Ever since the Six Day War (1967), the way in which the territories in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are viewed has been a central issue in Israeli politics. Even the name given to these areas is a bone of contention and the way in which they are defined by an individual is an indication of his political stance: ‘the West Bank’, ‘the occupied territories’, ‘the liberated territories’, or simply ‘Judea and Samaria’.
Large numbers of studies have been, and are still being written about the area in its various contexts. It is a test case for the understanding of issues connected with the world of international relations and strategy, geo-politics, nationalism, public policy, security policy and so forth. This special volume is intended to complement the vast existing literature and to deal with a limited issue that is unique to the Jewish society of Judea and Samaria – that is to say, to the world of the settlements and the settlers.
In our opinion it is appropriate to use Swidler's term, ‘unsettled culture’Footnote1 here, since it fits this society which, after all, is not isolated from the broader contexts and is constantly the scene of alertness, frenetic activity, readiness to react, and preparedness for what it considers to be persistent threats – from terrorist attacks on the part of the Palestinians to peace agreements that would include evacuation of the settlements by an Israeli government.
With regard to the settlers and the settlements – the settler population exists alongside Israeli society, it is located west of the Green Line and its relations with residents of sovereign Israel are complex; it is both integrated with, but also closed off from them. This, for example, finds expression in the fact that the vast majority of the settlements in Judea and Samaria are community settlements which are particular about accepting in their midst only residents that observe a unique kind of lifestyle, the central component of which is a high level of religious observance and a traditional family structure. Therefore the settlers and the settlements, unlike most other communities in the State of Israel, form a homogenous area from the religious, cultural and socio-political points of view. To say nothing of their closedness to, and sometimes disregard for, the Palestinian population that lives close by but who are forbidden from entering the settlements.
As a result, the settlements have been turned into ethnic, political and cultural islands. The attitude of Israeli society toward the settlers likewise vacillates between admiration on the one hand (for the settlers' devotion to collective volunteering projects, their sons' service in combat units, the way they cope with the dangers of terrorism) and marking them as ‘other’ – very different from Israeliness. It is for a good reason that most Israelis refer to these areas as ‘the territories’ rather than by their geographic nomenclature – in other words, with a component of ‘otherness’ and ‘strangeness’ as compared to Israeli society. And this despite the fact that these areas are geographically tangent to the centre of the country.
This volume put out by the journal Israel Affairs is the outcome of a research initiative on the part of its editors dealing with the democratic skills (expertise) of the residents of Judea and Samaria.Footnote2 The intention was to examine how those ‘others’ found ways of influencing Israeli society and Israeli discourse. The settlers are those who over the years have remained in a modern condition, promoting interests via settlement practices in a similar fashion to the pioneers of the early Zionist movement. This was in contrast to many of the Israeli identities to the west of the Green Line that are in the post-modern condition and find ways of influencing the formulation of policy and discourse through social networks, social movements, intellectual discourse, cultural structuring and related means. This collection contains a number of studies, some of which were directly created as a part of the research project, and they shed light on the issue.
The collection is divided into a number of sections, each of which refers to a different aspect of the Jewish society in the settlements of Judea and Samaria. The first section, ‘History and Philosophy of Jewish Settlement’, provides a theoretical framework to the way of thinking on the settlements. Tamar Meisels' article deals with the complexity of the normative-ethical dimension of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria and examines it from the point of view of the study of law, ethics and political thought. Miriam Billig's article provides the reader who is not familiar with the history, with an overview, explaining ‘the biography of the place’ from the point of view of the development of the Jewish settlement there.
The second section, ‘Place Identities – Realities and Representations’, relates to the identities and communities that have been created among the settlers and settlements. Nissim Leon's article deals with the religious Zionists on the settlements and how they perceive themselves since the start of settlement in the territories as having become an elite. Udi Lebel writes about what he considers the central revolution that took place among the settlers – the pre-military academies which led to the settlers becoming the spearhead of the Israeli army, and how the entire area began acquiring a militaristic habitus. Shimi Friedman writes about the phenomenon of the ‘hilltop youth’, and sheds light on the sociological phenomenon that can be called ‘dual otherness’ – that is, marginal youth that are perceived as deviant by the settlers who themselves are a kind of Israeli ‘otherness’. He uses anthropological and criminological tools to examine the phenomenon. Eithan Orkibi studies the way in which the settlements and settlers are portrayed in Israeli documentary films – where they are typically perceived as being deviant, ‘other’, occupying forces – and a plethora of images that are the opposite of what they try to promote about themselves in the Israeli discourse.
The third section, ‘Dynamics of Regional Policy Making’, explains components of public policy that refer to the settlers and settlements. Asaf Lebovitz explains how the territories and the settlers are perceived by the decision makers of Israel's security policy – that is to say, by those who formulate the policy ‘from above’ – while Ami Pedahzur and Holly McCarthy describe in their article the policy on settlements ‘from below’ – in other words, the creation of ‘facts on the ground’ which the settlers, as an interest group, have promoted and forced onto the Israeli map. The article by Arye Naor describes the way in which Menachem Begin's government related to the settlers and settlements. That government deserves special attention since it was the first since the 1967 Six Day War which consciously and intentionally began to advance the expansion of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.
The collection is being published in the wake of elections in Israel. It became even clearer on the eve of, and during, the election campaign just how central the issue of the settlements and the settlers is in Israeli politics and society. The PM, who was re-elected, succeeded in turning questions of security and survival into the central issues while making it clear that alternative governments that were likely to opt for an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria would bring about a situation in which Palestinian terrorism would increase and intensify. Parallel to this, while Israeli society is becoming more and more aware of civic issues (rule of law, society and welfare), it emerged that Gershon Mesika, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, who holds municipal responsibility for dozens of settlements, had to step down on suspicion of criminal conduct, financial irregularities and improper governance with regard to a company he set up for the development of Samaria. This strengthened existing and entrenched attitudes about the settlements being an enterprise that was made possible thanks to long-standing illegal activity.
The attitude toward the settlements, apparently, is different from that toward the settlers, or at least their leadership. While the settlement enterprise is appreciated since it is perceived (to contribute) from a security point of view, it appears that the attitude toward the leadership of the communities differs because they are viewed in judicial and legal terms. This merely serves to clarify the extent to which, even within the Jewish-Israeli discourse, the settlements and the settlers are viewed in a complex, fluctuating and constantly changing manner that is difficult to define. We hope that the articles which, as we noted, intentionally deal with Jewish-Israeli society in the territories, will assist researchers and provide them with ‘a look from within’.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Science Ministry for the research stipend for the research project ‘Democratic Efficacy among Periphery Groups: the Case of Judea and Samaria’, conducted by the Samaria and Jordan Rift R&D Centre, Ariel, financed by the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space. To Professor Efraim Karsh, editor of the journal, who invited us to edit the special volume. And many thanks for Mr. Vincent Reyes, Taylor & Francis editor, which professionally, kindly and patiently accompanied, managed and supervised the production of the volume.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes
1. Ann Swidler, ‘Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies’. American Sociological Review 51, no. 1 (1986): 273–86.
2. Project no. 3-9142.