"Arab Jews", "Mizrahim", "Oriental Jews": the War of 1967 between identities and narratives

In the 1950s, a major wave of Jewish immigrants reached the State of Israel. Coming from Middle Eastern and North African countries, they were named “Mizrahim”, that is “Orientals” (“Easterners” in Hebrew), on the basis of their origins. These communities embraced a new identity largely imposed on them, and this happened also in response to their marginalisation, racial and ethnic discrimination. With their transformation into “Mizrahim”, their histories were concealed, as it was their shared culture and language in the Arab world. Many of them resisted, protested, and tried to be integrated in the Israeli society: they wanted to participate in the collective path that shaped the Israeli identity and memory. During this Cold War period, on 5 June 1967 the State of Israel attacked the Egyptian military forces, initiating a six-day war through which it conquered the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The occupation and administration of the new territories shattered the pre-1967 borders and lines. However, it also marked the entrance of a labor force in the market that left unskilled and marginal Mizrahi workers without protection and socially, economically, and politically at disadvantage. The occupation then showed even more the complexity of the politics of language in Israel. The revitalized Hebrew language had tried to impose itself in the Palestinian context, struggling in a multilingual reality characterizing the inhabitants’ lives as well as those of immigrating. Arab, “Oriental” Jews, who used to speak Judeo-Arabic dialects, were one of the most affected groups as Arabic was placed side by side to the “Palestinian other” population. In this context, multiple responses existed and are continuously developed by those on the ground, in the attempt to resist and, at the same time, retrieve the languages that have been lost. Memories as well as other potential scenarios are also being questioned and prompted as to show the multifaced reality of the Israeli-Palestinian context.