Book Series: Israel/Palestine Studies
A series of four book talks cosponsored by The Crown Family Center for Jewish and Israel Studies, The Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, and The Middle East and North African Studies Program.
1) Wednesday, September 30, 2026
“Colonial Constructs: Stone, Cement, Labor, and Race in Modern Palestine/Israel”
Nimrod Ben Zeev, Lecturer in the Department of Labor Studies, Tel Aviv University
12:30 - 2:00pm
Kresge Hall, Room 1515
For over a century, construction has been at the heart of the struggle over Palestine/Israel. The ability to build on the land, the capacity to extract materials from it, and the development of economic and technological dominance in the construction industry were all central to Palestinian and Zionist ambitions to establish modern national communities. Construction also contributed to cementing a colonial social hierarchy among Jews and Palestinians, as racialized notions of skill, ability, and human needs shaped divisions of labor within the industry and the built environments. From the vantage points of the construction site, cement factory, workers' encampment, self-built home, and boardroom, Colonial Constructs provides a new perspective on the Zionist-Palestinian conflict. Here, the materiality of the land itself—the rocks that underlie it and the buildings and infrastructure that construct it—take center stage. Following the experiences and aspirations of those who labored to excavate, manufacture, and build, Nimrod Ben Zeev tracks the interplay between construction work, the construction industry, and metaphorical constructions of nation- and state-building, the building and rebuilding of communities, and the construction of social difference.
2) Monday, November 9, 2026
“The Israeli Career of Hummus, Colonial Appropriation, Authenticity, and Distinction ”
Dafna Hirsch, Associate Professor, in the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication, the Open University of Israel
12:30 - 2:00pm
Kresge Hall, room 1515
Lunch will be provided. Register here by Nov. 3
How did hummus become Israel’s foremost culinary passion? This lecture traces the process by which hummus was transformed from an “Arab” or “Oriental” food—either unknown to or disliked by most Zionist settlers prior to the foundation of the state—into a culinary icon and national symbol in contemporary Israel. Scholars have often interpreted the Israeli appropriation of Palestinian foods through the lens of culinary colonialism and cultural erasure. While this perspective illuminates important dimensions of the story, it cannot fully explain the changing consumption patterns and meanings of hummus within Israeli society. Rather than treating food consumption as a direct reflection of political relations, I examine the historical interaction of the culinary, economic, political, and cultural fields in shaping production, consumption, and signification of hummus. I argue that the “Arabness” of hummus functioned not only as an object of erasure but also as a valuable semiotic resource. Across different historical moments, it was mobilized in projects ranging from intimate performances of settler indigenization to the branding strategies of the food industry. At times hummus became “Israeli” through the suppression of its Arab origins; at others, its Arabness was deliberately foregrounded as a marker of authenticity that enhanced the symbolic value of both the food and its consumers. By tracing these shifting meanings, the lecture shows that the cultural history of hummus cannot be understood through the logic of colonial appropriation alone. Rather, it emerges from the dynamic interaction of colonial relations, market forces, culinary discourse, and changing regimes of authenticity.
3) Wednesday, January 6, 2027
“Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine”
Mostafa Hussein, Assistant Professor, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
12:30 - 2:00pm
Location TBA
Lunch will be provided. Register here by Dec. 29
Join author Mostafa Hussein as he explores his book, Hebrew Orientalism, which reexamines the worldview of Jewish thinkers in late Ottoman and British Palestine. Drawing on an expansive archive of Hebrew and Arabic sources, Hussein details how Sephardi and Ashkenazi intellectuals mobilized Arabo-Islamic culture to shape modern Jewish identity and forward their Zionist commitments.
4) Monday, May 10, 2027
“Palestinian Doctors: Medical Practice and the Transformation of Palestine, 1900–1948”
Yoni Furas, Senior Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern History, University of Haifa
12:30 - 2:00pm
Location TBA
Lunch will be provided. Register here by May 3
Palestinian doctors became a dynamic, vocal, influential, and fascinating professional community over the first half of the twentieth century, growing from roughly a dozen on the eve of World War I to 300 in 1948. This study examines the social history of this group during the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods, examining their social and geographic origins, their professional academic training outside Palestine, and their role and agency in the country's medical market. Yoni Furas and Liat Kozma examine doctors' interactions with the rural and urban society and their entangled relationship with the British colonial administration and Jewish doctors. This book also provides an in-depth description of how Palestinian doctors thought and wrote about themselves and their personal, professional, and collective ambitions, underlining the challenges they faced while attempting to unionize. Furas and Kozma tell Palestine's story through the acts and challenges of these doctors, writing them back into the local and regional history.