Mizrahi cultural oppression paradoxically generated new modes of resistance.

Evidence

But from this place of oppression also emerged new options, whose relevance is much wider than the experience of the Mizrahim themselves. The cultural oppression of Mizrahim exposed the contradictions of Zionist consciousness in a way that may lead to the generation of a counter-position. This unique position is also the source of the potential of Mizrahi discourse. The dialectics of assimilation took on in this case a new dimension, and the tension between integration and resistance led to new directions. Ashkenazi-Mizrahi discourse in Israel is, naturally, dynamic and complicated, and has generated different responses and modes of resistance over the years; yet all reflect the dialectics of West/East, Jew/Arab—and then Jew-Israeli, Jew-Western, and so forth. All of them contained a certain suppressive element. In all fields of art and thought, Mizrahi culture has produced a range of modes of resistance that provide us with the tools of redefining the Israeli-Jewish collectivity. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 665

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the general pattern elsewhere that the subject-position of the colonized generates counter-discourse; connects to earlier kept claim about silence/oppression producing creativity.