What is it about?
This article offers an in depth interpretation of the Wadi Salib events, drawing on newly disclosed proceedings of the Wadi Salib Committee of National Inquiry. It examines how Mizrachi Jews explained their actions through a Zionist language of Jewish kinship and belonging, while Ashkenazi Jews rejected this claim and emphasized the colonial dimensions of Zionist identity. By incorporating identity threat theory, the article analyzes how these competing understandings of Zionism were constructed and how they contributed to the outbreak of the events.
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Why is it important?
The study sheds light on foundational tensions within Israeli national identity and on the historical roots of Ashkenazi Mizrachi relations. By focusing on how identity was articulated and contested rather than treating rebellion as a purely material or organizational phenomenon, the article deepens our understanding of majority minority and immigrants veterans relations. The findings contribute to broader debates about nationalism, social exclusion, and the role of identity conflict in episodes of political unrest.
Perspectives
I approach the Wadi Salib events as a moment in which competing interpretations of national identity collided in particularly stark ways. Rather than treating Zionism as a unified ideology, this article reflects my interest in how its meaning was contested by different social groups facing perceived threats to their status and belonging. The study is motivated by a broader concern with how identity narratives can both mobilize protest and justify exclusion, shaping patterns of conflict within national communities.
Professor Sara Beth Kahn-Nisser
Open University of Israel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Nationalism, Identity, and Rebellion: An Interpretation of the Wadi Salib Events, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, December 2010, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/13537113.2010.526919.
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