Israel Studies Review

Jerusalem played an important role in the establishment of collective memory studies by Maurice Halbwachs in the early twentieth century. Recent studies in this field draw attention to the contribution of a variety of agents to building, maintaining, and challenging collective memory realms. Following suit, this article deals with the methods that agents of an alternative collective memory for Jerusalem use to challenge the Israeli hegemonic narrative. Before reviewing their activities in East and West Jerusalem and their resources and impact, I summarize the hegemonic narrative as presented in four memory realms. Special attention is given to both sides’ use of the Internet as a means of overcoming the physical limitations of memory realms.

This article seeks to examine the impact of the transition from Yishuv to state on the Sephardi and Mizrahi leadership, as reflected in the patterns of organization and action of the Sephardi community councils in general, and the Councils of the Sephardi Community in Tel Aviv and Haifa in particular. Against the background of the growing centralized power of the state under the leadership of Mapai and the application of the principle of statism (mamlachtiut), the article will discuss the activities of the Councils of the Sephardi Community in Haifa and Tel Aviv. The article analyzes the process that led in 1951 to the dissolution of the Sephardi and Oriental Communities Union as a political framework, as well as the decision made in the same year by the community councils in Haifa and Tel Aviv to withdraw from political activity.

A prominent aspect of the Jewish-Arab conflict over Palestine has been the Palestinian ‘catastrophe’ or ‘Nakba’—the displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians during Israel's War of Independence. David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv's pre-state leader and Israel's first prime minister, was an influential figure in this process. This article investigates Ben-Gurion's attitude toward the Palestinian refugee problem, highlighting its dynamic nature and its linkage to military developments. Contrary to the conclusions of previous research, only after the Arab states’ invasion and the war's expansion in late May and early June 1948 did Ben-Gurion decide to oppose the refugees’ return. Undeterred by his own ethical misgivings and international efforts to secure repatriation, his view was reinforced over time, as Israel's victories on the battlefield became unequivocal.

This article analyzes the significance of Jerusalem in Jewish-Israeli consciousness through the city's representations on banknotes, based on the proceedings of the Bank of Israel's Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee since its inception in 1955. The Banknotes Committee, as an institutional body that represents the ruling hegemony, has worked to bolster the emblematic status of Jerusalem as the Jewish-Israeli capital in the past as well as the present. When Israel ruled only the west part of the city from 1948 to 1967, banknotes carried images of that part of Jerusalem only. After the 1967 Six-Day War, however, the representations changed dramatically, mainly depicting sites situated in occupied East Jerusalem. Since 1967, the banknotes have presented the city as Israel's ‘eternal capital’, never to be divided again.

The LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) community is warmly embraced by the city of Tel Aviv. This phenomenon is exemplified by the fact that the Tel Aviv City Hall has been taking a leading part in the organization, financing, and promotion of Pride parades and events in recent years. The present article analyzes a quantitative survey of overseas participants in the 2016 Pride events in Tel Aviv. It explores the motivations, attitudes, satisfaction, and behaviors of tourists, both LGBTQ+ and non- LGBTQ+. The results show that Tel Aviv is perceived as gay friendly by all participants, regardless of their affiliation with the LGBTQ+ community. We discuss the advantages of being a gay-friendly city via high visibility and social inclusion. Finally, we address ‘pinkwashing’, an umbrella term employed to describe the efforts by Israeli authorities to promote a positive image of Israel despite its questioned geopolitical reputation.

Students enrolled in Israel Studies courses often come to class with either firm opinions or little knowledge about the country (sometimes both). One way to address this while training students in the particular disciplines in which they are interested is by emphasizing the use of disciplinary concepts and tools to study Israel in a comparative framework, specifically, by pointing out the similarities and differences between Israel and other states. An effective epistemological approach to this end is the use of discussion questions to structure class conversations. This article demonstrates the usefulness of such an approach by looking at three main concepts in Political Science—the state, democracy, and liberal democracy.