Hilltop youth: political-anthropological research in the hills of Judea and Samaria

Abstract

In the first decade of this century, a new social group, popularly called the ‘hilltop youth’, came to the attention of Israeli society. This group consisted of a small number of young people who took part in aggressive political actions including illegal settlement endeavours throughout Judea and Samaria. Before their arrival at the various wilderness outposts, these youth had not developed any political outlook in regard to Jewish settlement in these areas; it was only during their period of habitation did they tend to adopt and utilize views informed by ideological and cultural extremism. The manifestation of this socio-political phenomenon will be analysed from sociological and anthropological perspectives in order to shed light on social aspects of Israeli society, as well as to elucidate frequently unclear political and policy implications in the larger Middle Eastern context. In addition, this article describes the significance of a youth subculture that has emerged in this frontier political space, and which has often been cast in criminological terms. To buttress the claims advanced in this study, a psychological-sociological approach is also employed.