Recently published by the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies – Madar – is the book The Pluralism Trap: Religion and State among Palestinian Arabs in Israel by Michael Karayanni. Spanning 356 pages, the book exposes how the concept of pluralism—by its nature intended to serve minorities fairly—has been transformed into a tool in the hands of the Israeli state to entrench and legitimize the segregation of Palestinians in Israel.
Translated from English by Yassin al-Sayyid, the book examines the nature of the relationship between the State of Israel and the communities within it through the lens of cultural pluralism. It begins from the premise that while many countries focus in matters of religion and state on addressing the issues of religious minorities, the situation in Israel is the reverse: the focus rests almost exclusively on the Jewish majority and its institutions.
The book presents a legal matrix that lays bare this anomalous Israeli reality by referring to specific constitutional values, arguing that those who present themselves as liberal and multicultural are, in essence, coercive and illiberal.
The book is organized into six chapters. The first addresses the ongoing conflict between religion and state in Israel, highlighting its exclusionary Jewish character. It challenges the assumption held by some scholars that Palestinian Arabs generally exhibit submissiveness and compliance when engaging with the judicial authority vested in their religious institutions, attributing such behavior instead to the conservative social fabric that characterizes this community.
The second chapter outlines the general hypothesis explaining the exclusion of religion-and-state issues among Palestinian Arabs from the broader public discourse on such matters. Recognition accorded to Jewish religious institutions and customs stems from Israel’s official status and thus places them within the public sphere, whereas recognition granted to the religious institutions and customs prevalent among Palestinian Arabs is relegated to the private sphere—treated as a matter concerning a specific minority rather than an issue of concern to the state.
The third chapter sheds light on the individual dilemma arising from the legal status granted to the religious authority of the Palestinian Arab religious communities. This dilemma manifests in the divergent internal norms established and enforced by the various religious sects from which Palestinian Arabs originate, norms that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of these communities—namely, women and children.
The fourth chapter develops this discussion by examining the acute nature of the dilemma facing these individuals. It reveals that the severity of the problem is due to two principal factors: first, that proposed measures to alleviate this dilemma do not apply in Israel because of the way the state envisions itself as a Jewish state; and second, that secular forces among Palestinian Arabs—let alone their religious forces—refrain from initiating reform within their existing judicial authority, which outwardly still reflects a residual form of autonomy.
The fifth chapter refutes the description of the dilemma faced by Palestinian Arabs due to the jurisdiction granted to their religious authorities as an inevitable outcome of cultural pluralism, exposing the fallacy of this characterization. According to a set of criteria defined in the chapter, the judicial authority lacks, in essence, the qualities of cultural pluralism. Instead, it is presented as a “pluralism trap” insofar as it continues to maintain hegemony.
Finally, the sixth chapter addresses the challenge of mitigating the effects of this “trap,” offering a set of recommendations for possible measures in this regard
