Counterfactual Israels: Zionism, Nation-Building, and Indigeneity in Contemporary Jewish Writing

This article examines three works by Jewish writers that offer a counterfactual narrative of the establishment of Israel: Nava Semel’s
IsraIsle
(2006), Michael Chabon’s
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
(2007), and Lavie Tidhar’s
Unholy Land
(2018). Focusing on indigenous experiences of settlercolonialism, these novels use alternate histories to examine a Jewish identity not exclusively defined by Zionism. This, in turn, creates a sense of empathy, or at least sympathy, with Palestinians and Palestinian history, and opens up a space for critiquing Israel’s actions in the contemporary period, while exploring the implications of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians on Jewish, and Israeli-Jewish, identities today.