On the Border of Fire: Origins of the National Religious Settler Movement in Israel

Five years ago, tens of thousands of religious Jews descended upon the Western Wall in a mass prayer rally begging God to prevent the disengagement from Gaza. Their faces were passionate, their cries were intense, and their motives were mysterious. This incident and the events of the summer of the disengagement motivated author Emily Watkins to find out more about these people and their beliefs. The result is a book that combines in-depth interviews with academic research to find out not just what settlers believe, but why they hold these beliefs and how developed. After extensive field research, Watkins makes a compelling argument that the movement is a result of the trauma of the Holocaust, which destroyed European Jewry and with it religious Jewish identity. The trauma resulted in community- wide fear and anger, which lead to the void identity being filled by a new settler identity. This book brings a new perspective to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.