"If there'll be peace all the 'Arsim will come": the case for furthering dialogue in the Israeli periphery between Mizrahim and Palestianian-Israelis

Abstract

Within Israeli society, Mizrahim are type-casted as the embodiment of anti-Arab prejudice in which ultra-nationalist voting patterns and hawkish views serve as an obstacle towards peace. However, such a depiction is problematic given that such an explanation provides little explanation as to how such attitudes have manifested amongst Mizrahim, as a group of an Arab cultural identity. Consequentially, this thesis asserts the argument that Mizrahi anti-Arabness is a symptom not a cause, as a product of Israeli ethnocratic state structures that maintain a preference for the Ashkenazi hegemonic class at the expense of Mizrahim and Palestinian-Israelis, who are subject to structural and cultural violence that manifests through the periphery, in which they coinhabit. A system of violence results in human rights violations that exacerbate socioeconomic inequality and in turn perpetuates a micro-conflict between Mizrahim and Palestinian-Israelis as groups that form the lower strata of the ethno-class hierarchy. Mizrahim, owing to historic conditions, view Palestinian-Israelis as an immediate threat to their mobility and interests within the ethno-class hierarchy. Applying conflict theories to the New Mizrahi Discourse, this thesis seeks to provide a different lens for looking at Israel’s internal conflicts, as a series of interconnected human rights based struggle, whose resolve relies on the construction of dialogue initiatives conducive to the Mizrahi-Palestinian environment and outside of current Ashkenazi-Zionist binaries.