Abstract

In this unique new contribution, Marcelo Svirsky asserts that no political solution currently on offer can provide the cultural marrow necessary to effect a transformation of modes of being and ways of life in the State of Israel. Controversially, Svirsky argues that the Zionist political project cannot be fixed - it is one that negatively affects the lives of its beneficiaries as well as of its victims. Instead, the book aims to generate a reflective attitude, allowing Jewish-Israelis to explore how they may divest themselves of Zionist identities by engaging with dissident rationalities, practices and institutions. Ultimately, the production of military hardware and technology that helps Israel control the lives of Palestinians, of separate policies, laws and spaces for Jews and Palestinians, are all linked with the production of Zionist subjectivities and modes of being. Overcoming these modes of being is to after Israel.
'Grounded in his own experience, Marcelo Svirsky's controversial text is both theoretically sophisticated and accessible. After Israel is an original, engaging and beautifully written analysis of the political unit called Israel and how, through cultural transformation, it is possible to move beyond it.' Ronit Lentin, Trinity College Dublin 'After Israel is a secular book. It refuses to accept Zionism as a religious dogma; this excellent book rather dares to read Zionism as an episode in the history of Palestine, and of the two peoples that live there. This is neither an apocalypse nor a prophecy. It is a daring political and cultural analysis of the processes undermining the current Israeli regime that are at work today.' Ariella Azoulay, author of From Palestine to Israel and The One State Condition 'This is engaged cultural analysis at its best, offering insightful critiques of key ways of life and modes of being that constitute Israeli Zionism. A rare combination of sophisticated theory and fascinating, incisive detail, Svirsky captures the complexity of Jewish-Israeli subjectivities at the level of the practices of everyday life. After Israel is an important and provocative contribution to rethinking and remaking Israel-Palestine.' Chris Weedon, Cardiff University 'This highly original work goes far beyond most recent books on Palestine-Israel which focus on "two state" or "one state" solutions to the conflict. Its humanist and liberating methodologies show the imperative of a cultural transformation of Israel, for the sake of all victims of Zionism, Jews and Palestinians' Nur Masalha, University of London
Marcelo Svirsky is a lecturer in international studies at the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong. He teaches subjects in international studies and researches on Middle East politics and continental European philosophy; his focus is on social transformation, activism and revolutionary action, and on bilingual education.