This is a psychosocial research project investigating ‘national identity’ amongst middle class Jewish-Israelis in Britain. Its aim is to map key contents and highlight social categories that subjects draw on in their construction of ‘national identity’ and to study how they negotiate these categories and contents when narrating a story of ‘who they are’ as Israelis in Britain. The first part of the thesis provides historical and theoretical background to the study of national identities, with a focus on Jewish-Israeli identity in the context of Zionism. An empirical study is then presented, in which twelve Israelis living in London were interviewed in depth about their views on Israeli national identity, what it meant personally to them to be ‘an Israeli’, and what it meant to be ‘an Israeli in London’. Interviews were transcribed and a critical narrative approach was used to analyze the resulting texts, taking account of reflexive interview processes as well as exploring links with the broader cultural and political context. The findings reveal the elasticity and fluidity of ‘Israeli identity’. Subjects drew on a shared cultural reservoir - Zionist images, preconceptions and signifiers - to describe their personalized experience of belonging to or alienation from an acceptable notion of ‘Israeliness’ while living abroad. ‘Israeli identity’ was constructed against stereotypical images of ‘the others’ which, at times, applied racist discourse. Subjects constructed ‘Israeliness’ differently depending on the context they referred to (e.g. Israeli or British society). Each context had its distinct ‘others’. Within the British context Israeliness was constructed against the images of ‘the local Jews’, the ‘English’ and the ‘local Arabs and Muslims’. Constructing an Israeli identity was also influenced by the social position that subjects were implicated in, in relation to their class, ethnicity, gender, or occupation. This also shaped their experience of dislocation in Britain. Most of the participants conformed with a mainstream perspective on Israeli nationalism and refrained from criticizing it. This was interpreted as a discourse reflecting their privileged socio-cultural position in Israel and their commitment to a Zionist ethos which condemns emigration. Such a portrayal of Israeliness both initiated and contributed to a sense of unsettledness characteristic of this middle-class group. Subjects moved back and forth between two identificatory positions (‘Ha’aretz’ and ‘Israel’) as their points of identification constantly changed. The research contributes to the analysis of nationalism phenomena and associated concepts such as diaspora and belonging among a middle class group of migrants. It outlines cultural, material and political forces that sustain nationalism yet also demonstrates ways through which subjects negotiate or resist the discourses and social categories offered to them for the construction of a ‘national identity’.

This thesis examines issues of intimacy, emotion and love in relationships that Tarablin Bedouins make with each other, as well as with tourists who come to the Sinai. Its analysis is qualitative its method is participant observation and involvement and its perspective is gendered, situated among women in a sexually segregated society. It considers ethnographic as well as Bedouin concepts and categories of love. Using several stories, it analyzes sexual development and the gendered nature of knowledge. It considers the invisibility of the female in theories of honour and shame which conventionally frame our understanding of Arab social structure, and compares this perspective with the Tarablin practice of invisibility. It looks at boundaries of social space between Bedouins and foreigners, and between men and women.

This thesis explores the role of anti-Semitism in the ideology of the ‘Legion of the Archangel Michael’, the only lasting mass movement in Romanian history and the third largest fascist organisation in Europe. The legionary movement’s revolutionary character and rejection of democratic institutions, its ideological emphasis on a project of ‘regeneration’ of the nation, its ultra-nationalism, and its populist propaganda style allow us to include it within the category of generic fascism, as defined by Roger Griffin. One of the commonplaces in theories of fascism argues that it was, as an ideology, better defined by what it stood against than what it stood for. By analysing the relationship between the legionary movement’s fascist character and its anti- Semitism, the present research seeks to link the two. Thus, this thesis argues for the centrality of the representation of ‘the Jew’ in legionary ideology, seen as a locus of displacement of the real problems facing the rapidly modernising Romanian society and at the same time a rationalisation of its desired state. The entire fascist project of complete transformation of the country found its equally synthetic negative in the movement’s representation of the Jewish community. The analysis of legionary anti-Semitism and its connection with the movement’s fascist character is carried out through the lens of the ‘new consensus’ in theories of fascism, as well as with the help of a methodology indebted mostly to psychoanalytic theory and its adaptations to the understanding of social phenomena by discourse theory. Backed up by research on previously unexplored archival sources, the present thesis combines in an interdisciplinary approach the study of the historical conditions and psychological factors affecting the rise of anti-Semitism in interwar Romania, and allows an exploration of the dynamics of fear and fantasy visible in the legionary representation of the ‘Jew’.

This study is an ethnographic account of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki and a description and analysis of oral histories gathered during my fieldwork in 1994. The thesis looks at the intersection of history, memory, and identity by analysing how identities and memories are shaped by historical experiences and how identities shape memories of historical experiences. Thessaloniki has undergone tremendous changes in the twentieth century. The demographic, political, and architectural landscape has radically altered. In the context of my thesis, the most relevant changes concern the ethnic and religious composition of Thessaloniki's population, the city's incorporation into the Greek nation-state (1912), the subsequent introduction of nationalism, and the annihilation of 48,000 Salonikan Jews during the Second World War. The thesis explores how these historical changes and 'events' are represented in individual narratives of Jews in Thessaloniki and in the realm of Jewish communal memory, how these historical changes have affected the formulations of Jewish communal and individual identity and memory, and how Jewish memory relates to the general landscape of memory in contemporary Greece. In chapters one and two, I discuss the theoretical framework and methodology of this thesis. Discussions on ethnicity, nationalism, memory, and certain themes of the 'anthropology of Greece' form the theoretical background of this study. The methodology applied consists of ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviewing. Chapter three presents a historical overview of the history of Thessaloniki and its Jewish community, and discusses the position of minorities in contemporary Greece. I describe the current structure and organisation of the community and look at some demographic developments of the Salonikan Jewish population in chapter four. I then proceed to a detailed account of the interviews which constitutes the main part of the thesis. Chapter five deals with the pre-war past, chapters six and seven with the experience of the war, and chapter eight with the post-war period. In chapter nine I look at perception of boundaries and notions of 'us' and 'them' among Salonikan Jews. In the conclusions, I examine the changes of post-war Jewish memorial practices in the context of the changing 'memory-scape' of the city of Thessaloniki.

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The thesis makes a contribution to the study of the history of modern Scotland, and examines the history of an ethno-religious community in Scotland's capital. It also adds to British-Jewish historiography. The study commences with a brief outline of the origins of Edinburgh Jewry, before proceeding to an account beginning with the arrival of thousands of Jewish immigrants in the latter half of the nineteenth-century, and concluding with the decline of the community which marked the period after the Second World War. The thesis has three main aims: firstly, it seeks to illuminate the circumstances in which Jewish immigrants to the city found themselves in the period 1880-1914; secondly, it aims to explore the manner in which this community adapted and integrated into Edinburgh society in the following decades; and thirdly, it seeks to evaluate the nature of Jewish/non-Jewish interactions throughout the period under discussion. While the focus of the study is to a large extent 'local,' it is intended that the national and international connections of the community under study do not go unacknowledged. The thesis proceeds in a largely chronological format. A strong thematic element will also be apparent, broaching such topics as: Jewish economic activity, education and social mobility, religion and culture, and issues of assimilation and acculturation. The majority of the thesis is concerned with a period spanning some 70 years, during which time there was mass emigration from Russia, technological advancement in transport and in all walks of life, two world wars, and genocide targeting Europe's Jews. It is necessary, therefore, to incorporate these events in a manner relevant to the study. The thesis uses a wide variety of source material, including a broad range of primary sources to argue that, like its counterparts across Britain, from its genesis Edinburgh's immigrant Jewish community was engaged in a struggle both to integrate and to maintain its distinctiveness. It will be argued that in many respects the Edinburgh Jewish experience bears great similarities to broader trends in British Jewry. It will also be argued that the story of Edinburgh's Jews is to some extent unique.

The Palestinian people form a nation with a rich culture and unity, but they are scattered throughout the world with no state of their own. This ‘stateless’ condition has a direct impact on Palestinians’ media consumption and media production. The reality in the region is harsh; conflicts within and without prevent journalists from operating freely. It is in this point that the problem lies: the Palestinians need for information is pressing, but as it is a conflict area there are major obstacles that impede media outlets from distributing news that would answer demands for consistency, accuracy and, most importantly, for real time updates. As the findings show, the revolution in new technology has answered the Palestinians’ demands for reception of news from home. The availability of hundreds of news websites has eased the diasporic Palestinians’ ability to access information; a fact which is highly important at times of major news events. The Palestinians in the diaspora are an active audience. They create websites and blogs to disseminate their personal stories and to receive updates from Gaza and the West Bank from the people who live there. The new technologies are bypassing geographical distance and editorial guidelines and they help to overcome the news problem, which was significant before the WWW revolution, overcoming delays to enable the immediate dissemination of news. Interestingly enough, the Israeli media is a major information source for diasporic Palestinians. The main reasons for using Israeli media are: their professionalism and the will to understand the Israelis’ point of view. The researcher is an ‘outsider’ researcher. The benefits, in this respect, are there is a lack of the constraints that a Palestinian researcher might have. This study has contributed to knowledge in the fields of diaspora studies, adding to knowledge on those diasporic groups that strive for independence and live in conflicted spheres, and in the fields of new media and Arab media through Palestinians’ utilisation of new media for political ends, and the expansion of their social networks, which serve as transnational meeting places.

The purpose of this dissertation is to contrast the differing responses to early political anti-Semitism by Arthur Schnitzler and Jakob Wassermann. By drawing on Schnitzler’s primary material, it becomes clear that he identified with certain characters in Der Weg ins Freie and Professor Bernhardi. Having established this, it is possible to trace the development of Schnitzler’s stance on the so-called ‘Jewish Question’: a concept one may term enlightened apolitical individualism. Enlightened for Schnitzler’s rejection of Jewish orthodoxy, apolitical because he always remained strongly averse to politics in general, and individualism because Schnitzler felt there was no general solution to the Jewish problem, only one for every individual. For him, this was mainly an ethical, not a political issue; and he defends his individualist position in Professor Bernhardi. Wassermann’s approach is entirely different. In the early stages of his literary career, he attempted to prove his authenticity as a German author by writing ‘Volksromane’ of Franconia. In the course of the First World War, he began to identify more strongly with his Jewish side. Already before the war, Wassermann had developed the notion of the Orientale, inspired by Nietzsche’s ‘Übermensch’: a charismatic leader of Jewish origin who would eventually reconcile the German and Jewish cultures. In the 1920’s, this figure was infused with elements of Christian and Jewish belief, notably self-sacrifice for one’s fellow man. Like Nietzsche, Wassermann offers a primarily aesthetic solution to a cultural, social, and political problem. This fusion of traditional and modern elements is representative for literary modernism as a whole, which cannot be categorised simply as ‘progressive’ or ‘conservative’. Comparing Schnitzler and Wassermann yields fascinating and rewarding results, as each author provides a unique perspective on the highly complex question of Jewish identity in Vienna in the early-20th century.

This thesis explores the politics of self-organising of the Eritrean community in Milan and investigates the interconnections between postcoloniality, migration, difference and organising. Postcoloniality is seen as a crucial time-space for contemporary forms of organising. I employ a postcolonial approach not only to understand the historical environment in which my research is placed but also to imagine new forms of organising that involve migrants in Europe. I approach the problem of organising by engaging with literature on diversity management and multiculturalism. Moving from a critique of these practices I look for alternative forms of organising – specifically inside social movements – and ask what the effects of bringing postcolonial critique to bear organisational practices are and what does it mean to organise in a postcolonial way. Oral history, the methodology I use, shares with postcolonial studies the attempt of deconstructing a homogenous approach to history, giving value instead to subjectivity and to radical conflicts around heterogeneity. I examine the history of the Eritrean community in Milan from the vantage point of the lives of Eritrean migrants and second generations and I argue that two interrelated activities shaped their politics: practices of self-organisation in everyday life and the diasporic organization when dealing with politics concerning Eritrea. An analysis of this interrelation brings me to discuss what self-organising looks like in postcoloniality and what is the role of difference in it. While difference has often been connected to identities, I argue that the experience of the Eritreans in Milan suggests looking at difference as defined by practices. Difference comes to be a constituent divergence that rejects relativism and comparison. By thinking the relationship between postcoloniality and organization the thesis aims to contribute to the imagination of new forms of organising among differences.