Mizrahi identity had to be torn apart to fit the Zionist Jew-Arab binary

Evidence

But in order to integrate, Arab Jews were required to abandon their traditions, deny their past, and erase their memories, in order to assimilate into the dominant culture, representative of what was seen as modern, universal values. … The binary Zionist distinction between Jew and Arab produced an impossible rupture between what were, up to the mass migrations following the establishment of Israel, congruent aspects of Mizrahi identity: Jewish and Arab. Suddenly, in order to be considered Israelis, Mizrahim had to forsake the culture and language in which they defined their Judaism—the Arab culture—and in some cases even give up their “religion” as they understood and practiced it. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 650

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the ‘impossible rupture’ theme in Naqvi’s Home Boy about hyphenated identity; also resonates with The Reluctant Fundamentalist on identity splits under pressure.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that Jewishness and Arabness were ‘congruent aspects’ until the state forced them apart is a genuinely dense reframing — it overturns the notion that these identities are inherently in tension.