Mizrahi in-betweenness enables a bi-national perspective joining Jew and Arab

Evidence

A Mizrahi writing of history would therefore mean, first of all, writing Zionist history from a Jewish perspective. A Mizrahi perspective is the framework from which a critique of Zionism can emerge and can take on constructive meaning, moving toward a comprehensive redefinition of the Jewish collectivity in Palestine. To write history from the oriental (as opposed to orientalist) perspective means to write against the present still de-Arabized consciousness, while at the same time overcoming romantic-idealistic perceptions of the Orient that inevitably reproduce the dichotomy. The “in-betweenness” of the Mizrahi condition holds the potential for a bi-national perspective; that is to say, one that combines the Jew and the Arab and thus challenges the West/East dichotomy. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 676

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader argument that orientalism shaped Jewish self-understanding, and to the tension between ‘oriental’ and ‘orientalist’ perspectives.
• SEED: An essay angle: how ‘in-betweenness’ as a position enables critique that neither pole can produce — a general principle for contested identities.