הגירה, מדומיין לאומי, משבר: מחאת 2023 בראי התקשורת הכתובה הצרפתית בישראל

The aliyah from France has resulted in a large readership that needs to be informed of local news in their own language. This article examines how the 2023 Israeli protests against the judicial overhaul were reflected in the local French-language press. It explores junctions between the immigration crisis experienced by French new immigrants since the 2000s and the current identity crisis in Israeli society, as depicted in the pages of the Israeli French-language press. An analysis of op-eds and articles on current affairs related to the protests demonstrates how – at the crossroads of the two crises – a hybrid identity is identified combining Jewish, French, and Israeli imaginaries. Examples show how the interpretations and responses to the protest make use of the various imagined national narratives, sometimes even using one to explain the other. Thus, the French national imaginary continues to be activated when immigrants seek to interpret the current events in their new homeland. This contact between imaginaries can prove to be disruptive while trying to make sense of the Israeli political map. Similarly, the nostalgia for the imaginaries of the "Land of Israel," that draw a line from ancient times to the present day, as well as those of the State of Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people and a safe haven for Jewish culture, sometimes obstruct "cultural translation" and block the ability to recognize Otherness or a variety of existing positions and opinions in Israeli society.