The Everyday Reproduction of Jewish Democracy by Jewish Israeli Youth
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The Disengagement and Engaging Citizenship: The Everyday Reproduction of Jewish Democracy by Jewish Israeli Youth Andrew Gee PhD by Research The University of Edinburgh 2009 I declare that this thesis is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for publication or for any other degree or professional qualification. Andrew Gee Social Anthropology University of Edinburgh 2009 Abstract The apparent tension between Israel as a democracy and Israel as a specifically Jewish state has played a central role in much academic and popular debate about the region. Taking an actor-centred perspective of national subject and citizenship formation, this thesis treats Jewish nationalism and democratic citizenship not simply as abstractions, but as categories lived out in the everyday lives of Jewish Israeli youth. The ethnography focuses on secular and religious Jewish Israeli high school teens as they approach conscription age and begin to make decisions about their rights and responsibilities as Jewish Israeli citizens. This is done in a context of their school, recreational, and family life. Through the engagement of these youth with processes around the Disengagement from Gaza, which saw the radicalisation of existing conflicts between “secular” and “religious” Jews, I show how these teens reproduce Jewish democracy in their everyday lives, taking it from an abstract conundrum to an un-ambiguous way of being Israeli. What might be considered paradoxical in fact resembles what I consider the multiplexity of Jewish Israeli identity that considers the multiple ethnic, religious, and civic resources that constitute Jewish Israeli national subjectivity. The tensions between democratic citizenship and Jewish nationalism are therefore productive of a particular form of identity. The particular focus of the thesis is how and why Jewish Israeli youth reproduce Jewish nationalism, and subsequently how people themselves construct a sense of nationhood through the shared experiences of kin and peers. This ultimately establishes the nation as not only an “imagined community” but a tangible network of shared experiences, rooting it in intimate relationships that inspire feelings of national connectedness. The vagueness of why people would want to contribute to an abstract society is partly understood in an Israeli context through looking at the intimate familial motivations behind doing military service. The fact that the majority of Israeli teens still consider military service a vital constituent of Israeli civic identity and national membership reveals the moral boundaries that continue to be derived from civic republicanism and ethno-nationalism that comprise the experience of being in the army and Jewish democracy as a whole. Through the attitudes of Jewish Israelis and the IDF towards draft avoidance and conscientious objection one is able to appreciate how the ethnic and civic forms of citizenship that constitute the experience of military service establish certain contours of national belonging. This provides a contemporary understanding of Jewish Israelis‟ engagement with civic-republicanism and ethno-nationalism, showing the ways both the state and Jewish Israelis expect other Jewish nationals to show commitment to the Israeli state. My ethnography on state rituals illuminates how official state narratives converge with subjective national experiences. As well as trying to reinforce particular forms of nationalism, individuals take part in state rituals for their own reasons revealing the emotional aspect of nationalism and hence the fresh ways people interpret national discourses. Contents Abstract Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements 1. INTRODUCTION: UNRAVELLING THE JEWISH DEMOCRATIC CONUNDRUM ......... 1 COMPETING FORMS OF CITIZENSHIP AND RESULTANT TENSIONS ................................................ 2 YOUTH AND CITIZENSHIP: ENGAGING WITH JEWISH DEMOCRACY ................................................. 8 EDUCATED IN THE MULTIPLE DYNAMICS OF ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP ............................................... 11 STRATEGISING AROUND ISRAELI ETHNO-REPUBLICANISM .......................................................... 14 THE DISENGAGEMENT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP .................................... 16 THE DISENGAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF “POST-ZIONISM” ...................................................... 21 FINDING NATIONALISM ................................................................................................................... 23 A NON-PARADOXICAL JEWISH NATIONAL SUBJECT ..................................................................... 28 METHODS ....................................................................................................................................... 32 Schools as a Research Setting ............................................................................................. 35 Methods for Exploring Citizenship and Nationalism from the “Bottom-up” .................... 42 2. THE DISENGAGEMENT AND EXPERIENCES OF JEWISH ISRAELI NATIONHOOD 48 WHO IS INCLUDED? ....................................................................................................................... 48 DE-ABSTRACTING KINSHIP AND NATIONALISM ............................................................................. 51 “JEWS DO NOT EXPEL JEWS!” ....................................................................................................... 56 JEWISH KINSHIP STRATEGIES ....................................................................................................... 61 FEELING NATIONAL THROUGH MILITARY SERVICE ....................................................................... 67 SYMBOLIC GENDER ROLES AND THEIR USE IN POLITICAL ACTIVISM ........................................... 70 THE IMPLICATIONS OF SHARED JEWISH NATIONAL INTIMACY ON SETTLER EVICTIONS .............. 71 THE DISENGAGEMENT AND KIN-MOTIVATED PARTICIPATORY CITIZENSHIP ................................ 74 ARIEL SHARON: BEYOND PATERNALISM ...................................................................................... 77 3. DISENTANGLING “THE SECULAR” .................................................................................85 DECIPHERING SECULARISM AND TOLERANCE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ..................................... 91 ISRAEL’S HISTORY OF SECULAR-RELIGIOUS EMBEDDEDNESS .................................................... 94 JEWISH RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR EDUCATION.............................................................................. 99 DISENGAGING THE SECULAR FROM THE RELIGIOUS .................................................................. 101 ND “BRIDGING THE GAP”: THE GESHER ENCOUNTER SEMINAR, 22 FEBRUARY 2006 ................ 106 “SECULAR” VERSUS “RELIGIOUS” FREEDOM .............................................................................. 110 VISUAL MEDIATIONS OF “THE SECULAR” AND “THE RELIGIOUS” ................................................ 114 a) Distinguishing the Secular .............................................................................................. 115 b) Distinguishing the Religious ........................................................................................... 116 THE RIGHT TO REMAIN AN OTHER: PROBING THE THRESHOLD OF SECULAR TOLERANCE ...... 118 BUILDING TOLERANCE THROUGH THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN “BELIEF” AND “PRACTICE” ........ 121 4. HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE AND NATIONAL CEREMONIES: CELEBRATING ISRAELINESS AND SITES OF COMMUNAL CONSCIENCE ............................................ 124 THE HOLOCAUST: REDOING HISTORY ........................................................................................ 130 EXISTENTIAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY THROUGH HISTORICAL CONNECTEDNESS .................. 133 RELATING TO THE HOLOCAUST AFFECT ..................................................................................... 136 CREATING AND ENACTING STATEHOOD: YOM HAZIKARON CEREMONIAL ACTIVITIES ............... 140 PEOPLE AND STATE ENTWINED: YOM HAZIKARON CEREMONIES IN IRONY ALEPH HIGH SCHOOL AND LEVINSON RELIGIOUS HIGH SCHOOL .................................................................................. 143 VICTIMHOOD AND THE PROJECTION OF NATIONHOOD ............................................................... 147 INDEPENDENCE DAY: HOW TO CELEBRATE THE NATION .......................................................... 150 THE RITUAL ENJOYMENT OF ISRAELINESS ................................................................................. 151 5. AN EDUCATED CHOICE: ISRAELI YOUTH AS DISCERNING CUSTOMERS OF STATE MILITARISM ............................................................................................................... 156 LIVING WITH ISRAELI MILITARISM ................................................................................................ 162 THE GENDERING OF MILITARY ROLES ........................................................................................ 167 “THE NEXT GENERATION”: MOBILISING NATIONAL IDENTITY AMONGST FUTURE RECRUITS TO THE IDF........................................................................................................................................ 169 MOTIVATIONS TO SERVE ............................................................................................................. 178 Bargaining with the Military ................................................................................................. 180 A Debt to Family: De-abstracting Kinship