Desert in the Promised Land

Yael Zerubavel

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Desert in the Promised Land

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2018

About this book

At once an ecological phenomenon and a cultural construction, the desert has varied associations within Zionist and Israeli culture. In the Judaic textual tradition, it evokes exile and punishment, yet is also a site for origin myths, the divine presence, and sanctity. Secular Zionism developed its own spin on the duality of the desert as the romantic site of Jews' biblical roots that inspired the Hebrew culture, and as the barren land outside the Jewish settlements in Palestine, featuring them as an oasis of order and technological progress within a symbolic desert.

Yael Zerubavel tells the story of the desert from the early twentieth century to the present, shedding light on romantic-mythical associations, settlement and security concerns, environmental sympathies, and the commodifying tourist gaze. Drawing on literary narratives, educational texts, newspaper articles, tourist materials, films, popular songs, posters, photographs, and cartoons, Zerubavel reveals the complexities and contradictions that mark Israeli society's semiotics of space in relation to the Middle East, and the central role of the "besieged island" trope in Israeli culture and politics.

Author / Editor information

Yael Zerubavel is Professor of Jewish Studies & History and the founding director of the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She is the author of Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition (1995).

Reviews

"Desert in the Promised Land is not an academic exercise in abstract distinctions, but a 'metaphorical journey' through the collective Jewish Israeli imaginary drawing from literary narratives, educational texts, newspaper articles, tourist materials, films, popular songs, posters, photographs, and cartoons. Recommended to all academic libraries."—Roger S. Kohn, Association of Jewish Libraries --- "In a rewarding but not easy read, Zerubavel analyzes the complex meanings and varied perceptions of this desert for Jews before 1948 and for Israelis thereafter. She organizes her analysis as a metaphysical yet also a chronological journey through the symbolic desert landscape of space and meaning. The text moves from the ancient biblical story of divine revelations and of national birth of the Jewish people to the more recent tension between the themes of desert and settlement as opposing symbolic landscapes. Recommended."—B. Harris Jr., CHOICE --- "Yael Zerubavel has produced an important, original study of the multiple meanings of the desert in Zionist and Israeli culture. Ranging from the early twentieth century to the present, Zerubavel brings together a vast array of sources, which she reads with deep insight and describes in graceful prose."—Derek J. Penslar, author of Jews and the Military: A History --- "In Desert in the Promised Land, space and memory, desert and settlement, are interwoven into a complex and fascinating portrait of Israel. Yael Zerubavel has written an engaging book that combines anthropology, culture, and history."—Anita Shapira, author of Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel --- "Written with passion, innovation, and clarity, Desert in the Promised Land makes an original and significant contribution towards understanding the deeper currents of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By analyzing the role of the desert in Zionist ideology and the collective identity of Israel, Zerubavel adds new dimensions to her groundbreaking and acclaimed study of Israeli myths and memory, Recovered Roots."—Tom Segev, author of 1949: The First Israelis

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Frontmatter
i

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Contents
vii

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Preface
ix

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Introduction
1

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Part I. Symbolic Landscapes
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1. Desert as Historical Metaphor
13

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2. The Desert Mystique
35

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3. Desert as the Counter-Place
65

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Part II. Shifting Landscapes
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4. The Negev Frontier
95

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5. The Negev Bedouins
137

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6. Unsettled Landscapes
159

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7. The Desert and the Tourist Gaze
179

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Epilogue
213

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Glossary
229

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Notes
233

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Index
327

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Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

July 20, 2020

eBook ISBN:

9781503607606

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

368

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503607606

eBook ISBN: 9781503607606

Keywords for this book

Desert; space; Jewish memory; Hebrew culture; Israel; Bedouins; Negev; Middle Eastern conflict; environmentalism; tourism

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Stanford University Press

Desert in the Promised Land

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Desert as Historical Metaphor

2. The Desert Mystique

3. Desert as the Counter-Place

4. The Negev Frontier

5. The Negev Bedouins

6. Unsettled Landscapes

7. The Desert and the Tourist Gaze

Epilogue

Glossary

Notes

Index

Bibliographic data