Israeli Identity: In Search of a Successor to the Pioneer, Tsabar and Settler

Israelis are unique in having changed their identity three times in only one hundred years and in being in the process of doing so once again. The changes in their self-image have been brought about by contradictions or expansions of their territorial boundaries and by inconsistencies in their ongoing identity formulations. The self-image of the Pioneer related to the boundaries of Mandatory Palestine, that of the Tsabar to those of the State of Israel until the 1967 War and those of the settler to unspecified boundaries expanded beyond the preceding ones. When signing the Oslo Accords, Israel voluntarily relinquished this right, thereby producing the present unresolved crisis of Israeli identity. The Palestinian Arab identical claim to land has created these inconsistencies in Israeli self-image. Through examining the short history of Israel we can trace these transformations, thus establishing a link between ideology and identity.

Dr Lilly Weissbrod was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929, and emigrated to Palestine as a child and was raised in Israel. After completing her military service, she lived abroad for a number of years before returning to Israel in 1964. She worked in the Prime Minister's Office, and then enrolled at Tel Aviv University to study for her BA and MA in sociology. Dr Weissbrod then gained her PhD from the London School of Economics; and on her return to Israel took up her previous employment in the Prime Minister's Office