
This second of a two-part essay explores how the tension between the imperatives of justice and the realities of the balance of power, which the author contends has shaped Palestinian politics since 1948, affects the Palestinians of Israel, particularly with regard to such issues as citizenship and identity, "Israelization" and "Palestinianization," and demands for equality and autonomy. While the oscillation between the poles of justice/history …
Why the Jewish State Now
Israel's raison d-être was as a Jewish state, yet for almost four decades after the 1948 declaration of its establishment its Jewishness was not inscribed in any law. This essay, a structural-historical discourse analysis, seeks to explore what led up to today's insistent assertion of the state's Jewish identity. To this end, the author traces Israel's gradual evolution from its purely ethnic roots (the Zionist revolution) to a more civic concept…
The Palestinian Question
Ever since 1948, Palestinian politics have been stymied by two conflicting drives: on the one hand the reality of an overwhelming imbalance of power, which mandates major concessions, and on the other a deep conviction of the unassailable justice of the cause, which refuses to accept the dictates of power. Oscillating between these two poles, Palestinians have been unable to develop a clear and consistent strategy. The first part of this essay, b…
War and Self-Defense
This paper reflects on the current war on Gaza in 2024 that followed the Hamas attack on October 7th 2023, reading the events is a wider historical context. The paper has three main parts. In the first part, the paper argues against the fragmentation of the question of Palestine historically and geographically, arguing instead for the importance of the overall context of the conflict. The second part considers the issue of Palestinian resistance.…
Notes on the Value of Theory
The case of Israel generally, and specifically regarding the justifications put forth for the Law of Return by a wide range of liberal scholars, accents the main problems and weaknesses of liberal legality. Part one of the paper rethinks aspects of liberal legality and its artificial nature in light of debates surrounding the Law of Return. Debating both the case of Israel and the insistence of many Israeli scholars on justifying the Law using li…
The Israeli Palestinians
Additional informationNotes on contributorsRaef ZreikRaef Zreik is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University Law School
Kant on Time and Revolution
A one-state solution? From a 'struggle unto death' to 'master-slave' dialectics
An observer of the debates conducted amongst Palestinian intellectuals over the one-state solution in Palestine/Israel, will have perceived a surge of interest in these discussions in recent years. This article investigates the reasons for the mounting interest, and attempts to introduce a number of distinctions and parameters into the debate in order to create some order within it – an increasingly imperative task if these discussions are to pro…
The Palestinian Question
Ever since 1948, Palestinian politics have been stymied by two conflicting drives: on the one hand the reality of an overwhelming imbalance of power, which mandates major concessions, and on the other a deep conviction of the unassailable justice of the cause, which refuses to accept the dictates of power. Oscillating between these two poles, Palestinians have been unable to develop a clear and consistent strategy. The first part of this essay, b…
The Palestinian Question
This second of a two-part essay explores how the tension between the imperatives of justice and the realities of the balance of power, which the author contends has shaped Palestinian politics since 1948, affects the Palestinians of Israel, particularly with regard to such issues as citizenship and identity, "Israelization" and "Palestinianization," and demands for equality and autonomy. While the oscillation between the poles of justice/history …
P Alestine , a Partheid , and the R Ights D Iscourse
Since the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, the oft-made analogy between the South African and Israeli cases has been extended to suggest the applicability to the Palestinian quest for justice through the rights discourse, arguably the most effective mobilizing tool in the anti-apartheid struggle. This essay explores the suitability of the rights approach by examining the South Africa––Israel analogy itself and the relevance of the an…
The Israeli Palestinians
Additional informationNotes on contributorsRaef ZreikRaef Zreik is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University Law School
Notes on the Value of Theory
The case of Israel generally, and specifically regarding the justifications put forth for the Law of Return by a wide range of liberal scholars, accents the main problems and weaknesses of liberal legality. Part one of the paper rethinks aspects of liberal legality and its artificial nature in light of debates surrounding the Law of Return. Debating both the case of Israel and the insistence of many Israeli scholars on justifying the Law using li…
When Winners Lose
This paper tells the story of a Palestinian village inside Israel from which the entire population of Palestinian citizens of Israel was deported and prohibited from returning. By relating the story of this village I aim to shed light on the nature and limits of legal discourse, the nature of legal reasoning itself, and the mechanism through which law conceals traces of violence. A major theme that runs through the paper is the distinction betwee…
Why the Jewish State Now
Israel's raison d-être was as a Jewish state, yet for almost four decades after the 1948 declaration of its establishment its Jewishness was not inscribed in any law. This essay, a structural-historical discourse analysis, seeks to explore what led up to today's insistent assertion of the state's Jewish identity. To this end, the author traces Israel's gradual evolution from its purely ethnic roots (the Zionist revolution) to a more civic concept…
A one-state solution? From a 'struggle unto death' to 'master-slave' dialectics
An observer of the debates conducted amongst Palestinian intellectuals over the one-state solution in Palestine/Israel, will have perceived a surge of interest in these discussions in recent years. This article investigates the reasons for the mounting interest, and attempts to introduce a number of distinctions and parameters into the debate in order to create some order within it – an increasingly imperative task if these discussions are to pro…
When Does a Settler Become a Native? (With Apologies to Mamdani)
Kant on Time and Revolution
Historical Justice
This Article makes three moves. First it suggests and elaborates a distinction—already implicit in the literature—between what I will call the first and second order of arguments for justice (hereinafter FOAJ and SOAJ). In part, it is a distinction somewhat similar to that between just war and justice in war. SOAJ are akin to the rules governing justice in war or rules of engagement, while bracketing the reasons and causes of the conflict. FOAJ o…
What's in the Apartheid Analogy? Palestine/Israel Refracted
This article engages the analogy of Palestine/Israel to apartheid South Africa, and probes the political imaginary that contours this discussion while explicating the circumstances of its emergence. Accordingly, it contends that apartheid is not merely a system of institutionalized separation; rather, it organizes the facts and reality of separation(s) within a frame and against a background unity that effectively allows it to be perceived as suc…
The ethics of the intellectual
This article is a close reading of Edward Said’s image of the intellectual and offers a critique and restatement of that image. Said characterizes the intellectual in contrast to two other images: the political ideologue and the professional expert. The latter seeks knowledge and sees things as they are but does not see context. The former overlooks particulars, subsuming these within an ultimate context. Said attempts to situate the intellectual…
Zionism and Political Theology
This paper is an attempt to identify what is unique about the political theology of Zionism. It also explores what the consequences of this uniqueness might be, particularly with regard to future decolonization projects of Israel-Palestine. Dealing with the case of Zionism and Israel is interesting because it allows us – in fact, it forces us – to ask questions about the nature of modernity, liberalism, secularism, colonialism and nationalism wri…
Settler Colonialism and Decolonization
This essay makes two arguments. First, it argues that the analytical frame of settler colonialism is very productive in order to understand, describe, and at times even predict certain future trends of the Israeli state and society, while putting aside questions of legitimation or justification. On the other hand, this analytical frame is underdetermined when it comes to offering possible solutions for the future of Palestine-Israel. From the mer…
Past, Present, and Future
In this paper I respond to the replies of David Heyd and Yitzhak Benbaji to my paper ‘War and Self-Defense: Reflections on the War on Gaza’. Heyd’s relativizing of narrative overlooks the epistemic hierarchy among narratives and their important role in establishing facts, and his claim that Israel’s history is not colonialist in character fails because it is based on a misunderstanding of colonialism in general and settler colonialism in particul…
War and Self-Defense
This paper reflects on the current war on Gaza in 2024 that followed the Hamas attack on October 7th 2023, reading the events is a wider historical context. The paper has three main parts. In the first part, the paper argues against the fragmentation of the question of Palestine historically and geographically, arguing instead for the importance of the overall context of the conflict. The second part considers the issue of Palestinian resistance.…
The tyranny of truth and the tyranny of opinion
This Article is an attempt to think with Arendt about the crisis of liberal democracy in the face of the populist attack in recent decades on judicial review, human rights, immigrants, minority rights, academic and judicial elites, etc. Most of the arguments deployed against populism draw on principles and vocabulary borrowed from the liberal tradition, while few come from the separate democratic tradition. Because of this, the debate has taken o…
Law (14 works) · Political science (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · History (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · History (6 works)