Bibliography: #BIB28812

web link	bahai-library.com/bibliography/BIB28812
reference type	Journal Article
title	The Baha’i Minority in the State of Israel, 1948–1957
journal	Middle Eastern Studies
author	Geller, Randall S.
year	2019
date	2019
issue	3
volume	55
abstract	This article examines the virtually unexplored topic of the Baha'i religious minority in Israel's early statehood period based mainly on primary source documentation. It will be argued that while the number of Persian Baha'is in Israel after 1948 was minuscule — even smaller than the similarly minuscule Circassian and Armenian populations — the non-Arab and non-Muslim identity of the Baha'is, the lack of any historical antagonism between the Baha'is and the Jews, a shared history of marginalization in the modern Middle East, the Baha'is' principled commitment to non-violence as a basic tenet of their religious faith, their complete neutrality leading up to and including the 1948 War, (and their support for Jewish statehood after it), their lack of proselytizing in the state of Israel, and the fact that nearly all of their high-ranking administrators in post-independence Israel hailed from the United States — whose support Israel sought — led the state to cultivate this minority to a degree few other minorities experienced in post 1948 Israel. A study of the flight and return of most (excommunicated) Baha'i adherents during and after the 1948 War, respectively, will form part of a separate, forthcoming article. N.B.: Many of the sources used are critical of Baha'i history. The author seems to have a bias against the Baha'i Faith and the Baha'i World Centre's interaction with the Israeli authorities.
language	English
keywords	ISRAEL; HISTORY; CONTROVERSIAL
pages	403–418
Legal note	11.

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