Being both colonizer and colonized gives Mizrahim a unique critical vantage point.

Evidence

The in-between position of the Mizrahim embodies the possibility of a critical perspective toward Western orientalist culture, as well as Arab nationalism (which ignored the Jewish existence in the Muslim world, and particularly the departure of the Jews from the Arab countries). But the multiple perspectives the Mizrahim carry with them makes their cultural location particularly interesting; it embodies the combination of the Jew and the Arab, within a complex colonial discourse, and within the framework of Jewish sovereignty. This location embodies the perspective of the colonizer and the colonized, as well as the interrelations between them. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 671

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘in-between position’ framing of the reader’s interest in liminal identities and hybrid subject positions — connects to Bhabha’s hybridity and to the graft/mixture theme in the Trees essay.