What Does a Jew Want?

An impassioned plea for a binational solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

In the hopes of promoting justice, peace, and solidarity for and with the Palestinian people, Udi Aloni joins with Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, and Judith Butler to confront the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their bold question: Will a new generation of Israelis and Palestinians dare to walk together toward a joint Israel-Palestine? Through a collage of meditation, interview, diary, and essay, Aloni and his interlocutors present a personal, intellectual, and altogether provocative account rich with the insights of philosophy and critical theory. They ultimately foresee the emergence of a binational Israeli-Palestinian state, incorporating the work of Walter Benjamin, Edward Said, and Jewish theology to recast the conflict in secular theological terms.

Udi Aloni is an Israeli/American writer and filmmaker whose work explores the discourse between art, theory, and action. His art projects have been presented in leading museums and galleries, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his films Kashmir: Journey to Freedom (2009), Forgiveness (2006), and Local Angel (2003) have been screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, among other prominent venues. This book was published shortly after the murder of his dear friend, Juliano Mer Khamis, director of The Freedom Theater in Jenin Refugee Camp, where Aloni helped him run the Cinema Department.

Slavoj Žižek is a professor at the Institute for Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and at the European Graduate School.

Alain Badiou is René Descartes Chair at the European Graduate School and teaches at the Ecole Normale Superieure and the College International de Philosophie.

Judith Butler is the Maxine Eliot Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley.

This book is part of the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture