Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Haggai Ram

Published by Stanford University Press 2020

Intoxicating Zion

A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Haggai Ram

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503613928

Overview
Contents

About this book

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread.

Intoxicating Zion is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made.

Author / Editor information

Haggai Ram is Associate Professor of Middle East History at Ben Gurion University. He is the author of Myth and Mobilization in Revolutionary Iran (1994) and Iranophobia: The Logic of an Israeli Obsession (Stanford, 2009).

Reviews

Ted R. Swedenburg:
"Vividly written and drawing on a wide array of sources, Intoxicating Zion is packed with colorful characters, from Palestinian coffeehouse and Israeli bohemian tokers, to traffickers, to corrupt politicians profiting from the trade, to the Palestinian and Israeli police who fought to contain it. A fascinating and revelatory tale."

Paul Gootenberg:
"Offering a major contribution to the interdisciplinary 'New Drug History,' Haggai Ram masterfully illuminates the social and cultural fissures left by colonialism in the Levant as hashish trade transgressed new national borders. Like the drug it explores, Intoxicating Zion is both a pleasure and act of subversion."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface and Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Drug Trade in the Levant Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. Smuggling in Mandatory Palestine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3. The Underworld of Users Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4. Jews and Interwar Oriental Fantasies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
5. Hashish Trafficking in Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
6. Mizrahim and the “Perils” of Hashish Smoking Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 3
Keywords: Drug trafficking; drug consumption; drug regulation/control; Egypt; hashish; Israel; Lebanon; Levant; Mandatory Palestine.

eBook

Published: October 27, 2020
ISBN: 9781503613928