Avi-ram Tzoreff in conversation with Georges Khalil about his new book on R. Binyamin, his take on binationalism, (counter-)zionism and how this relates to current historiographical and political debates within Israel.
"Yehoshua Radler-Feldman, known by his pseudonym R. Binyamin (1880-1957) was a Galician-born, observant Jew, a prominent figure in modern Hebrew literature and journalism, and, although a committed Zionist himself, a sharp critic of the Zionist settler-colonial repertoire of perceptions and practices. He was one of the prominent figures in the movements that called for the establishment of a joint Jewish-Arab political framework during the British mandatory period and criticized the Zionist alliance with and reliance on the British colonial authorities. He also turned against the secular Zionist notion of an exclusive sovereign that reclaimed Biblical Jewish existence in Palestine, while he adhered to traditional Jewish notions of existence in Palestine, Eretz Yisrael, which enabled him to explore the notion of binational existence. Following the establishment of the state of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba, he founded the journal Ner, which served to voice the demand for the return of the Palestinian refugees, and where various representatives of those Palestinians who remained inside the state of Israel (48 Palestinians) published their articles as well."
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