Description
Cambridge Arab Soccer in a Jewish State The Integrative Enclave 2015 Edition by Tamir Sorek
Over the last two decades soccer has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have attained disproportionate success in this field. Given their marginalisation from many areas of Israeli society as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such a prominent Arab presence highlights the tension between their Israeli citizenship and their belonging to the Palestinian people. Bringing together sociological, anthropological and historical approaches, Sorek examines how soccer can potentially be utilised by ethnic and national minorities as a field of social protest, a stage for demonstrating distinctive identity, or as a channel for social and political integration. Relying on a rich combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, he argues that equality in the soccer sphere legitimises contemporary inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and pursues wider arguments about the role of sport in ethno-national conflicts. Ideal for researchers and graduate students. Table of contents :- 1. Introduction; 2. Sports, modernity and struggle in Palestine; 3. The emergence of the integrative enclave; 4. Soccer and municipal 'labor quiet'; 5. 'These points are Arab': nationalist rhetoric in the sports press; 6. 'Maccabi Haifa is my flag': Arab fans of Jewish teams; 7. The Islamic soccer league; 8. Sakhnin - between soccer and martyrdom; 9. Conclusion.