The Arab Public Sphere in Israel: Media Space and Cultural Resistance »

Amal Jamal is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Tel Aviv University. He is author of The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967—2005 (IUP, 2005) and Media Politics and Democracy in Palestine: Political Culture, Pluralism, and the Palestinian Authority.

In this pathbreaking study, Amal Jamal analyzes the consumption of media by Arab citizens of Israel as a type of communicative behavior and a form of political action. Drawing on extensive public opinion survey data, he describes perceptions and use of media ranging from Arabic Israeli newspapers to satellite television broadcasts from throughout the Middle East. By participating in this semi-autonomous Arab public sphere, the average Arab citizen can connect with a wider Arab world beyond the boundaries of the Israeli state. Jamal shows how media aid the community's ability to resist the state's domination, protect its Palestinian national identity, and promote its civic status.

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction 1

1 Media Space, Political Control, and Cultural Resistance 11

2 The Indigenous Arab Minority in the Israeli State 29

3 Israeli Media Policies toward the Arab Minority 39

4 Arabic Media Space in the Jewish State: Seeking New Communicative Action 61

5 Arabic Print Media and the New Culture of Newspaper Reading 73

6 Resisting Cultural Imperialism: Alienation and Strategic Reading of the Hebrew Press 96

7 Electronic Media and the Strategy of In-Betweenness 107

Conclusion 127

Notes 137

Bibliography 157

Index 175