Yonatan Mendel
CV and List of Publications
Personal details
Name: Yonatan Mendel
Email:
Languages: Hebrew, English and Arabic
Higher Education
PhD 2007-2012Cambridge University, Department of Middle Eastern Studies. Thesis title: “Arabic Studies
in Israeli-Jewish Society: In the Shadow of Political Conflict”. Supervisor: Prof. Yasir Suleiman (Head – Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Director of Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies).
MSc. 2005-2006University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), MSc. in Middle East
Politics. Graduated with Merit. MA thesis title: “Jerusalem: Between Physical Separation and Formulas of Unification”. Supervisor: Prof. Charles Tripp.
BA2001-2004Tel Aviv University, Middle Eastern Studies
and Political Sciences (joint BA programme). Graduated with Merit.
Teaching2003-2004Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Education, the
Diploma in Arabic studies programme. Graduated Cum
Arabiclaude
Employment and Research – Academic Institutions
2015-PresentPost-Doc Researcher, Daʿat Hamakom – I-CORE in the Study of Modern Jewish Culture, The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
2015-PresentDirector, Manarat: Centre for Jewish-Arab Relations, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
2012-PresentResearch Associate, Al-Waleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge
2012-PresentEditor of the Book Review Section, Journal of Levantine Studies, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
2014-2015Post-Doc Researcher, The Franz Rosenzweig Research Centre for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2013-2014Teaching Fellow, The Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University
2013-2014Teaching Fellow, Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2011-2014Director of Projects, the Mediterranean Studies Unit, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
2011-2013Post-Doc Researcher, The Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2010Teaching fellow, the Department of Languages and Cultures,SOAS, University of London
2008-2010Supervisor of two BA Arabic courses, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
Employment – Non-Academic institutions
2016-PresentHead of the Arabic Programme for intermediary schools, Mofet’s network, HaKfar HaYarok
2015-PresentResearch Associate, The Forum for Regional Thinking
2009-2010Hebrew Teacher, Spiro Ark, London.
2006-2007Correspondent on Middle Eastern Affairs, Walla! News Israel
2004-2006Intervention Coordinator, the Occupied Territories Department, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
2003-2004Arabic teacher at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnsium, Tel Aviv
2001-2004Hebrew teacher at Hassan Arafe elementary School, Jaffa
2000-2001Hebrew Instructor, the Jewish-Arab Bilingual School, Jerusalem
Reviewer for Journals and Academic Presses
Ad-hoc reviewer for Cambridge University Press, African and Middle Eastern Studies
Ad-hoc reviewer for Theory and Criticism (in Hebrew: Teʾoria ve-Bikoret)
Ad-hoc reviewer for Language Policy (articles on the Arabic language)
Scientific Publications
Books
Yonatan Mendel and Ronald Ranta, From the Arab Other to the Israeli Self: Palestinian Culture in the Making of Israeli National Identity (London: Routledge, 2016)
Yonatan Mendel, The Creation of Israeli Arabic: Political and Security Consideration in the Making of Arabic Language Studies in Israel, Palgrave Studies in Languages at War (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] “Latin of the Middle East”: On the Influence of German Orientalism on the Field of Arabic Language Studies in British Mandate Palestine, Heksherei Iyun ve-Bikoret – Theory and Criticism in Context Series (Jerusalem: Van Leer and Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meʾuchad, forthcoming, 2018)
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] From Local to Foreign: 100 Years of Arabic Studies in the Jewish Community in Palestine-Israel (Jerusalem: Van Leer and Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Me’uchad, forthcoming, 2017) [Translation from the original English, with updated introduction and epilogue for the Hebrew reader]
Edited Books and Volumes
Yonatan Mendel and Abeer al-Najjar (eds.) Between the Lines: Language, Politics and Society in the Middle East– Edited Volume in Honour of Prof. Yasir Suleiman (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming, 2017)
Yfaat Weiss and Yonatan Mendel (eds.) Naharaim – Journal of German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History 10 (1), special issue on “German Orientalism in British Mandate Palestine” (forthcoming, 2017)
Bruno De Nicola, Yonatan Mendel, and Husain Qutbuddin (eds), Reflections on Knowledge and Language in Middle Eastern Societies (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010)
Chapters in Collective Volumes
Yonatan Mendel, “Drawing Palestine, Drawing Israel: Going Beyond Separation”, in B. Bashir and A. Dakwar (eds.) Rethinking the Politics of Israel/Palestine: Partition and its Alternative, Vienna: BKF for International Dialogue, 2015, pp. 45-49.
Yonatan Mendel, “Re-Arabising the De-Arabised: The Mistaʿaravim Unit of the Palmach,” in A. Bernard, Z. Elmarsafy, and D. Attwell (eds.)Orientalism: Thirty Years Later, PalegraveMacmillan, 2013, pp. 94-116
Yonatan Mendel and Ilan Manor, “Walking a Tightrope: Jewish Religious Broadcasting in Israeli Television”, in: Khaled Hroub (ed.), Religious Broadcasting in the Middle East, New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press, 2012, pp. 173-194
Yonatan Mendel and Ronald Ranta, “Israeli Dual Skepticism”, in: Roy Calne and William O’Reilly (eds.)On Skepticism, The World Philosophy Series, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2012, pp. 407-417
Refereed Articles in Scientific Journals
Yonatan Mendel, “German Orientalism, ArabicGrammar and the Jewish Education System: TheOrigins and Effect of Martin Plessner’s ‘Theory ofArabic Grammar’”, Naharaim (forthcoming, 2017)
Yonatan Mendel, Dafna Yitzhki and Meital Pinto [in Hebrew] ‘On Arabic in Israel: Seven Decades, Second Foreign Language, One Distorted Status’, Gilui Daʿat (forthcoming, 2016)
Yonatan Mendel, “From German philology to local usability: The emergence of ‘practical’ Arabic in the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa”, Middle Eastern Studies 52 (1), 2016, pp. 1-26.
Yonatan Mendel, “Overcoming Phobias and Asymmetries in Israel and Palestine”, Mediterranean Politics 21 (3), 2016, pp. 442-446 (special issue on “Prospects for the Israeli-Palestinian Relations: What Lies Ahead”)
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] “Arabic Language in Israel”, Mafteʾakh: Lexical Review of Political Thought9 (2015), pp. 31-52
Yonatan Mendel and Ronald Ranta, “Consuming Palestine: Palestine and Palestinians in Israeli Food Culture”, Ethnicities 14 (3), 2014, pp. 412-435
Yonatan Mendel, “A Sentiment-Free Arabic: On theCreation of the Israeli Accelerated ArabicLanguage Studies Programme”, Middle Eastern Studies 49 (3), 2013, pp. 383-401
Yonatan Mendel, “New Jerusalem: On the Israeli Capital Metropolitan Disorder”, New Left Review 81, June 2013, pp. 35-56
Yonatan Mendel and Alexa Steinberg, “The Museological Side of the Conflict: Israeli Exhibition of Terror and the Palestinian Museum of Prisoners”, Museums and Society 9 (3) November 2011, pp. 190-213
Yonatan Mendel, “White Flag of Resistance: Review Essay of Emile Habibi’s The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist”, New Middle Eastern Studies 1, 2011, pp. 1-6
Yonatan Mendel,“The Politics of Non-Translation: On Israeli Translations of Intifada, Shahid, Hudna, and Islamic Movements”, Cambridge Literary Review 1 (3) Easter 2010, pp. 197-206
Yonatan Mendel [in Arabic] “Terminology and Truth Camouflage in Israeli Media”Institute for Palestine Studies 19 (73), Winter 2008, p. 150-156.
Selected Book Reviews
Yonatan Mendel [in Arabic] “A Different Israeli Literature: Review Essay onTomer Gardi’s “Stone, Paper” and Noam Hayut’s “My Holocaust Thief” (in Arabic: أدب اسرائيلي اخر), in: Al-Mashhad al-Israʾili and Madar: The Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies, 2012.
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew]Review on “Sedek: A Journal on the Ongoing Nakba”, National Identities 13, no. 1, March 2011, 103-106
Yonatan Mendel,Review on “Jews and Muslims in the Arab World: Haunted by Pasts Real and Imagined”, Jacob Lassner and Ilan Troen, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 36 (2) August 2009, pp. 332-333
Yonatan Mendel,“Overcoming Zionism”, Joel Kovel, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 37 (2), August 2010, pp. 222-223
Literary and Non-Scientific Publications
Selected novels translated
Salman Natour, A Journey over Journey (سلمان ناطور, سفر على سفر), translated to Hebrew from the original Arabic (Tel Aviv: ʿOlam Ḥadash publishing, forthcoming 2017)
Ala Hlehel, AuRevoir Akka (علاء حليحل, اورفوار عكا), translated to Hebrew from the original Arabic (Tel Aviv: Am Oved publishing, forthcoming 2017)
Selected Articles in Non-Refereed Journals (op-ed articles in Haaretz, Local Call, Walla News and +972 are not included)
Yonatan Mendel, “Divide and Divide and Divide and Rule: Review Essay Hillel Cohen and the Israeli-Arab Conflict”, London Review of Books 38 (19) October 2016, pp. 13-16
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] “102 Answers to what is Being Palestinian”, Review of Yasir Suleiman’s Being Palestinian (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016),Haaretz Books, June 12 2016
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] “Jibril Rajoub and the Palestinian Football Association as Alternative to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority”, Liberal Magazine, January 11 2016
Yonatan Mendel, “The Israeli Elections Again”, London Review of Books 37 (6), March 2015, pp. 50-51
Yonatan Mendel [in Hebrew] “Arabic Studies in Israeli Society: Chronicles of a Weakening Foretold”, The Social History Workshop, Haaretz,February 2 2014
Yonatan Mendel, “Diary: On Israeli Election Day”, London Review of Books 35 (4), February 2013, pp. 38-39
Yonatan Mendel,“Kill Him First: On the Hijacking of Sacred Texts for Political Purposes in Israel”, Jewish Quarterly, Winter 2010, no. 216, pp. 11-13
Yonatan Mendel, “The Limits of Normalisation” (in Arabic: حدود التطبيع), Al-Hayat 20.10.2010 (reprinted in Courrier International, 10.11.2010)
Yonatan Mendel, “Fantasising Israel: On Tel Aviv Centenary”, London Review of Books, 31 (12), July 2009, pp. 28-29 (reprinted in Internazionale)
Yonatan Mendel, “Imagined Territories – a book review of Eyal Weizman’s The Hollow Land – Israel’s Architecture of Occupation”, London Review of Books, 29 (15) pp. 13-15
Yonatan Mendel, “Frozen Out: On Israeli Orientalism”, in The Guardian (Orientalism at 30), 17.6.2008.
Yonatan Mendel, “On Israeli Media and the Language of Occupation”, London Review of Books, 30 (5), March 2008, pp. 30-31
Selected Presentations at Invited Seminars
2016“Arabic in the University, Arabic in School: Approaches and Tensions in the Field of Arabic Language Studies in the Jewish Yishuv, 1920-1948”, I-Core – Israeli Centers of Research Excellence, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2016“The Rise of ‘Practical Arabic’ in the Jewish Yishuv”, The Department of Land of Israel Studies, University of Haifa
2016“A German Arabic: On the Influence of German Orientalism on the Study and Status of Arabic in Israel”, The German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development, Berlin
2015“Present-Absentee: On Arabic in Israel”, Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Cambridge
2015“Arabic in Israel: Language of the Neighbour or Language of the Enemy?”, The Language Education Research Seminar, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
2015“The Roots of Arabic Studies in British Mandate Palestine”, Zeev Rubin Forum, Department of History, Tel Aviv University
2014“The Role of Language: On Arabic and Hebrew Studies in light of the Israeli-Palestinian ongoing Conflict”, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
2013“Arabic Language Studies in Israeli-Jewish Schools: On the Crossroad of the Israeli-Arab Conflict”, INALCO, Paris
2013“Arabic in the Shadow of the Israeli-Arab Conflict: Between ‘Language of the Neighbor’ and ‘Language of the Enemy’, Department of Hebrew Studies, University of Copenhagen
2013“Arabic in Israel: The Impossible Tension between ‘Language of the Enemy’, ‘Language of the Neighbor’, ‘Foreign Language’ and ‘Official Language’”, The Sde Boker Forum, Midreshet Ben Gurion
2012“Arabic and Security in Israeli Schools”, The Arabic Teachers’ Seminar, School of Education, Tel Aviv University
2011“The Creation of the Oriental Classes [ha-Kitah ha-Mizraḥanit],” The Language Education Forum, Tel Aviv University
2010“The Lingual Side of the Conflict” (seminar titled Israel: Politics and Society, Past and Present), SOAS, University of London
2010“The Politics of Arabic Language among Israeli Jewish Society”, Institute of Middle East, Central Asia, and Caucasus Studies, University of St. Andrews
2010“Israel and Palestine: A Paradigm Shift in Jewish-Muslim Relations?”, Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge
2010“Museums in Conflicts”,Cambridge University’s Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (seminar titled Postcolonial Institutions and Historiographies), University of Cambridge
2009“Discourse, Hegemony and Knowledge in Israel,” Cambridge University’sThinking Society (seminar titled How is Understanding Possible?), University of Cambridge
Selected Presentations at Professional Conferences
2016“On the Setting of Cultural Borders in the Jewish Community: The Arabic Language Case Study”, European Association of Israeli Studies, SOAS, University of London
2016 “The Study of Arabic in the Hebrew Education System in British Mandate Palestine”, I-Core conference titled Pedagogy of Separation: Hebrew Education and Arab Education in British Mandatory Palestine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2015“The Emergence of ‘Practical Arabic’ at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa”,
I-Core Conference titled German Orientalism and the Jewish ‘Arab Question’, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2014“Verbal Hygiene: Lexical Laundering in Israel”, Cambridge in Qatar: Perspective on Middle Eastern Studies, University of Qatar
2013“Who is Afraid of Arabic in Israel?”, The Israeli Association for the Study of Language and Society, Tel Aviv University
2013“Putting the Arab Back into theArab: Israeli Strategies of Re-Arabisation”, Cambridge in Sharja: The Shaping of Arab Cultural Identity, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
2012“Both Present Absentees: Arabic Language and Arab People in Israel”, The Cambridge-Peking Arabic Studies Conference, Beijing, China
2011“Language and Security in Israel: The Arabic Oriental Class as a Case Study,”University of Sarajevo, Bosnia
2011“What’sin a Word: On the Politics of Hebrew-Arabic Translations”, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
2010“Jewish Religious Broadcasting in Israeli Television”, MollerCentre, University of Cambridge
2010“Teaching Arabic in Israeli-JewishSchool System: Between Two Wars”. MESA Annual Conference, Boston, USA
2009“Re-Arabising the De-Arabised: The History of Israeli Mistaʿaravim Unit”. University of Cambridge, Centre for Jewish-Muslim Studies
2009“Museums in Conflict: Political Museums in Israel and Palestine”, Tourism, Heritage and Cultural Change in the Middle East and North Africa, Amman, Jordan
2009“The Politics of Arabic Language in Israel: Arabic in Israeli-Jewish Schools 1967-73”, Council of British Research in the Levant, Kenyon Institute, Jerusalem
2009“How Does an Arab Think? Israeli Society and Orientalism” (conference titled Orientalism – 30 Years Later), University of York
2008“Arabic Teaching in Palestine and Israel”,4th BRISMES Annual Graduate Conference, London School of Economics and Political Sciences
2008“Living Arabic in Israel,”University of Edinburgh, Scotland
2007“Israeli Media and Arabic Terminology”,Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
Selected conferences organised
2016“Pedagogy of Separation: Hebrew Education and Arab Education in British Mandate Palestine”. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Co-organised with Prof. Yfaat Weiss and Dr. Jonathan Furas
2016Series titled “Not Only Black and White: Jews and Arabs in a Changing Middle East”, three public events held at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
2015A series of four conferences held in Arabic in four Israeli Universities: “Winds of Change in the Middle East” (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, co-organised with Prof. Yoram Meital); “Palestinian Women and Personal Status in Israel” (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, co-organised with Dr. Liat Kozma); “Haifa in Arabic, Haifa in Hebrew” (University of Haifa, co-organised with Prof. Reuven Snir); “Ana min al-Yahud: Jewishness, Arabness and Mizrahi Identity in Israel” (Tel Aviv University, co-organised with Prof. Yehouda Shenhav and Prof. Nissim Mizrahi).Conferences were part of the EU project “Arabic in the Academic Sphere” (Van Leer, Dirasat and Sikkuy).
2015“German Orientalism and the Jewish ‘Arab Question’”, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Co-organized with Prof. Yfaat Weiss and Dr. Miriam Frenkel
2012“Arabic: Language in the Eye of the Storm”, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, a conference held in Arabic (co-organised with Dr. Yousef Jabareen, Dirasat – The Arab Center for Law and Policy
2010“Language, Conflict and Security in the Middle East”, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. Co-organised with Prof. Yasir Suleiman (a Conference Report was published by the University of Cambridge)
2008“Language and Knowledge in Middle Eastern Societies”, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. Co-organised with Dr. Husain Qutbuddin and Dr. Bruno De Nicola.
Research Fellowships and Grants
2015The British-Kuwaiti Friendship Society, annual award for three academic books published on Middle Eastern Societies. Prize awarded to“The Creation of Israeli Arabic”, The Kuwaiti Embassy, London
2011-2012Post-Doc Scholarship, Kreitman School and the Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
2009-2010AVI (Rothschild) Fellowship – Genève
2009-2010B’nai B’rith Scholarship – Leo Baeck London
2009 CBRL - Council for British Research in the Levant: travel grant and junior visiting scholar in the Jerusalem Kenyon Institute
2008-2010Queens’ College Bursary – University of Cambridge
2008-2010Hebrew and Arabic Studies Postgraduate Grants, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
2008-2010Wright Studentship, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge
2008-2010Wingate Scholarship – The Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, London
2008-2010Anglo-Jewish Association – Karten Scholarship, London
2007-2008The British Council CheveningScholarship
2005-2006The Anglo-Israel Association, Kenneth Lindsay Trust
2003-2004The Association of Israelis of Central European Origin
2002-2003Award of Excellency – the Price Brodie Educational Jewish-Arab Initiative in Jaffa
Further Activities
2017From fall 2017, I will be teaching a course in the academic programme of Jewish-Arab culture that has been established in BGU and TAU (title of course: “Jewish People and the Arabic Language: Historical and Contemporary Outlook”).
2016Founder and editor (together with Prof. Yehouda Shenhav) of theMaktoob Project – series of books translated from Arabic to Hebrew (joint project of The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and Mifal Ha-Payis)
2016Project Director, “Creating an Alternative Curriculum for Learning Arabic in Jewish Schools – from 1st to 12th Grade” (joint project of The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Abraham Fund)
2013-presentProject Director, “Ofek: A Horizon for the Arabic Media”, aproject dedicated to the publication of translated Arabic op-ed articles to Israeli media – Yedioth Aharonoth and Walla! News. A joint project of The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and I’lam (funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation)
2014-2016Project Director, “The Arabic Language in the Public Sphere in Israel: The Academic Campus and Beyond”, funded by the EU “Partnership for Peace” scheme (joint project with Dirasat and Sikkuy)
2015-2016Broadcast titled “sport in the Arab world” – aired biweekly on Israeli radio (Reshet Bet) in the programme Marḥabet
2011-2013Instructor of two courses (one on the Jewish-Arab conflict and one on politics and media) at The Education Department, Maʿasiyahu Prison, Lod
2004Organiser of the Dialogue Project performed jointly by Tel Aviv and Al-Quds Universities
2002-2004Organiser of the Tel Aviv University Colloquial Arabic extra-curriculum course
2002-2003Political Sciences faculty’s representative in TelAvivUniversity's Students
Council
1996Head of the DenmarkHigh School Student Council
1995-1996Member of the National Arabic Students’ delegation to Egypt
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