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The refugee faces the settler: Yen Le Espiritu, Lan Duong, Ma Vang, Victor Bascara, Khatharya Um, Lila Sharif, Nigel Hatton, Departures: An Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies, University of California Press, 2022 »

Settlers of colour in Israel: Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, ‘The Ethiopian Jews in Israel’, in Guy Ben-Porat, Yariv Feniger, Dani Filc, Paula Kabalo, Julia Mirsky (eds), Routledge Handbook on Contemporary Israel, 2022

11Aug22

Abstract: This chapter analyzes the status of the Ethiopian Jews community in Israel. Racism has been a core element in the treatment of Zionism and the State of Israel toward Ethiopian Jews, starting from pre-immigration to present days. Their trapped status as immigrants who fall between Zionism and the settler colonial state is brought to the forefront of the analysis; on the one hand, they are often treated as “settlers of color,” passive pawns brought to Israel as part of Judaizing Palestine/Israel to restrain the demographic balance and the increasing of the Arab body. On the other, the Zionist-Israeli perspective treats them from an orientalist’s mindset. This outlook is manifested in various fields such as the hesitant immigration policies, questioning their Jewish-religious roots, and the daily racism they experience in the fields of housing, education, employment and more. The last part engages with the mechanisms they have developed to cope with racism, mostly by alienating themselves from Israeli identity and identifying with global black identity through cultural and artistic means.


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