Intersecting Ties, Boundary Deactivation, and Non-Radicalization in the Struggle against the Gaza Pullout

• In Event: 337 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Paper Session. Protest and Violence

Abstract

Scholarly works on engagement of radical groups, usually factions of broader opposition movements, in political violence are rich on confirmatory cases. A central strand of research, known as the socio-psychological approach, stresses the importance of perceptions and subjective socio-cognition in explaining the support for political violence among discontented individuals and groups. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the shift from support in political violence to actual involvement in violent behavior. This paper argues that a focus on situational relational mechanisms promises to advance our understanding of how and when perceptions and ideologies legitimizing violence are translated into actual violent behavior. Utilizing a "deviant case" - the contentious episode of the Jewish settler movement against the Israeli government policy the Disengagement Plan (a.k.a. the Gaza Pullout) - I show how despite ideological justifications for engagement in political violence, the combined operation of several relational mechanisms (e.g. consensus mobilization) mitigated the salience of cognitive mechanisms and, in the process, put a brake on radicalization.

Author

• Eitan Y. Alimi, Hebrew University