Palestinians in Israel: New Scholarship on Politics and Religion

Abstract

This article situates these two new books on the Palestinians in Israel in the broader evolution of the existing scholarship. Ghanem and Mustafa provide a comprehensive new model based on the concept of “politics of faith” in order to explain how the Palestinians have tried to advance their collective interests as a minority in Israel. Al-Atawneh and Ali trace the evolution of Islamic identity and practice among the Palestinian minority in Israel. They explain how Islam has affected social and political change within Palestinian society in Israel. While both books expand our knowledge of the Palestinians in Israel, using different approaches, they share an emphasis on synthesizing both internal and external factors in their analysis of the developments affecting the Palestinians.