Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights Diaspora Jewish Opposition to Israel

Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights discusses the growing movement of diaspora Jewish opposition to Israel. While many Jews are supporters of Israel, ever since Israel's establishment there have been diasporic Jews who have opposed the state, whether from an ideological anti-Zionist standpoint or simply reacting to its treatment of Palestinians. Recently though, this has been transformed into a collective attempt to withdraw legitimacy from Israel's claim to represent Jews and to forge a specifically Jewish collectivity that opposes Israel's policies. This unique book is a description of this vibrant social movement, it examines their activities and ideologies in depth in order to find out how significant this movement is and argues that these activists challenge traditional diasporic Jewish representations of itself, and offer a different version of what it means to be Jewish. As an account of a new, fascinating and increasingly significant social movement, this book will make an important contribution to the fields of Israel/Palestine studies, and responds to urgent questions in social movement studies.

David Landy is an Irish-Jewish academic, active in the Palestine solidarity movement. Formerly chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, he is currently based in Lancaster University, where he teaches contemporary social and cultural theory, and race and migration.

Introduction * Reimagining Jewish diaspora identity * Israel critical activism as a social movement * A community of communities? The Anglo-Jewish field and its dissidents * Israel critical activists between the universal and the community * Are all politics local? How the terrain of activism channels Jewish critics of Israel * Rooted cosmopolitans. The interaction between activists and Palestinians * Conclusion