Remember to be Jewish: Religious Populism in Israel

In this paper we explore the relation between religion and populism in Israel. Jewish identity has been an important marker of citizenship and belonging in Israel since its inception. The founders of the Zionist movement and the dominant elites of early statehood remained dependent upon Jewish religion that demarcated national boundaries and legitimated territorial claims. With the establishment of the state, Jewish identity helped create and legitimate a segmented citizenship regime that secured privilege for Jews. Gradually, and especially in the past two decades, Jewishness became more contested, demarcating not only Jews from non-Jews but also “authentic” Jews from allegedly “cosmopolitan elites,” thus becoming part of populist politics, central to Israeli politics. The complex relation between religion and populism in Israel is demonstrated by the development of two populist parties; the first one we describe as “inclusive” (Shas) and the second one as “exclusionary” (Likud). The study of the two parties, analyzes the role of religious identities, tropes and symbols in boundary-making and political strategies. In the Israeli case religion functions both as the positive content of the political community (since the ethnos -the Jewish people - is conflated with the demos) and the demands for inclusion; and as the marker of a threat (non-Jewish citizens, asylum seekers and allegedly disloyal secular elites).