{"title":"Druzification from below: The case of Arameans in the north Israel","authors":"Marta Woźniak-Bobińska","doi":"10.1111/nana.13019","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article sheds new light on the Aramean movement in northern Israel, drawing from studies on nationalism, racialisation, ethnic conflict and minority mobilisation. In 2014, Israel allowed members of several churches to identify as Aramean. The pivotal role in the Aramean minority's distancing of itself from the Arab identity was played by the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association (ICAA). Specifying and partially adapting Yusri Hazran's concept of ‘Druzification’, meaning the Israelis' conscious policy of minoritising indigenous populations and encouraging their conscription to the army, the term ‘Druzification from below’ is proposed to stress the bottom‐up character of the Aramean movement in the north of the country as well as the agency of Middle Eastern Christians. My general standpoint is that ‘Druzification from below’ can be perceived as an adaptive strategy—a survival response to structural political conditions and urbicidal practices of the ethnocratic state and adaptation to external threats.","PeriodicalId":47659,"journal":{"name":"Nations and Nationalism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nations and Nationalism","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.13019","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ETHNIC STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article sheds new light on the Aramean movement in northern Israel, drawing from studies on nationalism, racialisation, ethnic conflict and minority mobilisation. In 2014, Israel allowed members of several churches to identify as Aramean. The pivotal role in the Aramean minority's distancing of itself from the Arab identity was played by the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association (ICAA). Specifying and partially adapting Yusri Hazran's concept of ‘Druzification’, meaning the Israelis' conscious policy of minoritising indigenous populations and encouraging their conscription to the army, the term ‘Druzification from below’ is proposed to stress the bottom‐up character of the Aramean movement in the north of the country as well as the agency of Middle Eastern Christians. My general standpoint is that ‘Druzification from below’ can be perceived as an adaptive strategy—a survival response to structural political conditions and urbicidal practices of the ethnocratic state and adaptation to external threats.
期刊介绍:
Nationalism is one of the central issues of the modern world. Since the demise of the Soviet Union there has been a proliferation of nationalist and ethnic conflicts. The consequent explosion of interest in ethnicity and nationalism has created an urgent need for systematic study in this field. Nations and Nationalism aims to satisfy this need. As a scholarly, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary journal, it is designed to respond to the rapid growth of research in the study of nationalism and nationalist movements throughout the world.