TOPLUMSAL GÜVENLİK: İSRAİL’DE ULTRA-ORTODOKS (HAREDİ) SİYASETİ ANALİZ ETMEK İÇİN YENİ BİR KAVRAMSAL ÇERÇEVE

Abstract

Haredi (ultra-orthodox) political parties in Israel, namely Yahadut HaTora and Shas, have been constantly affecting the domestic political agenda and the state-religion relations in general. Despite already flourished literature that covers the various roles these parties play; security dimension is yet to be addressed so far. This paper aims to analyse the Haredi politics in Israel in the identity-security nexus by questioning the political reflections of the Haredi parties’ persistent attachments to the security language in four core topics which are the Haredi educational autonomy, the exemption of religious school (yeshiva) students from the army service, the conversion to Judaism process (giyur), and the nationwide Shabbat regulations. By analysing the coalition documents that Haredi parties took part in, campaign posters of the 2013 and the 2015 elections, individual and institutional Haredi responses to certain crises regarding these four topics, this paper claims that Haredi politics is organized through the articulation of identity-security concerns at varied levels. While Yahadut HaTora has a faith-oriented and community-oriented security approach, Shas develops a national identity-oriented security approach in these topics.