The Postcolonial Buber: Orientalism, Subalternity, and Identity Politics in Martin Buber's Political Thought

This article analyzes central elements of Martin Buber's political thinking from a postcolonial perspective. It examines Buber's view of the "Orient," his ideas about the social and economic constitution of the Arab-Jewish commonwealth in Palestine, and his attitude toward the evolving national conflict between Jews and Arabs. Buber's Zionism, despite its deep roots in European nationalist ideologies and entanglement with European colonialist ideas, nevertheless had much in common with the nationalism of anticolonial movements and is therefore best conceived as a subaltern nationalism. The incorporation of postcolonial theory makes it possible to see these anticolonial features and at the same time acknowledge Buber's indebtedness to European nationalism and colonialism, thus contributing to a more complex understanding of the history of Zionism and of its position in the European and global context.