Arab Soccer in a Jewish State: The Integrative Enclave (Cambridge Cultural Social Studies)
Cambridge University Press, 6/21/2007
EAN 9780521870481, ISBN10: 0521870488
Hardcover, 242 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
Language: English
Over the last two decades soccer has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have attained disproportionate success in this field. Given their marginalisation from many areas of Israeli society as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such a prominent Arab presence highlights the tension between their Israeli citizenship and their belonging to the Palestinian people. Bringing together sociological, anthropological and historical approaches, Sorek examines how soccer can potentially be utilised by ethnic and national minorities as a field of social protest, a stage for demonstrating distinctive identity, or as a channel for social and political integration. Relying on a rich combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, he argues that equality in the soccer sphere legitimises contemporary inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and pursues wider arguments about the role of sport in ethno-national conflicts. Ideal for researchers and graduate students.
1. Introduction
2. Sports, modernity and struggle in Palestine
3. The emergence of the integrative enclave
4. Soccer and municipal 'labor quiet'
5. 'These points are Arab'
nationalist rhetoric in the sports press
6. 'Maccabi Haifa is my flag'
Arab fans of Jewish teams
7. The Islamic soccer league
8. Sakhnin - between soccer and martyrdom
9. Conclusion.
'This is a surprising story of the only sphere in which Arab-Israeli relations do not seem to be in crisis. Sorek has written a subtle and apparently non-partisan account of the place of Arabs in the Jewish state. Thanks to its refreshingly clear prose, this book should have an appeal beyond specialists in the field.' Simon Kuper, author of Football Against the Enemy 'Sorek demonstrates considerable skill in capturing the complexity of the topic and drawing together the intricate social and political context.' British Journal of Sociology '... acute and poignant survey of Arab football in Israel.' Times Literary Supplement 'The precarious, unequal place of the Palestinian in Israel, and in Israeli football ('soccer') more specifically, is the subject of Tamir Sorek's sociological tract, Arab Soccer in a Jewish State: The Integrative Enclave. Mapping loosely, the history of Arab Palestinian 'disenfranchisement' ... Arab Soccer endeavours to understand the place of football within Israel's Arab community ...[the book] is adept, even illuminating, at explicating how football functions for the Arab minority in Israel.' Journal of Palestine Studies