Against the “Ingathering”: Mizrahi Renaissance and the Politics of Deterritorialization in Ronit Matalon’s The Sound of Our Steps

The Sound of Our Steps by Ronit Matalon exposes the marginalization and displacement of Mizrahi Jews in Israel by challenging the Zionist narrative of the “ingathering of exiles.” In a Eurocentric society that favors the Ashkenazim, the novel explores the struggles of an Egyptian Jewish family with social exclusion, economic hardship, and cultural erasure. Matalon constructs a counter-narrative to prevailing national discourses through her disjointed storytelling, linguistic hybridity and opposition to Zionist mythmaking. Using postcolonial theory and Mizrahi feminist critique as a framework, this article reads Matalon’s The Sound of Our Steps in relation to Ella Shohat’s discussion on Mizrahi identity, Zionist exclusion, and the erasure of Arab Jewish heritage. Through an examination of Matalon’s portrayal of deterritorialization and Mizrahi agency, this article demonstrates how the novel serves as a political intervention as well as a literary form of revolt. revolt, challenging traditional power structures and cultural narratives. In order to counter the Zionist deracination and fabrication of Arab Jewish exile, this article situates Ronit Matalon’s fiction within the Mizrahi Renaissance movement and argues that her work aims to reclaim and rewrite the Mizrahi/Sephardic experience.