The Divergence of Judaism and Islam. Interdependence, Modernity, and Political Turmoil

14

Space as a Demon and the Demon

in the Space

Jewish-Muslim Relations in the Israeli Space

in A. B. Yehoshua’s Literary Works

Carmela Saranga and Rachel Sharaby

And cold and then shade and then the sun.

And rocks and then plains and then wilderness,

And a river and then a sea and then the land.

And drunkenness and then sobriety and then desire,

And closeness and then touching and then rejoicing.

And contraction and then expansion and then erasure,

And parting and then union and then life.

The Liberated Bride, 2004, 434

Space has a broad semantic meaning that makes it difficult to present
an exhausting definition. Nonetheless, it is clear that it is a basic dimen-
sion of existence and dictates the way in which we identify and under-
stand reality and our position within reality.^1 Space receives the mean-
ing afforded by the people who are active within it. Without people and
their activities, it is impossible to discern space, and without them, it is
meaningless.^2
Space is shaped as part of the structuring of social power relations,
in which one party causes others to act in order to achieve a desirable
goal. The image of space and its symbolic essence are an essential part
of each party’s material essence, and it is an object for the hegemonic
group’s ideological activity.^3 Foucault claims that the bureaucratic encod-
ing of everyday spaces, according to which every person and every event
has a proper place, turns space into an ethical and hierarchical indicator
of events and the people who take part in these events. Practical and