Native resistance caused Israel’s turn to overt religious legitimation

Evidence

While settlement activities and related forms of violence can be seen as derived from the structure of settler colonialism, the unceasing resistance of the natives in their land including two intifadas, their international activism, and the increasing visibility of land theft in the eyes of many forces within the international community and even Israeli civil society are processes that drive the settler system to seek a different legitimization. Without legitimation, Israel and Zionism would be exposed as naked settler colonialism. The emerging legitimization is based on overtly religious claims. If Palestinians did not demonstrate intense resistance, the secularist would not have needed to resort to a religious-based system of legitimation, and the sharp rise in religious nationalism and sacralized politics would not have resonated with the need for legitimation. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 555

Categorization

• QUESTION: Counterfactual central to reader’s research: if threat were removed, would religious sacralization decay or persist?
• recurring: this claim recurs 3 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Attempted reversal of IDF religionization institutionalized it rather than weakening it — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 899; Secularization is impossible within Israel while settler-colonial reality stays denied — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 154; Analyses missing settler colonialism misread why religiosity rises in Israel. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 517 (+4 more)