In his new book, “The Palestinian Intifada and the Zionist Crisis: A Study in Perception and Dignity,” published by the Egyptian General Book Organization, Dr. Al-Masiri discusses the cognitive and perceptual models underlying both the Intifada and the Israeli attempts to suppress it. He begins by emphasizing “the importance of cognitive models in shaping human perception and the danger of perceptual dependency, which leads us to import our cognitive models from abroad just as we import goods and merchandise. This, in turn, makes us view ourselves through Western minds and eyes, which filter through what they want us to see, what they want us to understand or comprehend.” The danger, according to Al-Masiri, lies in our transformation, through this perspective, into mere commodities to be used.<\/p>\n
The author then attempts to highlight two conflicting models in occupied Palestine: the materialistic “Zionist” human being and the mysterious “Palestinian” human being. The latter, he argues, created the Intifada through self-awareness, a deep connection to his land, and a profound belief in his humanity. In light of this, the author discussed the crisis of Zionist legitimacy as key to understanding the Intifada, pointing out that this legitimacy has two faces linked to the structure of Zionist discourse and action. Zionism aims to transfer Jews from “exile” to Palestine and Arabs from it into exile. Each transfer requires different justifications and different forms of legitimacy. This has resulted in two legitimacies: “the Zionist legitimacy that Zionists bestow upon themselves before the Western world and Jews in general, and the legitimacy of existence that they seek to assert in their confrontation with the Arabs, through increased oppression, displacement, and the brutal use of their military machine.” The author viewed this as an indication of “the ossification of Zionist combat capabilities and the loosening of their grip in the face of Palestinian resistance and the legitimacy of the ‘secret’ human being whose continuous uprising undermines the foundations of Zionist legitimacy and its very existence.”<\/p>\n
In chapters two, three, and four, Dr. Al-Masiri explores various aspects of the Zionist crisis and how Palestinians responded, recognizing the inherent heterogeneity among Jews, who comprise dozens of religious, ethnic, and class-based identities and affiliations. There are the Yiddish-speaking Jews, the religious ones who define their Jewishness on a religious basis, and the secularized ones who define their Jewishness on an ethnic basis. Both groups are found in England, America, Argentina, and South Africa, and they speak Yiddish.<\/p>\n
The second group of Jews consists of those who integrate into the Western world and speak their native languages. This group includes Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and secular Jews, with the largest communities residing in America. The third group comprises Jews from the Islamic world and the East, including Arabic-speaking Arab Jews, Sephardic Jews, and Jews from Iran and Afghanistan. This is in addition to small Jewish communities in Georgia and Kurdistan, Jews in Crimea and Lithuania, and other countries such as Egypt. There are also the D\u00f6nmeh, a group of Jews who remain in Turkey, the remnants of the Marranos in Spain, the Beta Israel of India, and the Falasha of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n
Thus, as the author notes, the Jewish identity is complex and heterogeneous on all human, economic, social, cultural, and political levels. This Jewish diversity has led to an identity crisis within Israeli society, as the Chief Rabbinate has not recognized the Jewishness of the Beta Israel of India. Furthermore, the problem of identity and the lack of a clear definition of who is a Jew has exacerbated the conflict between Orthodox Jews and other Jewish denominations. The conflict between them escalated to the point that the 31st Zionist Congress elected a majority of Israeli workers, Reform Jews, Conservatives, and secular Jews who resolved to curb the power of the Orthodox and reshape Israel. This, if it were to happen, would undermine the very existence of Israel, which promotes religious legitimacy both globally and among Jews. It would expose the falsehood of its claim to be a state for all Jews, a claim refuted by the Orthodox establishment’s definition of a Jew, which stipulates that conversion must be performed by an Orthodox rabbi. This effectively excludes 80% of the world’s Jews, who define a Jew on non-religious grounds or do not adhere to Orthodox Judaism.<\/p>\n
In contrast to this Zionist disarray and erosion\u2014as the author puts it\u2014the Palestinian Intifada began and grew in strength and development. The Palestinians of 1948 joined the Palestinians of the territories occupied in 1967, whom Israel had attempted to assimilate into Jewish society and prevent from forming any cohesive political bloc with purely Arab leadership.<\/p>\n
In the fourth chapter, Dr. Al-Masiri states that the most important cause and manifestation of the erosion of Zionist legitimacy is the profound demographic crisis, which renders the Zionist project a falsehood that has reached a dead end. Since its inception, the movement has suffered from a demographic crisis that threatens its very core. It is unable to provide the state with settlers to populate the settlements. Palestinians within Israel have begun to occupy every residence vacated by Jews fleeing its limited resources or seeking greater prosperity. Consequently, the number of Jews displaced from or emigrating from Israel has increased, reaching 17,882 in 1987. In addition, 180 scientists left Israel for the United States during the previous ten years, and the rate of emigration of scientists from Israel has increased to even higher levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is an intellectual and political study that examines the Palestinian uprising as an expression of human dignity and resistance consciousness, while also analyzing the intellectual and cognitive crisis within the Zionist project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[947,832,873,835,834],"product_tag":[1108,1084,1163,1343],"class_list":["post-27011","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-literary-studies","product_cat-politics","product_cat-ournalism-and-media","product_cat-sociology","product_cat-philosophy","product_tag-palestine","product_tag-politics","product_tag-social-sciences","product_tag-thought","pa_book-author-abdel-wahab-el-messiri","first","onbackorder","sale","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/27011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=27011"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awraqonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=27011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}