Am Scheideweg

Critics of the state of Israel and its settlement policy quickly come under suspicion of antisemitism - including the prominent Jewish philosopher Judith Butler. In her new book, Butler explores how a critique of Zionism can emerge from within Judaism itself, and indeed is ethically imperative. Through a compelling engagement with Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Lévinas, Walter Benjamin, Primo Levi, and the Palestinians Edward Said and Mahmoud Darwish, she develops a new Jewish ethics that opposes the state violence exercised by Israel and legitimized by Zionism, as well as Israel's colonial oppression of populations. This ethics advocates for the rights of the oppressed, for the recognition of the Other, and for questioning Jewish sovereignty as the sole frame of reference for Israeli state policy.