Abstract
In recent years, religion, belief systems, sacred sites, and the desecularization of the world have gained attention in studies ranging from political and cultural geography to sociology, anthropology, and political sciences. This chapter is located at the intersection of some of these debates. It explores the relevance of the sacred in contemporary life and the importance of religion and religious landscape in sustaining personal and group identity. Specifically, it examines the role of sacred sites among minority groups as a locus of identity formation, collective memory, self-empowerment, and indeed resistance. This chapter focuses on the ways in which minority Islamic sacred sites in Israel serve as spatial metaphors. Through an analysis of the transformations of an Islamic sacred site (maqam) in the north (and periphery) of Israel, this chapter follows the ways politics of identity and minority group resistance are being performed and enacted through the sacred. Adopting a neo-Gramscian approach, this chapter reinforces the theoretical notion that landscape is essentially a political, cultural, and ideological endeavor which is rarely to be found in equilibrium. It directly addresses majority-minority relations in contemporary Israel and what seems to be a growing source of conflict in Israeli society – the evolution of a more elaborate, informed, and outspoken Palestinian identity among Arab-Israeli citizens.
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Notes
- 1.
“Us” being in this case the Jewish majority.
- 2.
This is a small tribute to Harvey’s powerful cultural-political analysis of an iconic landmark, Harvey (1979).
- 3.
Misgav Regional Council entails also six Bedouin villages.
- 4.
For lack of better word, I use the European term fiefdom. However, it should be noted that the Islamic grant system of land was not similar to the European one.
- 5.
I think Nora is oversimplifying here as to the power-knowledge complexities of writing history, but his discussion opens up the debate about these distinctions.
- 6.
This is the only political party in the Israeli parliament which advances the concept of full Arab-Jewish cooperation and promotes the idea of Israel as state of all its citizens as opposed to the current definition of a Jewish and a democratic state.
- 7.
I am particularly referring to the consumption of alcoholic beverages and social encounters in a mixed company which are by and large condemned in local traditional Arab communities.
- 8.
She asked me that after she discovered that I lived in one of the new Jewish villages nearby.
- 9.
It might be argued that it is not against me that they resist but rather internal politics among the minority group and particularly male domination. I as an outsider might not be their frame of reference, and therefore, no such claims or statements were made.
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Luz, N. (2013). Metaphors to Live by: Identity Formation and Resistance Among Minority Muslims in Israel. In: Hopkins, P., Kong, L., Olson, E. (eds) Religion and Place. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4685-5_4
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