ABSTRACT
As shown in previous chapters,72 populist inclusion is always partial. In addition, Likud’s shift from populism to neoliberal post-populism further marginalized Mizrahim, especially in the economic dimension. For this reason, as the Likud’s commitment to neoliberal policy increased, a new populist movement emerged that demanded the inclusion of this group. This new movement is Shas, a Mizrahi ultra-orthodox religious party that has become Israel’s third political party, and probably the main counter-hegemonic political force in Israel, in just a decade. Shas was born as a relatively small party representing ultra-orthodox
Sephardic Jews, and evolved into a Mizrahi populist party.73 Shas’s populism, however, differs from Likud’s in that the dynamics between inclusion and exclusion is much more complex. Shas’s claim to Mizrahi inclusion is much more radical than Likud’s, and much more challenging of the mainstream Zionist worldview. At the same time, its ultraorthodox interpretation of Jewish religion makes for a much more exclusionary approach toward non-Jews (whether Palestinians or migrant workers). Shas started its activism at the municipal level as a reaction to the
exclusion and segregation of Mizrahim within the ultra-orthodox world. Nonetheless, since its inceptions its growth was fueled by anger at the exclusion and marginalization of Mizrahim in Israeli society as a whole.
