Introduction by the Editor of the Special Issue: Sociology of Occupation | Yuval Yonai

On the Occupation: Discussion

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• On the Institutionalization of Fields of Knowledge: Notes on the Sociology of Occupation | Hanna Herzog

• Has Indeed the Occupation of the Territories Permeated inside? The Modest Contribution of Israeli Sociology to the Study of Occupation Issues | Sammy Smooha

• Sociologists and the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories | Yehouda Shenhav

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On the Occupation: Articles

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Of Dowries and Brides: A Structural Analysis of Israel's Occupation

Neve Gordon

In this paper I attempt to uncover some of the causes leading to the dramatic changes that have taken place over the past four decades in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Drawing attention to the different ways the Palestinian inhabitants have been managed, my central thesis is that the occupation‘s very structure, rather than the policy choices of the Israeli government, has led to the shifts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More specifically, I maintain that the interactions, excesses and contradictions produced by the means of control that have been applied in the Occupied Territories can help explain changes in the configuration of the power employed to control the Palestinians. This clarifies in turn why following the 1967 war a politics of life, intended to secure the livelihood of the occupied residents, was emphasized by the military government, and why we are now witnessing a macabre politics characterized by an increasing number of deaths. An interrogation of this kind is advantageous because it helps us see beyond the smoke screen of political proclamations, and thus improves our understanding of why the acrimonious Israeli-Palestinian conflict has developed in the way that it has.

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Occupying Democracy: the Political Role of the Military in Israel's Dual Regime

Lev Grinberg

The article discusses the circumstances surrounding the establishment of Israel‘s peculiar dual domination regime since 1967. It claims that the structure of this dual regime makes the army a crucial political actor that actively shapes state policies. This regime differs from the “democratic-Jewish state“ established in 1948, which gave Palestinians citizenship rights despite their subordination to a military administration. Democracy is defined as a regime that institutionalizes the dynamic opening of political spaces for representation and mediation of social conflicts, contained within the framework of recognized boundaries. The article analyzes the legitimacy crisis that the dual regime underwent when the Likud rose to power, initially weakening the legitimacy of using military force and later, following the first Intifada, leading to a search for a “Palestinian partner“ that subsequently degenerated into a permanent escalation of violence.

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Violence as a Test of Competitiveness

Yagil Levy

This article probes the mechanism that legitimized the IDF‘s aggressive behavior in the occupied territories during the first years of the Al-Aqsa (second) Intifada, in contrast to the First Intifada (1987-1993) when public criticism restrained IDF aggressiveness. I argue that the change in the social composition of the IDF field units from the secular Ashkenazi middle class to religious and peripheral groups resulted in much greater enthusiasm than in the past for aggressive missions. This attitude is closely traceable to the unique situation of the new groups. They functioned in a competitive arena in which they strove for military status, and also the ability to further convert this status into valuable assets in the social sphere. Competitiveness was translated into over-aggressiveness. The altered composition of the IDF field units made it less likely that sensitive soldiers would arouse public opinion through their extra-military social networks, as their Ashkenazi predecessors had done in the past.

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Prolonged Occupation: Socio-Psychological Implications for the Occupying Society | Daniel Bar-Tal, Eran Halperin, Keren Sharvit, Nimrod Rosler and Amiram Raviv

Although prolonged occupation of a nation is no longer a common phenomenon, where it does exist it carries harsh implications for all parties involved. This article examines the socio-psychological implications of occupation for the occupying society, taking the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967 as an example. The paper first delineates the concept of occupation from a socio-psychological perspective, which supplements the legal- formal aspect. We then propose a conceptual framework that analyzes the psychology of the occupying society. Within this framework we describe the psychological challenges that the occupation may pose to the members of the occupying society. Next we introduce psychological mechanisms that members of an occupying society may use in order to cope with these challenges. This conception is based on a psycho-dynamic infrastructure and socio-psychological contents involving a system of societal beliefs. Several ideas are offered on the relationship between these mechanisms and the process of ending the occupation.

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Articles:

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Blessed Be the Sage's Memory? Haredi Reflections and Challenges to the Portrayal of Torah Sages from Past Generations | Yohai Hakak

In the last decade an ultra-orthodox literature concerned particularly with the education of children and youth has flourished. A prevalent question ponders the right way to describe the Torah sages of previous generations, i.e., what should be remembered and what forgotten about them. Many authors criticize the ways of writing customary till now, which tend to describe Torah sages as super-human, without weaknesses and failings. Using educational explanations they propose a change in these ways of portrayal. I attempt to explain this trend, connect it to the current social circumstances of the Israeli ultra-orthodox community, and probe the difficulties in implementing its own demands for more realistic historical writing.

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"The Victory of the System": From "Appropriate" Citizenship to Appropriating Citizenship in a Planned Immigration Town | Meirav Aharon-Gutman

When this research was being carried out (2000-2004), the Likud was at the height of its power. Precisely during that time it also bore the brunt of much ridicule and harsh public criticism. I ask how this gap between the Likud‘s electoral power and its depleted symbolic power opened up. Based on ethnographic investigation, I argue for the “victory of the system“: that is, by adopting “appropriate citizenship“ a new political culture was created, that of appropriating citizenship. This culture is created in three stages. In the first stage, people adopt the appropriate models; in the second stage, form and content are separated, and the “appropriate“ tools are filled with new content containing elements of religion and reflecting economic and socio-historical contexts. In the third stage, appropriating citizenship is consolidated, and new-old modes of power accumulation are created. This model criticizes modern political culture and what it has become for immigrants in a modern national city.

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Children Second to Bureaucrats: Who Cares about Children with Special Needs?

Liora Gvion and Diana Luzzatto

Parents of children with high functioning communication disorders adopt strategies in negotiating with urban placement-committees in the central area of Israel to allow them full participation in decisions on the educational framework suited to their children‘s needs. We argue that the parents introduce a discourse alternative to the predominant professional one that dominates the committee‘s meetings. It is based both on the cultural capital owned by the parents and on their subjective perception of their right to grant their children an education consistent with their outlook. The ways whereby the parents turn their resources into operational strategies to improve their chances of placing their child in an educational framework they deem appropriate are set out. The study distinguishes formal from informal strategies, both of which help the parents to change from passive recipients of the placement-committee‘s decisions to independent actors who establish a culture of resistance. The ways in which cultural capital is translated into operational strategies are highlighted