Intergenerational gaps in West Bank Jewish communities

ABSTRACT

This article examined the differences between the political attitudes of two generations of religious Zionists settlers in the West Bank. Theoretical approaches on intergenerational socialization were reviewed, predicting trends of continuity vis-à-vis change in intergenerational attitudes. Also, previous studies of the religious Zionist sector subgroups, the settlements, and their residents were reviewed. The study was conducted with a quantitative method, while the research tool was an online research questionnaire. The study findings verify the research hypothesis regarding the intergenerational differences in political attitudes, as most issues that were examined found that the younger generation holds more hawkish attitudes in comparison to their parents. Finally, the young Torani were emphasized in the research as the secondary group of settlers who, in most cases, hold the most extreme political attitudes.

KEYWORDS:

• Israel
• Judea and Samaria
• West Bank
• Gush Emunim
• religious parties
• national-religious sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Taub, The Settlers, 84-5.

2. Aran, The Roots of Gush Emunim, 266-9; Eldar and Zertal, Lords of the Land; Feige, Jewish Fundamentalism, 67-72; Newman, “The Impact of Gush Emunim,” 200-12; Pedahzur, “Israeli Settlers,” 350-5; Pedahzur and McCarthy, “West Bank Settlers,” 443-61; Sagi and Schwartz, “The Religious Zionist Project,” 9-40.

3. Feige, Jewish Fundamentalism, 229-46; Kaniel, “The Hilltop Settlers,” 533-58.

4. Almog and Almog, Generation Y, 34-74; Herzog, “Social and Political Generations,” 21-43.

5. Garcia-Albacete, Young People’s Political Participation, 143; Jennings, Stoker and Bowers, “Politics across Generations,” 784.

6. Brady, Schlozman and Verba, “Political Mobility and Political Reproduction,” 158; Emery, “Intergenerational Conflict,” 8; Ho, Weng, and Clarke, “Political Attitudes and Behavior,” 257; Siemienska, “Intergenerational Differences in Political Values,” 370; Smets, “Revisiting the Political Life-Cycle Model,” 242.

7. Almog and Almog, Generation Y, 383; Jennings, Stoker and Bowers, “Politics across Generations,” 791; Neundorf, Smets and Garcıa-Albacete, “The Development of Political Interest,” 95.

8. Hermann et al., The National-Religious Sector in Israel, 227-30.

9. Cohen, “Jewish Home as an ‘Open Camp Party,” 263-4; Cohen and Lazar, “A Ruling Party versus a Party Aspiring to Leadership,” 79-81.

10. Hermann et al., The National-Religious Sector in Israel, 224.

11. Ahituv, “Religious Zionism,” 189; Almog, “National-Religious Population,” 41; Geiger, “The New Religious Zionism,” 52-5; Hermann et al., The National-Religious Sector in Israel, 27; Rosenak, “Tension between Judaism and a Democratic State,” 517; Schwartz, Religious Zionism, 20; Sheleg, “Religious Society between Idealism and the Bourgois,” 20.

12. Hermann et al., The National-Religious Sector in Israel, 28.

13. Almog and Almog, Generation Y, 343; Garcia-Albacete, Young People’s Political Participation, 14-16.

14. Atmor, “On (non-) Participation in the Elections,” 21.

15. Almog and Almog, Generation Y, 346; Garcia-Albacete, Young People’s Political Participation, 57-60.

16. Hermann et al, The Israeli Democracy Index-2016, 92.

17. Chawla and Cushing, “Education for Strategic Environmental Behavior,” 441; Diemer, “Fostering Marginalized Youths’ Political Participation,” 250.

18. Hermann et al., The National-Religious Sector in Israel, 49-50.

19. Krampen, “Adolescent Political Action Orientations to Voting Behavior,” 290-1; Wernli, “Parental Political Influences,” 36-8.

20. “The best system of government is democracy”; “A Rabbi is allowed to instruct his students against government decisions”; “In a situation where there is a conflict between the opinion of a Rabbi I respect and the laws of the state, I will prefer the laws of the state.”

21. Finkel, Humphries, and Opp, “Socialist Values and the Development of Democratic Support,” 356-7.

22. Roth, “The Crisis of Statehood: The Disengagement Plan,” 291-2.

23. Helinger & Hershkowitz, Obedience and Civil Disobedience in Religious Zionism, 262-3.

24. Ibid., 226-9; Roth, “The Crisis of Statehood: The Disengagement Plan,” 310-1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reoute Drey-Diamant

Dr. Reoute Drey-Diamant is a researcher and programme evaluator at the Center for Educational Technology (CET).