The Question of Ethnic Identity in the Israeli Settlements

The ethnic identity of the Israeli settlers beyond the Green Line is rarely considered in academic work or even in the public discourse. This omission is puzzling when we consider the clear visibility of ethnicity in the context of the Jewish settlement project. This article shows that current research rests on an essentialist conception of “religion” and “class,” which sidelines the option of discussing the settlers’ ethnic identity. Through a content analysis of the ethnic discourse in Nekuda, the settlers’ monthly organ, the article demonstrates the intersection of religion, class, and ethnicity in the context of the Israeli settlements. These interfaces offer a real empirical basis for a discussion of the settlers’ ethnic identity – all but overlooked by scholars of settlers’ identity. This omission, I argue, is rooted in a paradigmatic conception of the Green Line, which produces a distinction between “ethnic” and “occupation.” This distinction not only reaffirms the various kinds of ethnicization in Israel, but also reveals that even critical research continues to cling to Jewish-nationalist categories.