Reviews
"Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society." --Gershon Shafir, University of California, San Diego, "This well-researched book thus provides essential context for current events in the occupied Palestinian Territories and is required reading for anyone interested in exploring the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."—Kabir Altaf, Dawn, " Citizen Strangers is an extremely important, highly scholarly work on the conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians . . . The book is based on exemplary original research involving extensive use of both Hebrew and Arabic archives and newspapers, as well as interviews . . . This is an essential work for scholars (including serious nonspecialists) and policy-makers concerned with Israel/Palestine or broadly with ethnic conflict and colonialism. Summing Up: Essential."--G. E. Perry, CHOICE, "The paradox that cleaves the title of this exceptional book into two goes to the heart of its revelatory findings: a state that is both liberal and settler-colonial is an oxymoron. Robinson's absorbing, meticulously researched account decisively historicizes Israel's contradictory combination of colonial subordination at home with pretensions to democracy abroad."--Patrick Wolfe, La Trobe University, "Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society."--Gershon Shafir, University of California, San Diego, "Robinson's well-researched and detailed account of Israel's dramatic formation period and the creation of what she calls 'a liberal settler state' is a welcome academic addition to Israeli and Palestinian historiography."--Joseph Dana, The National, In recent years the concept of settler colonialism has become a fashionable if controversial way of understanding the Palestine-Israel conflict. It draws parallels between the Zionist movement and European settlers in North America, Australia and elsewhere who built their own societies and economies while excluding, dispossessing or eliminating the natives. There are some obvious differences. But Jewish immigrants who were fleeing anti-Semitism were also settlers. Robinson uses that framework to study the Palestinian minority left in Israel after 1948 and the paradox of their being second-class citizens living under a military government, but with democratic rights, and in a Jewish state surrounded by Arab enemies. Superbly researched using archival and a wealth of other sources in Arabic and Hebrew., " Citizen Strangers is an extremely important, highly scholarly work on the conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians . . . The book is based on exemplary original research involving extensive use of both Hebrew and Arabic archives and newspapers, as well as interviews . . . This is an essential work for scholars (including serious nonspecialists) and policy-makers concerned with Israel/Palestine or broadly with ethnic conflict and colonialism. Summing Up: Essential."—G. E. Perry, CHOICE, "Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society." —Gershon Shafir, University of California, San Diego, "The paradox that cleaves the title of this exceptional book into two goes to the heart of its revelatory findings: a state that is both liberal and settler-colonial is an oxymoron. Robinson's absorbing, meticulously researched account decisively historicizes Israel's contradictory combination of colonial subordination at home with pretensions to democracy abroad."-Patrick Wolfe, La Trobe University, "Shira Robinson offers a rich analysis of the politics and laws that shaped Palestinian citizenship in Israel, the complexities of liberalism, and issues of control and domination in settler colonial states to illuminate the historical roots of Israeli politics toward Palestinians today."--Hassan Jabareen, General Director of Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, "Shira Robinson brilliantly demonstrates that the treatment of Palestinian citizens in Israel is a mirror of Israel itself. Carefully tracing the historical dynamics of the institutions that constructed Palestinian residents as both liberal citizens and colonial subjects, Robinson shows how these institutions also shaped Israeli citizenship, legal order, and society."-Gershon Shafir, University of California, San Diego, "Shira Robinson offers a rich analysis of the politics and laws that shaped Palestinian citizenship in Israel, the complexities of liberalism, and issues of control and domination in settler colonial states to illuminate the historical roots of Israeli politics toward Palestinians today."-Hassan Jabareen, General Director of Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, "This well-researched book thus provides essential context for current events in the occupied Palestinian Territories and is required reading for anyone interested in exploring the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."--Kabir Altaf, Dawn
