Title Page The everyday geopolitics of Messianic Jews in Israel-Palestine. Daniel Webb Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD, University of London, 2015. 1 Declaration I Daniel Webb hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Date: Sign: 2 Abstract This thesis examines the geopolitical orientations of Messianic Jews in Jerusalem, Israel-Palestine, in order to shed light on the confluence and co-constitution of religion and geopolitics. Messianic Jews are individuals who self-identify as being ethnically Jewish, but who hold beliefs that are largely indistinguishable from Christianity. Using the prism of ‘everyday geopolitics’, I explore my informants’ encounters with, and experiences of, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dominant geopolitical logics that underpin it. I analyse the myriad of everyday factors that were formative in the shaping of my informants’ geopolitical orientation towards the conflict, focusing chiefly on those that were mediated and embodied through religious practice and belief. The material for the research was gathered in Jerusalem over the course of sixteen months – between September 2012 and January 2014 – largely through ethnographic research methods. Accordingly, I offer a lived alternative to existing work on geopolitics and religion; work that is dominated by overly cerebral and cognitivist views of religion. By contrast, I show how the urgencies of everyday life, as well as a number of religious practices, attune Messianic Jewish geopolitical orientations in dynamic, contingent, and contradictory ways. Taken together, I conclude that the imbrication of religion and geopolitics cannot be mapped in any simple or straightforward way. 3 Contents Title Page ...................................................................................................... 1 Declaration ................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ........................................................................................................ 3 Contents ....................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures .............................................................................................. 8 List of Abbreviations .................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 10 Maps ............................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 1: ........................................................................ 16 Introduction ................................................................................................ 16 1.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 16 1.1 Introducing critical geopolitics..................................................................... 18 1.2 Empirical opportunities ................................................................................ 21 1.3 Conceptual opportunities ............................................................................. 25 1.4 A word on Jerusalem and urban geopolitics .............................................. 30 1.5 A word on Messianic Jews and the ‘Messianic’ ......................................... 32 1.6 Thesis outline ................................................................................................. 34 Chapter 2: ........................................................................ 37 Religion and geopolitics: making religion relevant ................................... 37 2.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 37 2.1 Religion and international politics: a neglected area of study? ................ 38 2.2 Critical geopolitics and religion .................................................................... 43 2.3 Religious geopolitics ...................................................................................... 46 2.4 The ‘Geopolitics of Religion’ ....................................................................... 47 2.5 ‘Evangelical Geopolitics’ and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict .................. 50 2.6 Empirical and conceptual concerns ............................................................ 53 2.7 Propositional theology and extreme eschatologies ................................... 55 2.8 Propositional theology and the neglect of practiced religion .................. 60 2.9 A ‘lived’ approach to religion ....................................................................... 63 4 2.10 Towards an ‘everyday geopolitics’ of ‘lived’ religion ............................... 66 2.11 Summary ........................................................................................................ 72 Chapter 3: ........................................................................ 75 Researching ‘religeopolitics’....................................................................... 75 3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 75 3.1 Methodological considerations for new fields of enquiry ........................ 76 3.2 Research timeline ........................................................................................... 80 3.3 Research methods .......................................................................................... 84 3.4 Participant observation ................................................................................. 85 3.5 Locating the field ........................................................................................... 89 3.6 Interviews ........................................................................................................ 91 3.7 Access .............................................................................................................. 98 3.8 Positionality .................................................................................................. 106 3.9 Ethics and anonymity .................................................................................. 112 3.10 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 115 Chapter 4: ....................................................................... 117 The geopolitics of Israeli indifference ...................................................... 117 4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 117 4.1 Jerusalem’s light-rail ..................................................................................... 121 4.2 The ‘everyday’ train...................................................................................... 126 4.3 Encountering indifference .......................................................................... 134 4.4 Israeli Jewish indifference and the Palestinian Other ............................. 139 4.5 Jewish Israeli indifference and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict .............. 143 4.6 An everyday geopolitics of indifference. .................................................. 146 4.7 Manipulating/manufacturing indifference ............................................... 151 4.8 Coda - A summer of war, an autumn of terror: what a difference a year makes ....................................................................................................................... 155 4.9 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 156 Chapter 5: ....................................................................... 159 Encountering the everyday border: religious identity and Israeli citizenship. ................................................................................................ 159 5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 159 5 5.1 Citizenship borders ...................................................................................... 162 5.2 The legal borders of Israeli citizenship ..................................................... 166 5.3 The formal spaces of Israeli (non)citizenship .......................................... 170 5.4 Border materialities ...................................................................................... 174 5.5 Israel’s border agents ................................................................................... 181 5.6 Receding borders and everyday life ........................................................... 186 5.7 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 189 Chapter 6: ....................................................................... 192 Precarious positionings: everyday acts of resistance and compliance in the Messianic Jewish community. .................................................................. 192 6.0 Introduction .................................................................................................. 192 6.1 Religious positionings.................................................................................