When Peace Is Not Enough: How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks about Religion, Nationalism, and Justice

381 Pages·2013·1.819 MB·English

by  Atalia Omer

When Peace Is Not Enough

When Peace Is Not Enough
How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks about
Religion, Nationalism, and Justice
ATAlIA OmeR
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and london
Atalia Omer is assistant professor of religion, conflict, and peace studies at the
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Department of Sociology
at the University of Notre Dame. She is also a faculty fellow at the Notre Dame
Center of Religion and Society.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, ltd., london
© 2013 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-00807-3 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-00810-3 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-00824-0 (e-book)
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Omer, Atalia, author.
When peace is not enough : how the Israeli peace camp thinks about
religion, nationalism, and justice / Atalia Omer.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-226-00807-3 (cloth : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-00810-3
(paperback : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-226-00824-0 (e-book) 1. Arab-
Israeli conflict—1993—Peace. 2. Peace movements—Israel. 3. Arab-Israeli
conflict—Social aspects. 4. Group identity—Israel. I. Title.
DS119.76.046 2013
956.05'4—dc23
2012044799
a This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
For
Dan Omer
(1940–84)
and
Oscar Mareni (Herlinger)
(1906–2011)

Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Introduction / 1
ONe / Peace, Justice, and the Zionist Consensus:
Peace Now and the Blind Spots of Peacemaking / 23
TWO / Bridging Disciplines and Reimagining “Who We Are” / 65
THRee / Critical Caretakers:
The Hermeneutics of Citizenship and the Question of Justice / 93
fOUR / Returning to Sinai:
The Religious Zionist Peace movement / 115
fIve / Rabbis for Human Rights and Reclaiming Alterity / 143
SIX / Subaltern visions of Peace I:
The Case of the Arab Palestinian Citizens of Israel / 183
SeveN / Subaltern visions of Peace II:
The Case of the mizrahim / 227
CONClUSION / The Hermeneutics of Citizenship:
The missing Dimension of Peacebuilding / 271
Notes / 285
Index / 361

ACknowledgments
my late father, a journalist, a poet, and a social critic, lived a short and brave
life on the radical margins of Israeli society. I am profoundly indebted to
him for his legacy. This book is grounded in my memories of his struggle
against religious and political coercion, against the occupation of Palestin-
ian territories, and for social justice and equality.
As much as my father was a principled critic of Israel’s ethos, my late
grandfather was a stone in its foundation—Zionist Congress delegate, cel-
ebrated veteran of Britain’s Jewish Brigade during World War II, resistance
fighter against the British mandate in Palestine, and the first post–Israeli
independence treasurer of the municipality of Jerusalem. my earliest memo-
ries are of their frequently fierce opposition to one another, unyielding, but
loyal. I carry this dual legacy with me today; out of a deep sense of gratitude
and love I grapple with it across the pages of this book.
I have been involved with the Israeli peace movement my entire life,
and I remain committed to the overarching vision of the movement. Yet it
is with a desire to assess and transform the premises of peace activism in
Israel that I write, realizing potential implications of this case for questions
of peace and justice in other zones of conflict. Only after I completed my
military service and moved away from Israel to pursue my higher education
in the United States did I begin to systematically question what had consis-
tently puzzled me earlier: What is the meaning of a Jewish national identity?
How might it be reconciled with secularity? How might rethinking Jewish-
Israeli nationality relate to the “peace process” with the Palestinians? This
line of questioning led me to explore the case of Israel with the intention
to think more acutely about religion, nationalism, and the transformation
of conflicts largely defined by identity claims. It has been an odyssey that