The Hilltop Youth

Book excerpt: For more than a decade Israeli society has been witness to the appearance of a new social group, the Hilltop Youth. In the years following the Israeli government’s disengagement from the Gaza program in 2005 and the subsequent destruction of settlements in the Gaza Strip, youth and young families have set up settlements on the hilltops of Judea and Samaria and have demonstrated violent, anti-establishment resistance to the state, the IDF, and the police. The appearance of the Hilltop Youth marks a new chapter in the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict The book studies the youth sub-culture and its ideological structure through an examination of its practices of protest and rebellion. It further explores how the extremist youth group presents a new structural process for border area development, as well as the effects it has on both the micro level—displaying violent and provocative behavior against the local society of the settlers—and on the macro level—against Israeli society. The Hilltop Youth phenomenon is examined through comprehensive ethnographic presentation of the daily routine and activities of the youth.