Israeli Resilience and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Between National Habitus and State Actions

Due to long-term ''national-security imperatives'', e.g. the multiple forms of geopolitical conflicts (Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran etc.), Israel has developed a ''habitus of national resilience'' intimately linked to the state; the utmost vital ''survival unit'' (Bourdieu 1984, 1992, 1998; and Elias 2000, 2001, 2008). Israeli government is thus the central stakeholder in policy-making processes in times of crisis, translated in rapid, yet sometimes controversial measures and public discourse. The Covid-19 pandemic is no different. Moreover, the pandemic, accompanied by the consequential socioeconomic malaise, was taking place in a political context of instability and fragmentation (four rounds of general elections in two years) centred around the leadership of prime minister Netanyahu,- who has been facing trials for corruption-, shifty party-based alliances and the normalization agreements with some Arab countries (UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan). Though Israel has succeeded in obtaining and speeding up the vaccination of its population, its ''accordion-like lockdown'' policies and meagre economic aide have been heavily criticized. The paper addresses the conjunctural and structural combination of the sanitary emergency, the political crisis and the increasing social discontent in Israel. It commences with a short definition of habitus, survival unit and national resilience in the Israeli case, followed by e section dedicated to the process-tracing of key decision-making moments and actions pushed forward by Israeli stakeholders in light of the outbreak of the pandemic. It thus juxtaposes health-related and political-based ventures and provides a multi-level sociopolitical analysis. The paper ends with evaluation regarding Israel's strategy to face the ongoing sanitary emergency as well as with hypotheses about the impact of the multifaceted crisis on Israel's sociopolitical fabric. Key-words: Israel, Covid-19 pandemic, national resilience, habitus, survival unit, geopolitics