Abstract

More than any other recent work of Israeli fiction, Yehoshua’s The Liberated Bride presents readers with the reality of the dissimilar status between Israeli Arab citizens and the stateless Palestinians of the occupied territories, the severe consequences that result from legal prohibitions that prevent Palestinians from the territories from residing in Israel, and other factors that divide Arabs and Israelis (including both racial bias and terrorism). Underscoring the impossibility of ever reconciling the incompatibilities of Zionist ideals with the tragic outcomes of decades of occupation, the novel also raises disquieting questions about the fate of Israel’s own Arab citizens and their sense of estrangement. Though there are famous instances of Arab characters earlier in Hebrew literature, few writers before Yehoshua really plunged their Jewish protagonists directly into the society and culture of Palestinians themselves; though the novel refuses to console the reader with any prospect of easy remedies on the horizon, the empathic worldview displayed by his imagined community of scholars affirms the essential at-homeness of the Jew in the Arab world in historical and contemporary contexts.

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