Constructing Sovereign Jews

• In Event: 1948 and Beyond: Carving an Israeli identity

Abstract

The young Israeli state’s dependence on the support of great powers, and the considerable cultural and political influence of other nations on it, have led some scholars to question whether Israel was really a sovereign state in its early years.
The paper portrays the political and legal regime of Israel in its early years as the product of three factors: the conscious political effort of the Zionist movement; a nation-building process, which was a vast cultural endeavour aimed at constructing a new sovereign Jew; and decolonization in a territory where the British legacy still had significant political and legal influence.
I argue that notwithstanding its dependence on great powers and the Jewish Diaspora, and despite its weakness on the international stage, Israel displayed a not insignificant measure of political independence. On the level of intra-Jewish consciousness - meaning how reality was experience by contemporary Jews - the achievement was even greater. Diaspora Jews saw the establishment of the state as a transformative moment in Jewish history; its Jewish citizens felt that they were achieving political liberty. Israelis, I will argue acquired a new sovereign identity.

Author

• Orit Rozin, Tel Aviv University