Understanding Israeli Culture

Being a part of a culture gives people the ability to express themselves and shape their identities through history, literature, food, art, and even religion. Though many take them for granted, identifying with a culture allows them to be surrounded and embraced by a community of people with shared values. Cultures are continuously evolving, often influenced by other customs and traditions due to their location or similarities. Though most people presume that Israeli culture is derived from Jewish culture, it is only partially influenced by Judaism. It is dependent on the Zionist belief of stealing Palestinian culture along with their land.

Zionism is a nationalist movement entertaining the belief that Jewish people needed a homeland in order to avoid persecution. Israeli culture was built upon this belief which was first introduced in the 1800s following a wave of anti-semitism demanding a solution to “The Jewish Problem”. Jewish communities across the world were largely dehumanized in an effort to justify anti-semitism, discrimination, and segregation. Despite his lack of Jewish beliefs, Theador Herzl— known as the father of modern political Zionism—reignited the fire of Zionism by suggesting that the only feasible solutions to Jewish persecution were assimilation and settler-colonialism. He wrote the two-paged Book of Zionism in German, called Der Judenstaat, in which he prefaces that invading Palestine will be challenging due to the fact that it was already heavily inhabited by Arabs. Herzl passed away in 1904, after failing to spread the word of Zionism and being ridiculed by the Pope along with the International Community with major Jewish populations taking offense to the idea of Judaism being nationalized. Following the anti-semitic pogrom riots, many felt the need to act on his vision and immigrated to Palestine from Eastern Europe, forming the first kibbutz in 1910. 

Initially, the basis of Israeli culture emphasized the idea of ‘the New Jew’—a strong and self-reliant personality that would supersede the old derogatory Jewish stereotype. By the end of the Holocaust, native-born Israelis were considered the superior Jews and referred to as Sabar. Israeli textbooks referred to holocaust survivors as ‘inferior’ Jews of the Diaspora that “were punished justly for their refusal to acknowledge the truth of Zionism,” citing blatant anti-semitism in some of the earliest Israeli literature. Following the mass immigration of nearly half a million holocaust survivors, the state of Israel was consequently established with the first prime minister, Ben-Gurion, requesting that Einstein be the first president, being one of the most prominent Jewish figures in history. He promptly refused and wrote a letter to the New York Times directly comparing the Israeli government to the Nazi parties. Einstein concluded the letter saying America should condemn the State of Israel and not support “this latest manifestation of fascism.” Despite five decades of projecting anti-semitism and blaming the Jewish diaspora, Israel has managed to institutionalize the Holocaust and make it an integral piece of Israeli identity. In his book The Holocaust Industry, DePaul Professor Norman Finklestein, whose parents were victims of the Holocaust, describes the role that ‘collective amnesia’ played in Israeli politics arguing that despite their dedication to ‘never forget,’ over a third of Holocaust survivors in Israel today live in poverty. Finklestein argues that Israel has always and is continuing to abuse the memory of the Holocaust to legitimize Israel’s dehumanizing policies against the Palestinians.

By carefully selecting which events to emphasize and silence, Israel has managed to establish a hegemonic narrative of its history. In an attempt to erase the Palestinian counter-narrative and eventually appropriate aspects of their culture, Israel implemented apartheid and segregation laws that prohibited Palestinians from walking on the same streets as Israelis, owning certain property, and even working certain jobs. Today, Israel has banned Nakba commemorations and even the ability to wave the Palestinian flag claiming that these rights would “undermine the foundations of the state.” Meanwhile Israeli food and art are majorly influenced by Palestine despite their blatant extermination of the Arab population. Rather than claiming Jewish foods like Matzo or Challah, Israeli food claims many cultural Palestinian dishes as their own including shawarma, kebabs, falafel, and hummus. Much like their British allies having their national dish be that of Indian heritage, Chicken Tikka Masala, Israel has managed to claim the values of oppressors along with the food of the oppressed.

Though Israeli culture exists, it was completely shaped by the Zionist movement and has been inextricably dependent on the destruction and erasure of Palestine. Conflating Jewish Culture and Israeli Culture is as common as it is inaccurate. It is a telling tribute to an individual’s lack of political and historical context. Israelis that perceive these cultural factors as the “center of their personal identity” might not have clear perspectives: Many Israelis are rarely religious with the majority of Israeli citizens today actually identifying as secular Jews; abandoning the idea that Israeli culture is interlinked with Judaism and solidifying the idea that Israeli culture ceases to exist without Palestine—much like Israel itself.