In this short, personal essay, Tel Aviv University historian Shlomo Sand – author of The Invention of the Jewish People – explains why he no longer wishes to define himself as a Jew in the secular, ethnic sense promoted by the Israeli state.

Sand argues that Zionism has turned Jewish identity into an exclusive ethnic category that grants privileges in Israel denied to its Palestinian citizens and to Palestinians under occupation. Refusing to be part of such a privileged group, he calls for an inclusive, democratic Israeli identity shared equally by all citizens. The book is a provocative critique of ethno-nationalism.