Clash of Identities - Explorations in Israeli and Palestinian Societies (Hardcover)

Taking a fresh look at the past hundred years of shared Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli history, Baruch Kimmerling reveals surprising relations of influence between a stateless indigenous society and the settler-immigrants who would later form the state of Israel. Shattering our assumptions about these two seemingly irreconcilable cultures, Kimmerling composes a sophisticated portrait of one side's behavior and characteristics and the way in which they irrevocably shaped those of the other.

Though the studies in this volume span a twenty-year period, Kimmerling remains focused on the clashes, tensions, and complementarities that link Jewish, Palestinian, and Israeli identities. Drawing on his command of a vast body of sociological literature, Kimmerling explores the phenomena of reciprocal relationships between Jewish and Arab communities in mandatory Palestine; relations between state and society in Israel; patterns of militarism; the problems of jurisdiction in an immigrant-settler society; and the ongoing struggle of Israel to achieve legitimacy as both a Jewish and a democratic state.

By merging Israeli and Jewish studies with a wealth of scholarship on Palestinians and the Middle East, Kimmerling introduces a unique conceptual framework for analyzing the cultural, political, and material overlap of both societies. A must-read for those concerned with Israel and the relations between Jews and Arabs, Clash of Identities is a provocative exploration of the ever-evolving, always-contending identities available to Israelis and Palestinians and the fascinating contexts in which they take form.