Giladi-Discord in Zion-Conflict Between Ashkenazi&Sephardi Jews

This is G. N. Giladi's amazing book Discord in Zion - Conflict Between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews in Israel (1990) which details the sad story of the internal conflict in Israel between the two great branches of Jewry: the Sephardim, principally from the region of Islam, and the Ashkenazim, Jews who originate from Eastern Europe and who are the main proponents of Zionism. Giladi, a native Sephardi Jew from Israel, details the harmony which generally was a feature of the Sephardi community under the protection of Islam through the ages and reviews the great contributions of Jewish medieval thought and scholarship from this period. He suggests that a solution to the present impasse is that the Sephardi Jews should reassert their ancient pact with their Muslim neighbours, whose history and homeland they share, in order to establish a just peace in the Middle East. The argument is advanced to show how, within modern Israel, the ruling Zionist elite has sought and maintained control of the country to the detriment of native Arab Jews, and how the aspirations of Sephardi newcomers were neglected. The author details how they form the bulk of the population, how they have been denied proper representation and equal opportunities in education, housing, employment, the state institutions, and how they have been culturally oppressed. Frequently impassioned, this is a carefully researched and annotated study, which brings to a generally heedless Western audience the class and racial contradictions within modern Israel. Discord in Zion will demand the attention of Jew and Arab and all interested in the society, history and future of the Holy Land. 370 pages. A must read for everyone.