In the shadow of the state

Lived pluralism in Ramla

Bibliographic Data

ID6013467
AuthorsErica Wei (0000-0002-7047-6712, Tel Aviv University, corresponding author), Erica Weiss (0000-0002-0726-7547, Tel Aviv University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume45
Issue4
Pages417-432
Publication date2025-11-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritique of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-275X • E-ISSN: 1460-3721
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0308275x251388539
PMID41281349
OpenAlexW4416535727
LanguageEN
References cited22

The Israeli state is frequently critiqued for being insufficiently liberal, particularly in its treatment of Palestinians. But scholars have found that liberal tolerance is premised on the denial of difference through its privatization, aestheticization and trivialization, tendencies that are readily apparent in liberal coexistence initiatives targeting Israelis and Palestinians. In the context of the Israeli state, I argue that the liberal/illiberal rejection of difference creates a violent state of exception for Palestinians that is propped up by a liberal/illiberal horseshoe alliance between the Israeli right and left. This article explores persisting traces of other Jewish coexistence practices in Ramla, Israel, in which difference is understood as public rather than private, reinvigorating a wider tradition of non-liberal Jewish approaches to the challenges of living with difference that have been marginalized since the early days of the Israeli state. In Ramla, I highlight a “minor” and form of coexistence that breaks the binary opposition of Jewish supremacy and liberal multiculturalism

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access