The newest member of the faculty of the University of Kansas’ Department of Political Science as an assistant professor in the area of Israel studies, Rami Zeedan, Ph.D., could himself be a topic of Israel studies. The native Israeli is a member of the Druze community of Daliat al-Carmel; a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, where he earned the rank of major; and a graduate of the University of Haifa, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate, the last two degrees earned while serving his country.
Such is the world of Israel and its citizens: complex, contradictory and complicated.
(Editor’s note: The Israeli Druze are a unique religious and ethnic minority among Arab citizens of Israel. They hold positions in government and serve in the IDF. Their faith developed from Islam, but most do not consider themselves Muslim.)
Zeedan earned his first degree, a bachelor’s in statistics and Israel studies, before his military service. He applied to the IDF for the path that allows qualified high school students a chance to earn a college degree before serving. Zeedan then served his three-year compulsory service beginning in 1999 and continued serving for 14 years, spending his time not as a combat soldier but behind a desk doing statistics and consulting with other commanders. While he served, he was also able to complete his master’s and doctorate degrees in Israel studies.
As a resident of a non-Jewish community in Israel, even before his military service, he noticed that the services his community received were not as high quality as those in Jewish communities.
“This is a question that bothered me before I was a researcher,” Zeedan said. He would ask the people in town about the disparity and was told they were not getting enough money. But when he questioned the Israeli government, he was told it was corruption and lack of leadership in the towns.
He wanted to find the truth. So this became the focus of his 2012 dissertation titled “The Financial Crisis in Arab Local Authorities in Israel from 1970-2007: Local and National Factors.”
“My results found that there was discrimination from the central budgeting offices in Israel,” he said. “But this was fixed to some extent by the end of the 1990s. After the 1990s, the financial crisis in non-Jewish towns continued. There was no change in the local leadership. And the problem now lays mainly on local leadership and not the central government.”
In Israel the relationship among Israeli Jews, Arabs, Muslims and Druze as well as all non-Jews in Israel can be complicated. The law passed by the Knesset in July 2018 that states Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people complicates relationships even more, because, according to Zeedan, “it is a basic law, this acts as a chapter in the forthcoming constitution, as there is no constitution in Israel now.”
“The relationship between Arabs and Jews in Israel changes all the time,” Zeedan said. “For example, during 1948-1966 most Arabs were under the authority of the military because they were seen as a threat. Many issues happened since then. For example, laws that were passed by the Knesset decide who gets the right for citizenship. This impacts Israeli Arabs and impacts how they see their relationship with Israel.”
But it is not only what happens internally in Israel that impacts this complicated relationship, it is also events developing outside of Israel that impact the Israeli Arab community.
“For the past two decades, the self-identification of Arab Israelis is more Palestinian,” he said.
“Two things are happening that are contradicting,” he added. “The Israeli government is enacting programs to enhance the non-Jewish communities, to improve socio-economic situation, education and transportation. But at the same time, many laws, as approved by the Knesset, are trying to exclude non-Jewish citizens of Israel, making them the other and not Israeli.”
“One conclusion in trying to understand those two contradicting forces,” he said, “would be that Israel is able to offer their Arab citizens as much as possible in equality as individuals, but not to offer group rights.”
Zeedan believes there are both challenges and positives being a citizen of Israel.
“The major problem from the eyes of Jewish Arab relations is the nation state bill that puts Israel in a direction that is not right,” Zeedan said. “It can only be solved through negotiations and to agree on something. What is happening now is that people do not want to compromise. This is a huge problem. This is part of the stagnation of the peace process in the past few years.”
Yet Zeedan believes there have also been many positive events for all citizens of Israel in the past decade.
“The economic stability of Israel, which has strengthened in the past two years, is more and more stable. We did not have a recession in 2008 because Israel had solved its problems. It is moving in the right direction.”
Zeedan and his family, his wife, Mervat, and their three children, now live in Lawrence. After his military career, he decided he wanted to be a professor. The family has been traveling as Zeedan continued his academic achievements. He has completed two post-doctorate fellowships: New York University (2014-2015) and the Fritz Thyssen post-doctorate research fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany (2015-2016). He has had one-year teaching positions before coming to Kansas. The last was as a visiting assistant professor at the University of California, Berkley, in the political science department.
He even wrote his first book while completing his post-doctorate fellowships. “Battalion of Arabs: The History of the Minorities Unit in the IDF from 1948-1956” (2015) focuses on Israeli Policies implemented toward Arabs who served in the IDF. He has a unique perspective having served himself in the IDF.
Now he is beginning his teaching career at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. One of his first forays into the community was to present at the annual Day of Discovery sponsored by the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City, where he spoke on “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Light of the Recent Developments.”
“KU is a good academic place,” Zeedan said. “I am satisfied with my students, I can enhance my research and I am teaching. I have all the resources I need to establish this position in Israel study.”
His position at KU is initially helped with “financial support from the Israel Institute, a nonprofit that advances balanced teaching, research and reasoned discourse about modern Israel,” according to University of Kansas’ bio of Zeedan.
