By Rachel Havrelock
Because the web site of a number of miracles within the Jewish and Christian traditions, the Jordan is likely one of the world’s holiest rivers. it's also the key political and symbolic border contested by means of Israelis and Palestinians. Combining biblical and folkloric stories with old geography, Rachel Havrelock explores how the complicated non secular and mythological representations of the river have formed the present clash within the heart East.Havrelock contends that the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian clash stems from the nationalist myths of the Hebrew Bible, the place the Jordan is outlined as a border of the Promised Land. either Israelis and Palestinians declare the Jordan as an important boundary of an indivisible place of origin. interpreting the Hebrew Bible along historical and glossy maps of the Jordan, Havrelock chronicles the evolution of Israel’s borders in keeping with nationalist myths whereas uncovering extra myths that envision Israel as a bi-national nation. those different myths, she proposes, supply roadmaps for destiny political configurations of the state. formidable and masterful in its scope, River Jordan brings a clean, provocative standpoint to the continued fight during this violence-riddled sector.
Read or Download River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line PDF
Best israel & palestine books
Britain and the Conflict in the Middle East, 1964-1967: The Coming of the Six-Day War
During this finished research, Gat seems at British coverage within the interval best as much as the Six-Day struggle. even supposing Britain holds heart degree during this account, the research discusses in a few aspect American coverage and its impact at the Arab-Israeli clash. It additionally makes a speciality of the center East water dispute, its effect on destiny occasions, and at last the outbreak of conflict in 1967.
Uneasy Neighbors: Israel and the European Union
This publication deals an research of the dynamics of Israeli-European relatives and discusses major advancements in that dating from the overdue Nineteen Fifties via to the current day. The emphasis is put on 5 vast issues that tackle diverse dimensions of the connection: 1) Israeli-E. U. family members and the Israeli-Palestinian peace procedure; 2) Israeli-E.
Trial and Error: Israel's Route from War to De-Escalation (S U N Y Series in Israeli Studies)
"By delivering a fascinating linkage among Israel's overseas coverage habit and adjustments and adjustments in Israeli household politics, Levy is supplying a provocative thesis that merits huge readership. i've got doubtless that a few readers will applaud Levy's braveness and thesis, and that others will just do the other.
Extra resources for River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line
Sample text
The Euphrates maps offer a glimpse of an unfulfilled vision of military strength and imperial influence. This vision runs alongside the insistence that the Jordan distinguishes the land from foreign lands. No matter the informing map, the east bank is always the other side of the Jordan and the Israelites cross over to enact a return. Whereas the Jordan map presents an image of the land that corresponds to social dichotomies, the Euphrates map generates tension between these dichotomies and the boundary of the land.
The Euphrates also plays a central role in the Babylonian world map. ” A. R. Millard, “Cartography in the Ancient Near East,” –. . The Mediterranean Sea operates less prominently in the biblical imaginary. Where rivers like the Jordan and the Euphrates represent limits, the sea indicates a lack of differentiation akin to the chaos that precedes creation. As evident in biblical allusions and exegetical expansions, the Mediterranean figures as a place beyond boundaries where the edges of creation fray.
Nili Wazana advises understanding both the Priestly and the Deuteronomistic maps as literary creations, not accounts of where the People of Israel actually lived. I would add that because the borders shifted according to changing political and historical conditions, the Priestly and the Deuteronomistic maps are best seen in terms of distinct theories of the nation. By listing coordinates and emphasizing clear bound. Along with the exile to Babylon, Judeans seem to have fled to Egypt in the wake of the Babylonian attacks of and .