Suchergebnisse

This book presents for the first time a comprehensive and nuanced portrayal of ZAKA -- an organization of ultra-orthodox religious Jews who rush to the sites of Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel to care for the mutilated corpses of the victims according to an intricate, symbolically charged, macabre rite. Gideon Aran has spent years embedded with the men of ZAKA, and in this gripping ethnography he takes readers inside the organization and on the ground with these men as they do their gruesome -- but, in their view, holy -- work.

Discusses the impact of Zionist fundamentalism, as represented by the Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful), who call for the formal annexation of territories run by the military since 1967, drawing on personal experiences with & influence of key member Rabbi Moshe Levinger. Gush Emunim's involvement in direct-action politics, including mass rallies, illegal settlements, manipulation of public opinion, & political maneuvering, are described. A historical overview of the group's origins & associated myths is given, with connections made to developments in Israeli culture & public discourse. It is shown how Gush Emunim & its ideas became legitimized & institutionalized & were threatened by the growing peace process & Arab uprisings (the Intifada) during the 1980s. The theological & ideological roots of the Gush Emunim, its symbolic role in Israeli society, & its place in the fundamentalist landscape are analyzed, focusing on its identity as a religious movement & combination of religion & nationalism. Implications of tensions in Gush Emunim, its relationship to the secular state, current trends in Israel, & potential Palestinian settlement are assessed. It is concluded that, while Zionist fundamentalism has returned to its status as an underground movement, the right conditions could revive it. 1 Table, Bibliog. T. Arnold

La question du lieu est centrale en Israël. La réalité israélienne est la conséquence du mouvement de retour des juifs à leur ancien lieu et, de ce fait, du retour du "lieu" à l'avant du discours juif. Leur retour au lieu confronte les Israéliens non seulement aux Palestiniens mais aussi à eux-mêmes en tant que juifs peu enclins à se considérer comme de vulgaires autochtones enfermés dans les limites d'un territoire circonscrit. Pour le judaïsme l'identité d'Israël est inscrite dans la terre et dans ses livres - bibliques et post-bibliques - lesquels ont été intégrés dans le discours sioniste. L'étude des idées les plus répandues sur le lieu juif/israélien révèle que celles-ci se limitent rarement aux seules notions de nativité, centralité, cosmologie et sacralité. Ces concepts, souvent utilisés en anthropologie pour donner un contenu au lieu, ne sont admis d'emblée ni par les textes du judaïsme ni par la réalité israélienne. Si la pensée juive accorde la plus haute importance au lieu, celui-ci se heurte toujours pourtant à la résistance que lui oppose l'idée du divin. C'est cette difficulté qu'éprouve la pensée juive à assigner une place au lieu qui fait l'objet du présent article, juxtaposée aux conceptions de Mircéa Eliade et de quelques-uns de ses critiques. L'analyse dessine quelques motifs mythico-religieux : la terre de Canaan comme lieu, le Temple de Jérusalem comme paradigme du lieu saint. Elle se clôt par une discussion autour de la problématique du lieu saint dans l'Israël contemporain.

In 2017, nearly six thousand people were killed in suicide attacks across the world.In The Smile of the Human Bomb, Gideon Aran dissects the moral logic of the suicide terrorism that led to those deaths. The book is a firsthand examination of the bomb site at the moment of the explosion, during the first few minutes after the explosion, and in the last moments before the explosion. Aran uncovers the suicide bomber's final preparations before embarking on the suicide mission: the border crossing, the journey toward the designated target, penetration into the site, and the behavior of both sides within it. The book sheds light on the truth of the human bomb.Aran's gritty and often disturbing account is built on a foundation of participant observation with squads of pious Jewish volunteers who gather the scorched fragments of the dead after terrorist attacks; newly revealed documents, including interrogation protocols; interviews with Palestinian armed resistance members and retired Israeli counterterrorism agents; observations of failed suicide terrorists in jail; and conversations with the acquaintances of human bombs.The Smile of the Human Bomb provides new insights on the Middle East conflict, political violence, radicalism, victimhood, ritual, and death and unveils a suicide terrorism scene far different from what is conventionally pictured. In the end, Aran discovers, the suicide terrorist is an unremarkable figure, and the circumstances of his or her recruitment and operation are prosaic and often accidental. The smiling human bomb is neither larger than life nor a monster, but an actor on a human scale. And suicide terrorism is a drama in which clichés and chance events play their role.

Religion and Terrorism: The Use of Violence in Abrahamic Monotheism provides theoretical analysis of the nature of religious terrorism and religious martyrdom and also delves deeply into terrorist groups and beliefs in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.