‘It’s Nothing Personal’: The Globalisation of Justice, the Transferability of Protest, and the Case of the Palestine Solidarity Movement

By Atalia Omer

Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 497-518

Introduction

The distinction that liberal western Palestine solidarity groups draw between their critique of Israel and otherwise unproblematic relation with Judaism or Jewish people, as well as their frequent disclaimer that they resist all forms of racism including anti‐Semitism, is supported by their application of a universal framework of norms that equates their critique of Israel with their critique of Apartheid in South Africa. In other words, it is ‘nothing personal’ about Judaism. This indeed may be the case, but to what degree is it important to recognise the particular Jewish story and experience central to the dynamics of the Israel‐Palestine conflict and its root causes and thus also integral to any attempt to think constructively about holistic peacebuilding or conflict transformation? The human rights talk and especially the framing of Israeli policies as amounting to an apartheid configuration position the critics of Israel in a supposedly neutral and objective moral position. The problem is that the conversation ends there in the act of condemning Israel’s violation of human rights. What are the assumptions inherent in this exclusive reliance on the human rights talk as a mode of engaging Israel and the Jewish people? To this extent, I demonstrate that the global civil society protest in support of Palestine replicates many of the problems integral to global Islamist rhetoric and especially in positing Israel as a proxy for the ‘farther enemy’ (i.e. the U.S., the ‘west’, imperialism, colonialism, etc.). […]

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Ethno‐Religious Identity and Sectarian Civil Society: A Case from India

By Sarbeswar Sahoo

Volume 8, Issue 3, pages 453-480

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of Rajasthan Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (RVKP), an ethnic Hindu(tva) organisation, among the tribal populations in south Rajasthan. It argues that the RVKP has been able to enhance its legitimacy and expand its socio‐political support base among the tribals through a well‐articulated and planned process of ‘ethnification’. This process has been carried out in four basic ways: (1) utilising development projects as means to spread the ideology of Hindutva, (2) bringing religious awakening and organising mass re‐conversion programmes, (3) redefining indigenous identity and characterising certain communities as ‘the other’, and (4) with the support of the various state institutions. The paper concludes that by ethnicising indigenous identity, the RVKP has not just created a ‘culture of fear and violence’ in the tribal regions but also threatened the secular democratic ethos of Indian society.

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The Danish Cartoon Controversy and the Exclusivist Turn in European Civic Nationalism

By Robert A. Kahn

Volume 8, Issue 3, pages 524-542

Abstract

The Danish cartoon controversy raises questions about the inclusiveness of Western European civic nationalism. The controversy highlighted a harsh, exclusivist brand of Danish civic nationalism that cast Muslim migrants as outsiders. The controversy also saw a broader group of cartoon supporters from across Europe fault Muslims for failing to respect liberal traditions of freedom of speech and secularism, traditions now explicitly labeled ‘European’. However, others pushed the debate in a more open direction by defending the Jyllands Posten‘s freedom of expression in ethnically neutral terms and explicitly challenging the contrast between an enlightened Europe and an intolerant Muslim other.

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Symbolic Charisma and the Creation of Nations: The Case of the Sámi

By Lars Elenius

Volume 10, Issue 3, Special Issue: ASEN 2010 Conference Special Issue: Nation & Charisma, pages 467-482

Abstract

The cultural charisma of the Sámi people has served to inscribe them in the nation myths of the Scandinavian states. This charisma was also built into the self‐image of the Nordic countries when they established as a political organisation in the 1950s. While this charisma was to some extent created by leaders of the majority population, its symbolic value has also been used by the Sámi movement as a tool for political mobilisation. The global resistance by indigenous people towards colonialism resulted in a shift of the Sámi people’s strategy from national to global action, and in the redefinition from a ‘nature people’ within the nation‐state to an ‘indigenous people’ in a global legalistic discourse. At the same time, Sámi politicians strive to unite the different Sámi groups through a common homeland, Sápmi, which crosses the nation‐state borders. The political territory of Sápmi can culturally be regarded as an imagined nation in the same way as a nation‐state, even if it is scattered across four countries. The creation of a Sámi nation also faces the same kind of inter‐ethnic problems as the nation‐state.

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Minimalist Citizenship and National Identity in the Australian Republican Movement

By Francesco Veri

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 3-19

Abstract

This article explores the way in which the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) in the 1990s considered the meaning of citizenship and national identity. We seek to demonstrate that ARM’s citizenship ideal was minimalist because it largely ignored legal and normative notions of citizenship for pragmatic, political, and theoretical reasons. First, we will explore the meaning of citizenship in the Australian institutional context in order to explain the differences between the legal exclusive notion and the normative inclusive understanding of citizenship. Later, we will focus our analysis specifically on ARM’s political debate during the 1990s. From this point of view, ARM only portrayed an unattractive normative vision of Australian citizenship which relied on universal civic values based on civic‐territorial and egalitarian ideas of citizenship adaptable to any political system. ARM’s minimalist constitutional proposal hardly had an impact on national identity because it was not designed to harbour an inclusive normative vision of citizenship. ARM had an opportunity to advance a new conception of citizenship which would have advanced a more attractive definition of national identity. ARM’s minimalist approach also negatively influenced the 1999 republican referendum outcome.

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