Soft power: The meaning of home for Gush Emunim settlers

For the ideological settlers of the West Bank, home has become a key symbol, representing their vision, signifying their essence, and serving as a major resource in their struggle against their Palestinian neighbors. In this article I claim that the primacy of the physical and conceptual home in the settlers' worldview is a novelty in Zionist ideology and Jewish thought, though traditional concepts and ideas are uses selectively to formulate the importance of home. Most crucial is the context of struggle against the nearby Palestinian home and its images of authenticity. The importance of home has implications regarding family values and gender roles. Lately, the settlers' concept of home has encountered two contradictory processes: its violation in the second intifada; and the gaining of legitimacy as a result of its relative stability over time.