Barbara Bloch

Unsettling Zionism Barbara Bloch

The motivation for this book comes from the lengthy conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and its effects on Jews who have engaged politically and intellectually in challenging the dominant paradigm among Australian and other diasporic Jewry since the establishment of Israel in 1948. The paradigm asserts that Israelis? right to live safely within secure borders must be of exclusive concern. To challenge this exclusivity by speaking in support of Palestinian justice and equality, is viewed by many Jews as disloyalty and even as antisemitism. The book analyses a number of themes: the role of Zionism within the communities in Sydney and Melbourne in maintaining their cohesion and identity; the absence and condemnation of non-Zionist Jewish voices in public diasporic discourse and the interplay between universalism and particularism in Judaic traditions which influence how the Jewish community participates in Australian politics of identity today. By revealing the paradoxes in Jewish-Zionist subjectivities today, the book hopes also to illuminate broader questions of identity, diaspora and community, power and victimisation, and the unifying force of discourse.