Israel in Conflict

You who left the distant village,
You who were respected in the Maghreb,
You left property, and brought a fez,
You left much wealth, to fulfill a vision . . .
You who immigrated from the green village,
You who they called Lala shuk,
You left everything there
You brought just a kaftan and a red polar
But you realized a dream . . .
You who were filled with belief,
You who brought the mimuna festival,
You wanted to be alike, you changed your names,
Jojo is worthless, Frecha is a disgrace,
You licked the honey, was not always sweet,
The milk spilt, but you didn’t cry over it,
With all the hardships, the language, the walls,
You planted roots and bore fruit.

The above song, by the Israeli band ‘Sfatayim’ (Lips), from an Israeli southern development town, serves as a fitting opener to this chapter. The song’s lyrics (and tune) expose the duality, ambivalence, and bidirectionality of Mizrahi (Eastern) identity. On the one hand, the Mizrahim (plural form, denoting Jews from Arab and Muslim countries) experienced hardships, discrimination, and confinement to peripheral towns, mainly during the 1950s and 1960s. But on the otherhand, they came to terms with, and even sustained, the Zionist settlement project that marginalized them in Israeli society. This duality constitutes the backbone of Mizrahi identity in Israel’s development towns.

This chapter focuses on place and identity among Mizrahim in the towns. We explore the transformation experienced by the Mizrahim by investigating patterns of identity formation, focusing on key aspects of collective identity, namely, the role of a hegemonic state, cultural traditions, ethno-class stratification, and inter-generational transformations. The chapter first examines these issues from a theoretical perspective, and later details an empirical survey conducted to understand the attitudes of Mizrahi residents in development towns over a range of spatial, cultural, socioeconomic, and political issues.