New Article: Weiss, How a Gentler Israeli Military Prevents Organized Resistance

Weiss, Erica. “Incentivized Obedience: How a Gentler Israeli Military Prevents Organized Resistance.” American Anthropologist 118.1 (2016): 91-103.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/aman.12501
 

Abstract

In this article, I offer an ethnographic examination of neoliberal techniques of control through absence by the Israeli military, the state institution most associated with discipline, indoctrination, and direct coercion. I highlight the ways that the apparent withdrawal of the state from practices of indoctrination and the punishment of conscientious objectors are accompanied by a shift in recruitment and training that emphasizes self-advancement and social mobility above national and ideological commitments. While in the past the Israeli state and military focused exclusively on shaping self-sacrificing citizens, today it invests a great deal of its effort in structuring the calculated choices of self-interested individuals toward favorable outcomes. I explore the uneven but strategic deployment of incentivized governance and consider some of the effects of these techniques for the meaning of engaged citizenship and the politics of state violence in a militarized society. Further, I demonstrate that the lightening of disciplinary sanctions in favor of individual freedom is an effective form of weakening dissent and that it confounds efforts to constitute organized resistance to militarism, leaving activists floundering to find effective ways to express their political concerns.

 

 

 

ToC: Journal of Palestine Studies 44.4 (2015)

Table of Contents Alert University of California Press is happy to notify you that the new issue of Journal of Palestine Studies is now available. The online issues of this journal are hosted on JSTOR on behalf of University of California Press. Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 44, No. 4, Summer 2015 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies Cover Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4 Front Matter Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4 Table of Contents Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4 FROM THE EDITOR Rashid I. Khalidi Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 5-6. ARTICLE The Two-State Model and Israeli Constitutionalism: Impact on the Palestinian Citizens of Israel Mazen Masri Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 7-20. INTERVIEW Elia Suleiman: The Power of Ridicule Nehad Khader Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 21-31. ESSAYS Dream-Work of Dispossession: The Instance of Elia Suleiman Stathis Gourgouris Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 32-47. The Way Forward: Full Citizenship for Israel’s Palestinian Minority Avraham Burg Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 48-56. REMEMBRANCE Eric Rouleau: Journalist Extraordinaire, Champion of the Palestinian Cause Linda Butler Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 57-67. SPECIAL DOCUMENT FILE The Iran Nuclear Negotiations: Israel and the U.S. Congress Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 68-92. RECENT BOOKS Review: From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947–1950 From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947–1950 by Ariella Azoulay Review by: Issam Nassar Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 93-95. Review: Colonial Jerusalem: The Spatial Construction of Identity and Difference in a City of Myth, 1948–2012 Colonial Jerusalem: The Spatial Construction of Identity and Difference in a City of Myth, 1948–2012 by Thomas Philip Abowd Review by: Michael Dumper Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 95-97. Review: Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe by Jo Roberts Review by: Awad Halabi Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 97-98. Review: Conscientious Objectors in Israel: Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty Conscientious Objectors in Israel: Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty by Erica Weiss Review by: Mark Levine Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 99-101. Review: Producing Spoilers: Peacemaking and the Production of Enmity in a Secular Age Producing Spoilers: Peacemaking and the Production of Enmity in a Secular Age by Joyce Dalsheim Review by: Anna Bernard Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 101-103. Review: Violence and Understanding in Gaza: The British Broadsheets’ Coverage of the War Violence and Understanding in Gaza: The British Broadsheets’ Coverage of the War by Dávid Kaposi Review by: Ben White Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 103-105. Review: Intellectual Resistance and the Struggle for Palestine Intellectual Resistance and the Struggle for Palestine by Matthew Abraham Review by: Bruce Robbins Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 105-106. Review: Steve Sabella: Photography, 1997–2014 Steve Sabella: Photography, 1997–2014 by Hubertus von Amelunxen; Hubertus von Amelunxen; Kamal Boullata Review by: Dorothea Schoene Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 106-108. SELECTIONS FROM THE PRESS Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 109-136. PHOTOS FROM THE QUARTER Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 137-144. PALESTINE UNBOUND Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 145-152. UPDATE ON CONFLICT AND DIPLOMACY Paul Karolyi Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 153-193. CONGRESSIONAL MONITOR Paul Karolyi Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 194-243. DOCUMENTS AND SOURCE MATERIAL Journal of Palestine Studies Summer 2015, Vol. 44, No. 4: 244-268.

New Article: Weiss, Humanitarian Sentiment and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Weiss, Erica. “Provincializing Empathy: Humanitarian Sentiment and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict.” Anthropological Theory 15.3 (2015): 275-92.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1463499614568571

 

Abstract

This article considers the role of the humanitarian sentiment empathy in peace initiatives in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. Recently, a sustained critique of humanitarianism has emerged. While many of these accounts focus on the ethical effects of specific manifestations of humanitarian governance, there is a significant strain criticizing the inherent logical structure of humanitarian empathy, and questioning the innate ability of the humanitarian tradition to understand ethical questions politically. This critique does not resonate with my fieldwork experiences with Jewish Israeli conscientious objectors, who are explicitly inspired by empathetic experiences with Palestinians, and interpret these experiences politically. Thus, following Dipesh Chakrabarty’s example, I suggest that provincializing the humanitarian tradition is a more productive anthropological stance than critique, because it similarly allows us to criticize universal claims and abuses of power, while not subscribing to determinism, and not repudiating our interlocutors’ core ethical beliefs.

 

 

Reviews: Weiss, Conscientious Objectors in Israel

Weiss, Erica. Conscientious Objectors in Israel. Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

 

Reviews

• Singeisen, David. “Review.” LSE Review of Books, August 2014.
• Shammas, Victor L. “Review.” Social Anthropology 22.4 (2014): 518-519.
• Stern, Nehemia. “Review.” American Ethnologist 42.1 (2015): 181-183.
• Aviram, Hadar. “Review.” Perspectives on Politics 13.2 (2015): 526-8.
• Linn, Ruth, and Renana Gal. “Review.” Israel Studies Review 30.1 (2015): 149-152.

 

 

New Article: Livio, Constructions of Space in the Discourse of Israeli Military Refuseniks

Livio, Oren. “The Path of Least Resistance: Constructions of Space in the Discourse of Israeli Military Refuseniks.” Discourse, Context and Media (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2015.02.002

 

Abstract

In this article I examine the ways in which Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories use spatial representations and metaphors in discourse explaining their decision to refuse. Using Lefebvre’s (1995) framework regarding spaces of representation as sites of political struggle, I analyze how selective refuseniks construct the Territories as a space of pollution, irrationality, disorder and death, expressing fear that these qualities might contaminate Israeli space, and thus implicitly promoting a separatist logic of exclusion. Refuseniks employ metaphors of movement to portray the transition from ‘here’ to ‘there’ as a shift into an alternate universe, and attempt to appropriate hegemonic discursive conceptualizations associated with three culturally loaded spaces: the prison, the Jewish settlements, and Nazi Germany. The ambivalent dialectics of dominant and resistant ideologies in refuseniks’ discourse and their cultural implications are discussed.

 

New Book: Weiss, Conscientious Objectors in Israel

Weiss, Erica. Conscientious Objectors in Israel. Citizenship, Sacrifice, Trials of Fealty. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

 
URL: http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15212.html

 

In Conscientious Objectors in Israel, Erica Weiss examines the lives of Israelis who have refused to perform military service for reasons of conscience. Based on long-term fieldwork, this ethnography chronicles the personal experiences of two generations of Jewish conscientious objectors as they grapple with the pressure of justifying their actions to the Israeli state and society—often suffering severe social and legal consequences, including imprisonment.

While most scholarly work has considered the causes of animosity and violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Conscientious Objectors in Israel examines how and under what circumstances one is able to refuse to commit acts of violence in the midst of that conflict. By exploring the social life of conscientious dissent, Weiss exposes the tension within liberal citizenship between the protection of individual rights and obligations of self-sacrifice. While conscience is a strong cultural claim, military refusal directly challenges Israeli state sovereignty. Weiss explores conscience as a political entity that sits precariously outside the jurisdictional bounds of state power. Through the lens of Israeli conscientious objection, Weiss looks at the nature of contemporary citizenship, examining how the expectations of sacrifice shape the politics of both consent and dissent. In doing so, she exposes the sacrificial logic of the modern nation-state and demonstrates how personal crises of conscience can play out on the geopolitical stage.

Erica Weiss teaches anthropology at Tel Aviv University.

 

Cite: Hermann, Pacifism and Anti-Militarism in Israel

Hermann, Tamar. "Pacifism and Anti-Militarism in the Period Surrounding the Birth of the State of Israel." Israel Studies 15,2 (2010): 127-148.

 

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/summary/v015/15.2.hermann.html

 

Abstract

The article focuses on groups and individuals who promoted the ideological options of anti-militarism and pacifism in the period immediately preceding the birth of the State of Israel and during its first decade. It presents the struggles of the Ihud group against the spreading of the Masada myth and positioning the IDF at the center of the Israeli collective cognition and of the Organization of War Resisters in Israel against the universal conscription and legal negation of the conscientious objection option. It sheds light on the long-forgotten absolute pacifism of two individuals—Natan Hofshi and Yosef Abilea—who were involved in the above organizations but also preached against what they saw as the dangerous taking over of the militaristic state of mind in the late pre-state days and early statehood.