Salt in the water: Racialization, hierarchy and Arab-Jewish romantic relationships in Israil

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2297039_ (Table of Contents)

This paper examines the specter of romantic relationships between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Given the statistical rarity of such relationships, the extensive public, media, and governmental attention paid to preventing ‘miscegenation’ seems paradoxical. I begin with an exploration of these attempts, which range from highly successful advertising campaigns and televised interventions to citizen patrol groups, physical assault, and, in the case of underage women, incarceration in reform schools. By turning to work on racializing processes within contested colonial space, this research traces the specter of ‘mixed’ relationships back to fears of internal contamination and the unstable nature of racial membership within racialized hierarchies of power. I conclude with a close analysis of three works – two novels and one film – that revolve around relationships between Arab and Jewish characters. By examining the way these texts both reify and challenge assemblages of race and belonging in Israel, I argue that these works should be viewed as theoretical texts that strive to present possibilities for a different future