Situational Radicalism: The Israeli "Arab Spring" and the (Un)Making of the Rebel City

Monterescu and Shaindlinger analyze the emergence of political subjectivity in the Israeli Spring (an overlooked moment in the Arab Uprisings, in which Israeli's and Palestinians expressed solidarity with the movements in the surrounding countries). They argue that the potentially revolutionary subject of "the sovereign people" was empty in this case (not to mention that other similar symbols/signifiers lost their concreteness) and these emptied symbols failed to provide the impetus to keep the movements moving. The movement's exclusion (or maybe even movements' exclusions!) of alternate political identities ("alterities") undermined the movement's potential for radical change. Although it claimed to represent 'the people,' a dominant majority imposed its identity on minorities, either speaking for them or excluding them entirely -- thus undermining the pluralistic and radical qualities that the movement purported to represent. Adapted from the source document.