Secular feelings, settler feelings: the case of Palestine/Israel

Abstract

Scholars have not yet discussed how secular and settler-colonial emotions intersect in contexts such as Palestine/Israel. This article addresses the gap. It explores one case of settler, secular emotion, using data from a larger study on secular Jewish-Israeli millennials after the 2014 Gaza War. It analyses how the Jewish-Israeli settler experience problematises ‘Jewish secular’ feelings and vice versa. Stressing the need to study secular sentiments intersectionally, it offers Bourdieu’s field and habitus as a new conceptual framework. This article argues that the dominant power dynamics within a given context will also predominantly shape people’s emotions–though, critically, not always.