Open research questions in Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

What the literature leaves open

• The findings indicate the need to shape welfare policy, and an ethical approach, that recognizes the Bedouin social workers’ informal solidarity practices, operating between state law and community values. At the local level, profes- sional training should include learning to cope with moral dilemmas during conflicts, while using applied ethics tools, work ethics, and reinforcing community support networks. Social workers providing humanitarian aid to distressed populations should have legal protection, and community and Indigenous knowledge should be included in moral decision-making. At the global level, decolonial discourse should be pro- moted in social work, emphasizing the rights of oppressed communities to act within an independent ethical system based on compassion, hospitality, and mutual guarantee. Integration of local perceptions of solidarity should be encouraged (such as Ubuntu philosophy or takaful) within global solidarity discourse, thereby contributing to the construction of universal ethics based on cultural justice. Finally, international professional bodies should form a con- temporary ethical code recognizing social workers’ right and duty to act for human rights, even when this involves criti- cism towards state policies. From an applied perspective, these findings call for more concrete integration of solidarity-based dilemmas into social work education and professional development. Social work- ers, especially in conflict-affected and minority contexts, should be prepared to cope with dilemmas of this kind through guidance in applied ethics in structured modules relating to ethical decision-making under legal constraint, dual loyalty, and moral distress, learning from attempts at what could be called “underground ethics” from the world and joining professional and community support (Banks, 2006; IFSW, 2018). Training should include case-based learning drawn from real conflict scenarios, guided ethical reflection groups, and supervision models that explicitly address “underground” or informal practices could better prepare practitioners to navigate tensions between state law and human rights commitments. At the practice level, pro- fessional associations should develop more straightforward guidelines and protective mechanisms for social workers who provide humanitarian assistance in legally ambiguous contexts, ensuring that ethical solidarity does not translate into professional vulnerability or isolation.

  Solidarity in the Shadows: Bedouin Support for Undocumented Migrant Workers in Israel · 2026 · DOI

• In light of the above, Al-Haq calls on Israel to: Abide by its obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law; Dismantle all settlements and the Annexation Wall within the OPT, and provide reparations to all natural or legal persons who suffered damage due to the Wall’s construction, in line with the 2004 ICJ Advisory Opinion; Immediately make public a list of all sites in the OPT that have been excavated by Israel since 1967, all artifacts that have been removed from these sites, and where these artifacts are currently located; and End its prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. The international community has an important role to play in ensuring that Israel fulfills its duties as occupying power. Accordingly, third states must: Prohibit tourism services, including pilgrimages, to Israeli settlement sites; Refrain from acquiring, either temporarily or permanently, any artifacts from the OPT. Where such artifacts are already in museums or in private institutions, due to Israel’s unlawful transfer of them, States should take action to repatriate the artifacts to the relevant Palestinian authority; Fully cooperate with the preliminary examination of the International Criminal Court; and Take all measures to ensure an immediate end to Israel’s occupation. Al-Haq further recommends that the State of Palestine should: Support vulnerable communities in Area C, including Nabi Samwil, through all possible means; Ensure excavations in the OPT which are under the control of Palestinian authorities do not perpetuate the illegal sale of artifacts; and Take all possible measures to preserve Palestinian cultural heritage in the OPT.

  Governance through the Sacred: Racialising Islam in the Israeli Settler State · 2026 · DOI

• Concluding remarks Against the background of existing legal frameworks, calls from the international community for the stopping of arms trade, and the constant flow of unequivocal evidence of grave international law violations and prima facie international crimes committed in Gaza, the persistence of arms transfers indicates that those with the power and privilege to stop the bloodshed lack the interest to do so.

  Reckoning With the Paradox of Regulating the Arms Industry: The Context of Palestine · 2026 · DOI

• Focusing on Gaza as an under-researched enclave of Israeli settler colonialism, it analyzes how young Palestinians renegotiated their affective bonds in response to two coinciding deadly events: the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 Israeli bombings.

  Settler Colonialism and Mortal Dangers: Affective Responses to COVID-19 and the 2021 Israeli Bombings among Young Palestinians in Gaza · 2024 · DOI

• This article revisits the history of the 1948 Nakba and suggests that hitherto literature has not explored in depth how the racialised liberal world order has come to bear on settler colonial strategies of dispossession.

  Settler-Humanitarianism: Dispossession, ‘Humanitarian Transfer’ and the 1948 Nakba · 2024 · DOI

• We examine an understudied, yet central component of everyday international relations, everyday nationalism, and identity contestations as practiced through gastronomy, and highlight the dilemma between the different political uses of popular culture in the context of conflict resolution and resistance.

  Foodways and Foodwashing: Israeli Cookbooks and the Politics of Culinary Zionism · 2021 · DOI

• Abstract This article takes the understudied Ottoman city of Gaza in southern Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century as a case study to illustrate the new possibilities available today to researchers of the Middle East by combining the study of historical sources with GIS and other digital technologies.

  Applying Digital Methods to the Study of a Late Ottoman City: A Social and Spatial Analysis of Political Partisanship in Gaza · 2020 · DOI

• The article therefore suggests that ideas can be an important power resource, particularly when other power resources are lacking but that this power resource is dependent on the specific ideational context: effective foregrounded ideas draw on a shared narrative that enables political actors to claim the moral high ground, while accusing their adversaries of failing to fulfil their moral obligations as understood via the frame of that shared narrative.

  ‘Ideational power’ as a resource in union struggle · 2020 · DOI

• The article's main argument is that an analysis of the artistic practices of this and similar understudied social groups, particularly those practices undertaken in moments of conflict or times of deep social change, produces a more subtle understanding of the shifting modes of Jewish identity in the age of globalization and transnationalism, whose phenomenon of mass migration has led to the construction of new multi-hyphenated, hybrid identities.

  In Search of Transnational Jewish Art: Immigrant Women Artists from The Former Soviet Union in Contemporary Israel · 2016 · DOI

• In addition, this article tells the ‘story’ of how this Arab town, which has not been addressed in earlier studies, grew rapidly, and why it collapsed quickly in the 1948 war.

  Khalsa: The Town with a ‘Golden Fountain’: The Rise and Fall of an Arab Town North of the Huleh Valley · 2016 · DOI

• ” I argue that, in the case of the Bene Menashe, race and religion co‐produce each other in ways that reinforce racialized understandings of Judaism and Jewishness, and I suggest that what accounts for this phenomenon is that the opportunities that the Bene Menashe immigrants had in defining their religiosity in Israel were limited by the conditions of their migration, which developed against the backdrop of multiple colonial contexts.

  Redefining the Converted Jewish Self: Race, Religion, and Israel's Bene Menashe · 2015 · DOI

• While the literature has primarily focused on the activity of the urban educated circles in the process of regionalization, this article presents a unique bottom-up perspective that underscores the everyday experiences, practices and mechanisms of cooperation in a rural region which is rarely investigated.

  Regional cooperation among the rural population of Palestine's southern coast as reflected in joint petitions to İstanbul at the end of the nineteenth century · 2012 · DOI

• Historical information was scarce, and what was given to us at all--in Hebrew School, in the public schools, in the broader spectrum of American discourse--was now wrapped within the celebration of Israel's victory in the 1967 war.

  On Jewish Particularity and Anti-Semitism: Notes from a Jewish Theology of Liberation · 2009

• The book is so concerned with making its case for the overwhelming power of the settler movement and its (more successful) accusation that the left was complicit in the growth of the settlements, that it does not account for the spectacular failures of the settlement movement along with its successes.

  Lords of the Land: The War over Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967–2007 (review) · 2009 · DOI

• Britain's response to this unrest has been the focus of much historical research, but few studies have examined the realities of the counterinsurgency at ground level or the relevance of this to the internal fracturing and collapse of the rebel movement in 1939.

  Repression and Rebellion: Britain's Response to the Arab Revolt in Palestine of 1936–39 · 2008 · DOI

• On their arrival in Israel they faced a new linguistic situation in which the language (Hebrew) imposed upon them was limited to a single religion, a single nation, and a single ethnic entity, as opposed to the situation in Iraq, where Arab cultural and national identity encompassed Jews together with Muslims and Christians.

  "Till Spring Comes": Arabic and Hebrew Literary Debates among Iraqi-Jews in Israel (1950-2000) · 2006 · DOI

• Close to the end of an informative chapter on changes in telecommunications and energy sectors, David Levi-Faur writes, The victims of the competitive regimes are the workers, and the agonies of the unfortunate victims, which have not been addressed in this paper, have to be taken into account as well (pp.

  The New Israel: Peacemaking and Liberalization · 2002

• The problem has been related to the stance of the larger Jewish community towards open issues, debate of ideologically-oriented curricular confusion that populates the schools with teachers who are qualified to teach some important parts of the cur- riculum but unable or unwilling to teach other equally important parts, and the lack of a support system that would al- low those teachers to grow personally and professionally.

  Affective Learning and the Teaching of Jewish Tradition · 1974 · DOI

• In this paper we have attempted to indicate another external factor which leaves its mark on various levels of Israeli society and which has not been investigated systematically-the continuous state of warfare its beginning (Kimmerling, 1973). Most of the literature concentrates on means of finding techniques for the solution or prevention of conflicts, while the social effects and implications of conflicts and wars have not yet been analyzed.

  Anomie and integration in Israeli society and the salience of the Israeli-Arab conflict · 1974 · DOI

• The Siddur too should be studied Downloaded by [RMIT University Library] at 00:11 15 April 2016 not only as a prayer book, but as an en- cyclopedia of the best of Jewish sources, which touches on every aspect of human life and our own national experience. At the same time, re- quirements should be set for further study of prescribed courses in Hebrew and re- lated subjects for those who wish to earn permanent licenses.

  Israeli Teachers in American Jewish Schools · 1973 · DOI

• 61 It remains to be asked exactly what alternatives lay open to those who determined British policy in Palestine in 1936? Wauchope's policy—that of using a minimum of force to keep the rebellion in check, accompanied by piecemeal political accommodation—could never have succeeded in the conditions then prevailing.

  Sir Arthur Wauchope, the army, and the rebellion in Palestine, 1936 · 1973 · DOI

• William Chomsky Published online: 23 Aug 2006. To cite this article: William Chomsky (1971) American Jewish Life and Education in Retrospect and Prospect, Journal of Jewish Education, 40:4, 20-25, DOI: 10.1080/0021642710400403 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0021642710400403 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sublicensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

  American Jewish Life and Education in Retrospect and Prospect · 1971 · DOI

• Reactions of the Readership To the Publications Notwithstanding all of the efforts at making the periodicals attractive and in- teresting to the Jewish adolescent, the fundamental question as to whether, in fact, these publications are read and ap- preciated by the intended readers still remains to be answered.

  Magazines for Jewish Teenagers · 1969 · DOI

• The number of participating schools in this study is sufficiently large and representative to provide a valid indica- tion of the status of Israel in the Jewish school curriculum. The large, prompt re- sponse to the rather long questionnaire, is in the first instance, due to the emotional- ly charged feelings of the respondents to Israel. Their positive attitude concerning the need of such a study was also a motivating factor. Many respondents add- ed a personal note to the completed questionnaire expressing their eagerness to participate in the survey and to learn about the findings. Initially, it was the intent of the re- searcher to analyze the responses in terms of several variables (particularly, school type, ideological auspices, geographic location, school size and level, and lan- guage of instruction), and to intercor- relate some of the findings. However, (for since funds for computerization which the research instrument was pro- grammed) were not forthcoming, this aspect of the survey remains in the realm of wishful thinking. The very fact that financial support was not available to facilitate cross-tabulation and correlation of results might be an indication of the Jewish community's readiness to study seriously the role of Israel in the Jew- ish school. (It may also be indicative of the writer's salesmanship ability). The study did not seek to investigate the quality of Israel involvement. Never- theless, the findings do indicate certain qualitative dimensions of Israel involve- ment. In the first place, the open-ended comments provided by the respondents— Downloaded by ["Queen's University Libraries, Kingston"] at 22:56 09 March 2015 20 JEWISH EDUCATION and the lack of comment, as well—dem- onstrate the quality of concern vis-a-vis Israel in the Jewish school. Answers such as "there is insufficient time to include Israel" and "school lacks appro- priate personnel" are reasonably under- standable excuses for not giving attention to Israel in formal instruction and extra- curricular activity. These two reasons underscore two crucial problems in Jew- ish education: abbreviated hours of schooling, and the manpower crisis. How- ever, despite these universal shortcom- ings, schools do attempt to do justice to other subjects. For example, time is found to teach ancient and medieval Jewish history. It seems to this writer that modern Jewish history—from the be- ginning of the holocaust period until the present day, with emphasis on Israel— has more meaning and certainly is apt to have more impact on pupils than the rehearsal of facts of the Second Com- monwealth or the Spanish era. In this regard, the preparation of a modern Jew- ish history syllabus which highlights the role of Israel would be helpful. Other indications of the quality of concern is furnished by the data. Al- though Israel is programmed as a regular subject in about one-half of the schools, it is actually taught in only one or two classes in each of these schools. More- over, books are used in only 17% of the classes. Some may argue that formal instruction is not the most crucial in- dicator of Israel involvement. What is this vein of important, according to thought, is the integration of Israel into the total program and the attitude and approach of the teachers to Israel. These items are significant and absolutely es- sential to a viable program of instruc- tion. The survey indicates that, in the large majority of schools, attention is given very frequently to Israel during in- struction in other subjects. Moreover, the major reason mentioned for not includ- ing Israel as a regular subject in the cur- riculum is that "it is taught via other subjects". These interrelated data indicate the widespread acceptance of the idea of integrating Israel into the study program. They also serve to underscore the neces- sity for a carefully thought-out approach to integration. However, this is not the case in most Jewish schools. The kind of treatment that Israel receives via other subjects is generally incidental and dis- continuous.

  Israel in American Jewish Schools · 1968 · DOI

• In addition, every avenue lending it- CENTRAL ORGANIZATION 229 self to joint activity should be explored for the purpose of creating an effective program and environment of adult Jew- ish study.

  Central Organization of Jewish Education — A Concept And Mechanism · 1965 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

• Spacing Palestine through the home · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 2009 · 80 citations
• Tracing Settler Colonialism: A Genealogy of a Paradigm in the Sociology of Knowledge Production in Israel · Politics & Society · 2021 · 69 citations
• Geographies of Intimacy: Contemporary Renewals of Black–Palestinian Solidarity · American Quarterly · 2020 · 54 citations
• Imagining Palestine’s Alter-Natives: Settler Colonialism and Museum Politics · Critical Inquiry · 2020 · 54 citations
• “From Standing Rock to Palestine we are United”: diaspora politics, decolonization and the intersectionality of struggles · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 2020 · 49 citations
• Gaza: A decolonial geography · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · 2024 · 47 citations
• Introduction: Public Health and the Promise of Palestine · Journal of Palestine Studies · 2020 · 42 citations
• Leaving behind the rhetoric of allyship · Whiteness and Education · 2020 · 42 citations
• Spatial Debilities · South Atlantic Quarterly · 2021 · 40 citations
• Genealogies of ‘Jews’ and ‘Muslims’: social imaginaries in the race–religion nexus · Patterns of Prejudice · 2020 · 36 citations

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