Prof. Dr. Johannes Becke
Johannes Becke is Professor of Israel and Middle East Studies at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies and a co-opted member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Heidelberg University. His research projects and publications cover the field of comparative politics of Israel and the Middle East with a focus on nationalism, state-building and Arab-Israeli relations.
Johannes Becke studied political science at the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, the University of Cairo and the University of Illinois.
After completing his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin (2014), he conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford. Following his junior professorship at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Johannes Becke was appointed to the W2 professorship for Israel and Middle East Studies in 2020. He heads the research group "Gathering the Dispersed. State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Berber History" (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, based at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies) and supervises the research project "Beyond Conflict and Coexistence: An Entangled History of Jewish-Arab Relations" (funded by the BMBF, based at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies).
Johannes Becke is co-editor of the series Israel-Studien (Wallstein-Verlag), in which the anthology Israel-Studien: Geschichte, Methoden, Paradigmen was published in 2020 (edited by Johannes Becke, Michael Brenner and Daniel Mahla). His book The Land Beyond the Border: State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel was published by State University of New York Press in 2021.
Monographs and editorships
Becke, J. (2021) The Land Beyond the Border. State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel (forthcoming). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Brenner, M., Becke, J. and Mahla, D. (eds) (2020) Israel Studies. History, methods, paradigms. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.
Essays
2020
Becke, J. (2020) 'German Guilt, White Guilt: The Politics of Reforestation and the Return of the Gardening State', Jewish Studies Quarterly, 27(3), pp. 225-239.
Becke, J. (2020) 'German Guilt and Hebrew Redemption: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste and the Legacy of Left-Wing Protestant Philozionism', in Elyada, A. et al. (eds) 500 Years of Reformation: Jews and Protestants, Judaism and Protestantism. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 241-256.
Becke, J. (2020) 'Israel as a Middle Eastern State', in Becke, J., Brenner, M., and Mahla, M. (eds) Israel-Studien. History, methods, paradigms. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 213-240.
2019
Becke, J. (2019) 'Varieties of expansionism: A comparative-historical approach to the study of state expansion and state contraction', Political Geography, 72, pp. 64-75.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Triumph and Failure: The Myths of the Israeli Settlement Project', in Kiesel, D. (ed.) Perspectives on Jewish Education II. Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, pp. 85-97.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Methodological Canaanism. The Case for a Rupture Between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies', in Schapkow, C. and Hoedl, K. (eds) Intersections Between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in the 21st Century. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 199-214.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Saharan Zion: State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish and Sahrawi History', Journal of Israeli History, 37(2), pp. 227-247.
Becke, J. and Weiss, S. (2019) 'Limits of the Annexation Ban. The Golan, Crimea and International Law', Osteuropa, 69(9-11), pp. 401-410.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Dismantling the Villa in the Jungle: Matzpen, Zochrot, and the Whitening of Israel', Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21(6), pp. 874-891.
2018
Becke, J. (2018) 'Beyond Allozionism: Exceptionalizing and De-Exceptionalizing the Zionist Project', Israel Studies, 23(2), pp. 168-193.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Die Favela im Dschungel: Zur israelischen Selbst-Wahrnehmung als westliche Enklave', in Dachs, G. (ed.) Jüdischer Almanach. Frankfurt: Jewish publishing house, pp. 83-91.
Becke, J. (2018) 'The Ideology of the Mountain: Paradoxes of Israeli Levantinization', in Frost, U., Waßmer, J., and Werner, H.-J. (eds) Dialogue and Conflict - the Dialogical Principle in Society, Religion, Politics and Philosophy (Martin Buber Studies Vol. 3). Lich: Edition AV, pp. 367-377.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Historicizing the settler-colonial paradigm', Medaon - Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 12(22).
2017
Becke, J. (2017) 'Exceptionalism and Allozionism: How exceptional is the Israeli occupation?', Münchener Beiträge zur Jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur, 11(1), pp. 10-15.
2016
Becke, J. (2016) 'Land and Redemption: The Zionist Project in Comparative Perspective', Trumah, 23, pp. 1-13.
2014
Becke, J. (2014) 'Towards A De-Occidentalist Perspective On Israel: The Case of The Occupation', Journal of Israeli History, 33(1), pp. 1-23.
Reviews
Becke, J. (2019) 'Oren Barak. State Expansion and Conflict: In and between Israel/Palestine and Lebanon', H-Net Reviews. Available at: www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Undeclared Wars with Israel. East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967-1989, Jeffrey Herf', Journal of Israeli History, 37(1), pp. 135-153.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Handbook of Israel: Major Debates, edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Julius H. Schoeps, Yitzhak Sternberg, and Olaf Glöckner', Trumah, 24, pp. 232-233.
Becke, J. (2016) 'Dan Diner: Ritual distance. Israel's German Question', Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 64(1), pp. 102-104.
Media contributions (selection)
Mannheimer Morgen, 11.2. 2021, Interview with Johannes Becke on the BDS movement [to the article]
Zenith, 28.5. 2020, Interview with Johannes Becke and Henning Sievert on the new Heidelberg Master's program "Middle East Studies" [to the article ]
Deutsche Welle, 27.8. 2019, Interview with Johannes Becke and others on the Syrian-Israeli conflict [to the article ]
Jüdische Allgemeine, 18.5. 2018, article by Johannes Becke on the comparison between Israel and Middle Eastern minority nationalisms [to the article ]
Deutschlandfunk, 1.11. 2017, Interview with Johannes Becke and others on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration [to the article ]
Jüdische Allgemeine, 21.4. 2017, Article by Johannes Becke on the orientation of Israel Studies [to the article ]
Jüdische Allgemeine, 25.1. 2016, Article by Johannes Becke on the orientation of Israel Studies [to the article ]
Zenith, 9.6. 2015, article by Johannes Becke on the integration of Israel Studies and Middle East Studies [to the article ]
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 28.10. 2015, article by Johannes Becke on Israel as a Middle Eastern society [to the article ]
Lectures at scientific conferences
Becke, Johannes: Staatsvermeidung und Staatsaufbau in der jüdischen, kurdischen und berberischen Geschichte, Conference of Islamic Studies Heidelberg: Umbrüche im neuzeitlichen Syrien (1750-1950), 25.10. 2020
Becke, Johannes: Philozionism in the Radical German Left, Workshop "The Jews and the Left: History and Memory", Tel Aviv University, 20.11. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Studying the Language of Zionism, European Association for Israel Studies, Prague, 9.9. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Indigenized Immigrants: A Creolization Perspective on the History of Jewish-Israeli Immigration, Conference "Migration in Israel's History and Society", Institute for the History of German Jews, Hamburg, 15.7. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Kna'aniut metodologit. Al ha-tzorech be-hitnatkut bein limudei Israel le-vein mada'ei ha-yahadut (Methodological Canaanism. On the necessity of differentiation between Israel Studies and Jewish Studies), Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 26.6. 2019
Becke, Johannes/Shilon, Avi: Israel's Place in the Middle East: From Levantinization to Creolization, Association for Israel Studies, Kinneret Academic College, 25.6. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Jewish Un-Whitening, Association for Israel Studies, Berkeley, 25.6. 2018
Becke, Johannes: Israel Studies as Middle East Studies - The Canaanite Case for a Rupture with Jewish Studies, University of Graz, Workshop "Intersections between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in the 21st Century", 23.5. 2018
Becke, Johannes: Between Monumentalism and Miniaturization - Israel's Settlement Project and the Question of Third World Colonialism, University of Frankfurt, Workshop "Unacknowledged Kinships. Postcolonial Studies and the Historiography of Zionism", 17.5. 2018
Becke, Johannes: Israel as a Middle Eastern State. Potentials and Limitations of a Counter-Hegemonic Research Agenda, Ben Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Zionism and Israel, conference "Israel: A Case Study", May 14, 2018
Becke, Johannes: Mediniut ha-me'utim ha-kolonialit: Yehudim, Berberim ve-Alavim be-perspektiva hashva'atit (Colonial Minority Politics: Jews, Berbers and Alawites in Comparative Perspective), Tel Aviv University, Forum for the Study of the Mandate Period, 14.3. 2018
Becke, Johannes: Critique of Allozionism. Postcolonial Perspectives on the State of Israel, Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Jewish Studies, February 15, 2018
Becke, Johannes: German Guilt and Hebrew Redemption: Aktion Sühnezeichen and the Legacy of Protestant Philo-Zionism, Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem, Conference "500 Years of Reformation: Jews and Protestants - Judaism and Protestantism", February 13, 2017
Becke, Johannes: Perspektivot hashva'atiot al ha-kibush ha-israeli (Comparative Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation), Bar-Ilan University, Colloquium for Israel Studies
Becke, Johannes: Comparative Approaches in Israel Studies, Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, May 20, 2017
Becke, Johannes: Israel Studies in the Arab World, Workshop "Antisemitism and Islamophobia", Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism, Tel Aviv University, 3.12. 2017
Becke, Johannes: When Rachel Dolezal Goes to Shul: Transracialism, Atonement and the German Convert to Judaism, Workshop "Jewish Friends", Institute for Jewish Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, 16.10. 2017
Becke, Johannes: State Expansion in Comparative Perspective: Israel and Indonesia, Annual Conference of the German Association for the Middle East (DAVO), 20.9. 2017
Becke, Johannes: From Allosemitism to Allozionism: Exceptionalizing and De-Exceptionalizing the Zionist Project, Conference "Israel Studies as a Global Discipline", University of Oxford, 28.5. 2017
Becke, Johannes: The Colonialism of Neighbors. Greater Israel and Greater Morocco in the Postcolonial Age, Workshop "Israel, the PLO and the German Left (1967-2017)", University of Frankfurt, 26.5. 2017
Becke, Johannes: Saharan Zion: Diaspora Nationalism and the Sahrawi Experience, Workshop "Promised Lands: Israel-Diaspora Relations and Beyond", Center for Israel Studies, LMU Munich
Becke, Johannes: The Whitening of Israel. Occidentalism and Self-Occidentalism on the Israeli Left", Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism, Tel Aviv University, 2.6. 2016
Becke, Johannes: Israel Studies in Germany, Association for Israel Studies, Jerusalem, June 21, 2016
Becke, Johannes: Stagings of (Non)-Belonging: Israel and the Middle East Region, DVPW, Drei-Länder-Tagung, Heidelberg, 29.9. 2016
Becke, Johannes: Integrating Israel Studies and Middle East Studies - Insights from the Class Room, DAVO, Tübingen, 7.10. 2016
Becke, Johannes: Die deutschen Israel-Studien zwischen Nahost-Studien und Judaistik, Conference "50 Jahre deutsch-israelische Beziehungen", Institute for the History of German Jews, Cologne, 20.5. 2015
Further education events
Becke, Johannes: Jewish Israelis from the Middle East and North Africa, advanced training event "Israeli Societies" of the Center for Israel Studies (LMU Munich), 28.10. 2020
Becke, Johannes: Change in Arab-Israeli relations, Muslim Student Group Heidelberg, 21.10. 2020
Becke, Johannes: Grundlagen der israelischen Geschichte und Materialien für den Schulunterricht, advanced training for religion and Hebrew teachers, Central Council of Jews in Germany, Heidelberg, 18.2. 2020
Becke, Johannes: The Nation State Law. Controversies in Germany and Israel, Workshop "Israelbilder. German Perspectives on the Middle East Conflict", Anne Frank Educational Center, Frankfurt, 12.12. 2019
Becke, Johannes: The Arab view of Israel, Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation, Mannheim, 28.11. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Israeli diversity, Protestant Church Congress, Dortmund, 20.6. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Israel and its neighbors, House of History Baden-Württemberg, Laupheim, 6.6. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Minorities in the Jewish nation state, Jewish Adult Education Center, Frankfurt, 16.5. 2019
Becke, Johannes: The Middle East Conflict - Dispute over the Holy Land, teacher training, Karlsruhe Regional Council, 9.4. 2019
Becke, Johannes/Golinets, Viktor: Teaching Jewish-Israeli history with Hebrew sources in (religion) lessons, training course for religion and Hebrew teachers, Central Council of Jews in Germany, 18.2. 2019
Becke, Johannes: Limudei Israel ve-hora'at Israel al-parashat derachim (Israel studies and Israel education at the crossroads), Aleph-Bet: Israeli Get-Together for Educators in Europe, Frankfurt, Dec. 16, 2018
Becke, Johannes: The Arab view of Israel, Martin-Buber-Haus, Heppenheim, May 17, 2018
Becke, Johannes: The last Jews, the first Hebrews. Jewish-Israeli identity between religion and nation, Catholic Academy Dresden-Meißen, April 11, 2018
Becke, Johannes: Imparting knowledge about Israel in the classroom, advanced training for religion and Hebrew teachers, Central Council of Jews in Germany, Heidelberg, 19.2. 2018
Becke, Johannes: From the Balfour Declaration to Balfour Street: The Zionist Project between Promise and Fulfillment, German-Israeli Society Konstanz, 7.12. 2017
Becke, Johannes: Jewish state and Kurdish state. Balfour Declaration and minority nationalism in the Middle East, Jewish Adult Education Center Frankfurt, 14.11. 2017
Becke, Johannes: German-Israeli Relations, Jewish Community Center, Krakow, 18.5. 2017
Becke, Johannes: Triumph und Scheitern des israelischen Siedlungsprojekts, Conference "Hundert Jahre Balfour-Deklaration: Der Zionismus von der Ideengeschichte zur nationalstaatlichen Umsetzung", Education Department of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Frankfurt, 30.3. 2017
Becke, Johannes: Israel between Orient and Occident, Evangelische Stadtakademie München, 4.4. 2016
Becke, Johannes: Anti-Zionism in the radical Israeli left, Center for Israel Studies, LMU Munich, 11.1. 2016
Becke, Johannes: From Greater Morocco to Greater Israel. Irredentism and territorial expansion, advanced training seminar "History of the Middle East conflict", Academy for Political Education Tutzing, 4.5. 2015
2020-2023
Gathering the Dispersed. State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Berber History (research group, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, based at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University)
2019-2021
Mecca and Jerusalem (academic podcast on Jewish-Muslim relations), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future", project management: Prof. Dr. Johannes Becke, Prof. Dr. Frederek Musall, project collaborator: Beyza Arslan
2018-2020
Enemy and Role Model: Israel Studies in the Arab World (funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation as part of the Elite Program for Postdocs), project leader: Prof. Dr. Johannes Becke, project collaborator: Raja Abdel-Aziz
![[Übersetzen nach: English]](/fileadmin/_processed_/e/1/csm_Johannes_Becke_6462a7fd51.jpg "Prof. Dr. Johannes Becke")
Research
1. State formation and state expansion in the Middle East and North Africa
State formation and state expansion in the Middle East and North Africa
In my dissertation (FU Berlin), I dealt with irredentist ideologies and expansionist state projects in the Middle East and North Africa. State rule over disputed territories can be analyzed from different perspectives, ranging from state theory to the comparative analysis of ethnic conflicts and historical institutionalism. In addition to the theory-based comparison of institutions, the critical analysis of different discourses of exceptionalism, which assume the uniqueness of the Arab-Israeli conflict, is also worthwhile.
Becke, J. (2021) The Land Beyond the Border. State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel (forthcoming). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Varieties of expansionism: A comparative-historical approach to the study of state expansion and state contraction', Political Geography, 72, pp. 64-75.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Triumph and Failure: The Myths of the Israeli Settlement Project', in Kiesel, D. (ed.) Perspectives on Jewish Education II. Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, pp. 85-97.
Becke, J. and Weiss, S. (2019) 'Grenzen des Annexionsverbots. The Golan, Crimea and International Law', Osteuropa, 69(9-11), pp. 401-410.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Dismantling the Villa in the Jungle: Matzpen, Zochrot, and the Whitening of Israel', Interventions : International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 21(6), pp. 874-891.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Beyond Allozionism: Exceptionalizing and De-Exceptionalizing the Zionist Project', Israel Studies, 23(2), pp. 168-193.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Historicizing the settler-colonial paradigm', Medaon - Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 12(22).
Becke, J. (2017) 'Exceptionalism and Allozionism: How exceptional is the Israeli occupation?', Münchener Beiträge zur Jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur, 11(1), pp. 10-15.
Becke, J. (2016) 'Land and Redemption: The Zionist Project in Comparative Perspective', Trumah, 23, pp. 1-13.
Becke, J. (2014) 'Towards A De-Occidentalist Perspective On Israel: The Case of The Occupation', Journal of Israeli History, 33(1), pp. 1-23.
Arab-Israeli relations
Arab-Israeli relations are more complex than the territorial conflict between the state of Israel and the Palestinian national movement: Israel has a large minority of Arab-Palestinian citizens and increasingly "normalized" diplomatic relations with the most important states in the region; not least due to Middle Eastern Jewish immigration, the everyday culture of Israeli society is increasingly shaped by Middle Eastern influences. Numerous parallels between post-Ottoman and post-colonial elements of Israeli society and its neighboring societies can also be identified from an institutional comparison perspective. I have dealt with the topic of Arab-Israeli relations as part of a research project on Arab Israel Studies (funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation); Arab-Israeli relations are also a regular topic of the academic podcast "Mecca and Jerusalem" (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation).
Becke, J. (2020) 'Israel as a Middle Eastern State', in Becke, J., Brenner, M., and Mahla, M. (eds) Israel-Studien. History, Methods, Paradigms. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, pp. 213-240.
Becke, J. (2018) 'Die Favela im Dschungel: Zur israelischen Selbst-Wahrnehmung als westliche Enklave', in Dachs, G. (ed.) Jewish Almanac. Frankfurt: Jewish publishing house, pp. 83-91.
Becke, J. (2018) 'The Ideology of the Mountain: Paradoxes of Israeli Levantinization', in Frost, U., Waßmer, J., and Werner, H.-J. (eds) Dialogue and Conflict - the Dialogical Principle in Society, Religion, Politics and Philosophy (Martin Buber Studies Vol. 3). Lich: Edition AV, pp. 367-377.
Israel studies as a field of research
The research field of Israel studies deals with the Zionist movement, Israeli society and its transcultural links to Europe and the Middle East from a social science and historical perspective. The field of research is only slowly emerging in Germany; an initial overview can be found in the anthology "Israel-Studien. History, Methods, Paradigms", which I edited in 2020 together with Michael Brenner and Daniel Mahla. Together with the Center for Israel Studies (ZIS) at LMU Munich, the Ben Gurion Chair also organizes the research colloquium "Israel and the Middle East", in which current research work is presented.
Brenner, M., Becke, J. and Mahla, D. (eds) (2020) Israel-Studien. History, methods, paradigms. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.
Becke, J. (2020) 'German Guilt, White Guilt: The Politics of Reforestation and the Return of the Gardening State', Jewish Studies Quarterly, 27(3), pp. 225-239.
Becke, J. (2020) 'German Guilt and Hebrew Redemption: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste and the Legacy of Left-Wing Protestant Philozionism', in Elyada, A. et al. (eds) 500 Years of Reformation: Jews and Protestants, Judaism and Protestantism. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 241-256.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Methodological Canaanism. The Case for a Rupture Between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies', in Schapkow, C. and Hoedl, K. (eds) Intersections Between Jewish Studies and Israel Studies in the 21st Century. Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 199-214.
Nationalism of stateless communities
Nationalism of stateless communities
From a comparative perspective, numerous parallels can be drawn between the Zionist movement and other national movements of ethnic minorities or stateless communities. As part of the research group "Gathering the Dispersed. State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish, Kurdish, and Berber History" (funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, based at the Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University), I am developing a theory-based comparison between the Jewish, Kurdish and Berber national movements. Within the framework of a comparative case study, different patterns of nationalization and centralization will be compared, including statehood, language policy and cultural policy.
Becke, J. (2019) 'Saharan Zion: State Evasion and State-Making in Modern Jewish and Sahrawi History', Journal of Israeli History, 37(2), pp. 227-247.