ABSTRACT
This chapter examines declared positions in relation to representation within the field, at a critical point in time, around 2004-7. The following analysis relies mainly on reflexive and critical texts that were published independently in Hebrew, but related to each other, primarily in two 'internal' electronic platforms, Ruah Mizrahit and Bama Ptuha. Sela’s programme was exceptional in integrating insights and methods from the social sciences in the study of the (modern) Middle East. The programme was itself an indirect reaction to changes in Western MES directions, which also manifested in the establishment of Ben Gurion University’s mizraḥanut projects and at a proximate time. The traditional epistemological outlook rejects the objections to the validity or objectivity of the knowledge mizraḥanut produces, and holds to a scientific claim. This chapter studied the disagreements and agreements in the field about representation and mizrahanut, mainly as expressed in two e-publications, between 2004 and 2007.
