Auto-Emancipation: Decolonial Perspectives on Autonomous Political Mizrahi and Sephardic Organizations in Israel, 1948-1967

Abstract

This research is based on the contemporary theoretical premise developed especially among Latin-American social scientists, named by some as "the decolonial turn". The research uses the decolonial perspective and terminology in order to examine the historical political activity of Mizrahi and Sephardic autonomous organizations in Israel. The study is based on historical documents and newspapers of different organizations. It examines a broad range of organizations, but focuses primarily on the activity of the Council of the Sephardic Community of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Eliahu Eliachar. The research outlines an autonomous Mizrahi sub-political sphere that had a unique dynamic of its own, which sometimes diverged from the Ashkenazi one in its interpretations of the social reality and in its reaction to Middle Eastern political developments. Within this sphere, the dissertation analyzes the discourse and practices of independent political organizations, focusing on the way they related to Middle Eastern politics and to Israeli Palestinian Arabs, as well as on their constructions of a Mizrahi and Sephardic collective identity. The research also examines the multifaceted ways in which the colonial power structure of the Zionist regime weakened the activity of these organizations and restricted their decolonial potential. The dissertation aims to contribute to the development of the decolonial theoretical perspective in the context of the Middle East, and to the construction of a legacy of such thinking in Israel today.