Rutgers University doctoral student, Assaf Harel, under the guidance of Dr. Daniel Goldstein, will undertake research on concepts of time and local politics in contemporary pioneer settlements. Pioneer settlement is a source of both opportunity and conflict in the contemporary world. How settlers assign meaning to the past, the present, and the future appears to be significant for predicting the potential for territorial disputes. The research will be carried out among two ideologically different Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. Through the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods that include interviews, archival research and participant observation, the researcher will investigate (1) how different groups of settlers assign meaning to events in time; (2) how they view their own capacity to influence the flow of history, and (3) how these conceptions of time relate to ideology as well as to settlement-making practices.
The research is important because it may offer a lens into the local-level roots of seemingly intractable conflicts in many parts of the world today. Findings from the research also will contribute to social scientific understanding of the relations between time and space and thus will deepen understanding of temporal dimensions of territorial disputes. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.
The NSF-funded dissertation research conducted by Assaf Harel of Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, examined the relations between religious concepts of time and space at contemporary pioneer Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Through the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods that include interviews, archival research and participant observation the research reveals that religious understandings of time are a fundamental source of of conflict and unity in relation to notions of territorial owning and belonging and their geopolitics. More specificity, the research finds: (1) Religiously motivated Jewish settlers in the West-Bank are undergoing a process of theological fragmentation that can be defined by varying understandings of past, present and future events and results in a wide spectrum of time-related ideologies. One end of the spectrum is composed of settlers who believe that these times parallel the Biblical conquest of Canaan by Joshua. In accordance, these settlers perceive Palestinians as a metaphysical enemy. The other end of the spectrum is composed of settlers who also believe that these times parallel biblical times, but highlight the ethical teachings of the Hebrew prophets, emphasizing how national redemption and destruction is dependent upon ethical treatments of the weak, including Palestinian minorities. (2) Almost all religiously motivated settlers believe in their capacity to influence the flow of history, but differ in their understanding of this capacity. For example, those who believe in the conquest of all of the Biblical Land of Israel see the prevention of a Palestinian state as an important condition of redemption, while those who emphasize the ethical teachings of the Hebrew prophets understand the national aspirations of Palestinians as a potential source of not only national redemption but also universal one. (3) These opposing views of time bear upon territorial politics. Settlers who believe that this age is an age of conquest act to ascertain national ownership of land, seeing territorial expansion as a paramount constituent of national redemption. Many of those settlers who emphasize the teaching of the Hebrew prophets act to ascertain national belonging to the Holy Land, thus giving room to the possibility of territorial sharing and co-existence beyond national and ethnic boundaries. Intellectual Merit: In examining the inextricable ties between religious concepts of time and space at contemporary pioneer Jewish settlements in the West Bank, this research project deepens anthropological understanding of temporal dimensions of territorial disputes. In addition, in bringing into sharper relief the settlers' belief in their power to influence the flow of history, this research contributes knowledge about the role of time in contemporary religion, and in the political struggles of the Middle East. Broader impacts: If globally destabilizing territorial disputes such as the Israeli-Palestinian one are to be resolved, it is crucial to gain deep understanding of the complex interplays between the sociocultural and the territorial dimensions of these disputes. In rendering visible the hidden temporal elements of geopolitical processes, this research offers a lens into the local-level roots of seemingly intractable conflicts in many parts of the world today.
