Abstract
If justice means equal participation and inclusion, as authors such as Axel Honneth or Nancy Fraser have argued, the question still remains: inclusion in what, and of whom? This question has not been investigated with sufficient attention. Drawing on the example of the experience of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, I address this issue by distinguishing different meanings of equality which correspond to different types of political struggles. In so doing, I re-examine Honneth’s claim that the critical theory of recognition has no room for cultural groups as referents of a potential ‘fourth principle of recognition’ beyond legal equality, the merit principle, and love. It is argued that Honneth’s critique of collective rights neglects crucial differences between the types of groups that exist in modern states, and between the different kinds of struggles for equality waged by those groups.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Note that in this article I cover only Honneth’s version of recognition theory without discussing the works of authors such as James Tully, Will Kymlicka, Kwame Anthony Appiah and many others who have also contributed to this evolving debate.
For alternative voices in the history of Jewish nationalism that defended the creation of a nation-state of ‘Israelis’ including the non-Jewish native inhabitants of Mandate Palestine, see Gans (2008, pp. 13–14).
In early 2010, for example, the Israeli High Court of Justice has granted asylum to a young Arab homosexual from the West Bank town of Nablus, who was persecuted and mistreated by the authorities of his hometown (Zarchin 2010).
In the 2008 municipal elections the voter turnout of the Arab residents of East Jerusalem was only 1.7%.
For empirical evidence, see the websites of Israeli advocacy groups like Ir Amim or Bimkom.
This point has been emphasized, contra Honneth, by Tully (2004; and personal communication).
On the replacement of the friend/foe opposition by the victim/perpetrator opposition in Critical Theory, see Heins (2011).
References
Arendt, Hannah. 2007. Magnus, the conscience of the Jewish people. In Arendt, the Jewish writings, ed. Jerome Klein, and Ron H. Feldman, 451–452. New York: Schocken.
Avineri, Shlomo. 2010. Biladi, Biladi.—what’s in a name? Ha’aretz, 8 September (online version).
Avnon, Dan. 1998. The Israeli basic laws’ (potentially) fatal flaw. Israel Law Review 32: 535–566.
Bilsky, Leora. 2009. ‘Speaking through the mask’: Israeli Arabs and the changing faces of Israeli citizenship. Middle East Law and Governance 1: 166–209.
Boltanski, Luc, and Axel Honneth. 2009. Soziologie der Kritik oder Kritische Theorie? Ein Gespräch mit Robin Celikates. In Was ist Kritik?, ed. Rahel Jaeggi, and Tilo Wesche, 81–114. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Brandes, Tamar Hostovsky. 2009. The voice of the people: Language and state in Israel. In The multicultural challenge in Israel, ed. Avi Sagi, and Ohad Nachtomy, 52–71. Boston: Academic Studies Press.
Chetrit, Sami Shalom. 2010. Intra-Jewish conflict in Israel: White Jews, black Jews. London and New York: Routledge.
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. 2009. Minorities, the formation and transformation of nation-states, and intercivilizational relations: Jewish and Christian minorities in Germany. In Juden und Muslime in Deutschland (Tel Aviv Yearbook of German History 37), ed. José Brunner, and Shai Lavi, 23–31. Göttingen: Wallstein.
Fraser, Nancy. 2003. Social justice in the age of identity politics: Redistribution, recognition, and participation. In Redistribution or recognition? A political-philosophical exchange, ed. Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth (trans: Golb, J. et al.), 7–109. London and New York: Verso.
Gans, Chaim. 2008. A just Zionism: On the morality of the Jewish state. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gordon, Neve. 2008. Israel’s occupation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Habermas, Jürgen. 1998. Struggles for recognition in the democratic state. In The inclusion of the other: Studies in political theory, ed. Habermas, 203–236. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Haushofer, Johannes, Anat Biletzki, and Nancy Kanwisher. 2010. Both sides retaliate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107: 17927–17932.
Heins, Volker. 2011. Beyond friend and foe: The politics of critical theory. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Honneth, Axel. 1995. The struggle for recognition: The moral grammar of social conflicts (trans: Joel Anderson). Cambridge: Polity Press.
Honneth, Axel. 2003. Redistribution as recognition: A response to Nancy Fraser. In Redistribution or recognition? A political-philosophical exchange, ed. Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth (trans: Golb J. et al.), 110–197. London and New York: Verso.
Honneth, Axel. 2007. Recognition as ideology. In Recognition and power: Axel Honneth and the tradition of critical social theory, ed. Bert van den Brink, and David Owen, 323–347. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Honneth, Axel. 2009. Das Gewebe der Gerechtigkeit: Über die Grenzen des zeitgenössischen Prozeduralismus. WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 6: 3–22.
Honneth, Axel. 2010. Das Ich im Wir: Anerkennung als Triebkraft von Gruppen. In Das Ich im Wir: Studien zur Anerkennungstheorie, ed. Axel Honneth, 261–279. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Jamal, Amal. 2007. Strategies of minority struggle for equality in ethnic states: Arab politics in Israel. Citizenship Studies 11: 263–282.
Khoury, Jack. 2009. Education ministry requires “positive view” of Israel for top postings within Arab community. Ha’aretz, 3 December (online version)
Kimmerling, Baruch. 2001. The invention and decline of Israeliness: State, society, and the military. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Kolers, Avery. 2009. Land, conflict, and justice: A political theory of territory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kundnani, Arun. 2007. The end of tolerance: Racism in 21st century Britain. London: Pluto Press.
Mavroudi, Elizabeth. 2010. Imagining a shared state in Palestine-Israel. Antipode 42: 152–178.
Morris, Benny. 2009. One state, two states: Resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Obama, Barack. 2010. Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/23/remarks-president-united-nations-general-assembly.
Owen, David. 2007. Self-government and democracy as reflexive co-operation: On Honneth’s social and political ideal. In Recognition and Power, ed. Bert Van den Brink, and David Owen, 290–320. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pinto, Meital. 2007. On the intrinsic value of Arabic in Israel: Challenging Kymlicka on language rights. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 20: 143–172.
Shachar, Ayelet. 2009. The birthright lottery: Citizenship and global inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Susser, Leslie. 2010. The two-state, one-state hora. Jerusalem Post, 31 August (online version).
Tibi, Ahmad. 2010. The other citizens of Israel. New York Times, 21 October (online version).
Tully, James. 2004. Recognition and dialogue: The emergence of a new field. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 7(3): 84–106.
Yiftachel, Oren. 2006. Ethnocracy: Land and identity politics in Israel/Palestine. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Zarchin, Tomer. 2010. Court: Palestinian persecuted for homosexuality can stay in Israel. Ha’aretz, 11 January (online version).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Heins, V. Three Meanings of Equality: The ‘Arab Problem’ in Israel. Res Publica 18, 79–91 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-012-9187-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-012-9187-1