what is religious Zionism, this ideology that influences the Israeli government?

By Elise Lambert & Valentine Pasquesoone

Since 2022, two Jewish supremacist ministers have joined Benjamin Netanyahu's government. They campaign for a state governed by religion where the Palestinians would be absent. They intend to take advantage of the war in Gaza to achieve their objectives.

What might Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories look like after the war? At the beginning of January, two far-right ministers in the Israeli government sparked controversy by advocating the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza and the "emigration" of Palestinians. “We will help rehabilitate these refugees in other countries,” assured Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “It is a correct, just, moral and humane solution,” added the person in charge of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir.

These statements have led to numerous condemnations around the world. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (PDF document), "deportation or forcible transfer of population" is a crime against humanity.

Arriving in government at the end of 2022 thanks to a coalition between the right and the far right, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are not their first anti-Palestinian outing. For years, these Jewish supremacists have campaigned for a state governed by their reading of religious texts, where the Palestinians and their territories would not exist. They embody a current, religious Zionism, which has gradually permeated Israeli institutions and politics after being in the minority at the beginning of the 20th century.

For the creation of a “Greater Israel” without Palestinians

Basically, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are similar. The first, a 43-year-old Minister of Finance, was trained in a small yeshiva (Talmudic school) in the settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Beit El is a stronghold of the Hardal movement, which mixes nationalism and ultraorthodox thought, specifies Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich is "a religious Zionist ideologue much more influenced by the rabbis than Ben Gvir. According to him, the 'Greater Israel' is a Jewish land, and its establishment will favor the coming of the messiah", explains for franceinfo Yoav Peled, political scientist at the Tel Aviv University.

At a very young age, Bezalel Smotrich fought against the dismantling of Jewish colonies in the Gaza Strip and then campaigned within Regavim, an organization opposed to Palestinian construction in the West Bank and in Israel. A lawyer, he was elected deputy to the Knesset in 2015. Father of seven children, he has increased his racist outings in recent years, for example deeming it necessary to separate Jewish and Arab patients in hospitals or even defining himself as a "homophobic fascist" , reports Le Monde. Bezalel Smotrich has previously said that Hamas was "an asset" for Israel because the Islamist group was preventing any peace process with the Palestinians. In March 2023, he went so far as to deny the very existence of Palestinians during a private visit to Paris.

Itamar Ben Gvir, 47, the Minister of National Security, is also a lawyer by training. Born in the suburbs of Jerusalem into a family of secular Iraqi Jews, he developed his anti-Arab ideology during the first intifada (1987-1993), within the Kahanist movement, summarizes La Croix. This movement, named after extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane, was banned in 1994 for terrorism and racism.

Convicted several times for inciting hatred and provocative, Itamar Ben Gvir went after his appointment to the government on the Esplanade des Mosques, in East Jerusalem. A passage on the third holiest site of Islam which provoked the indignation of the international community. “Ben Gvir cares less about ideology than about Jewish power. He is not interested in the messiah, but in the possibility of allowing settlers to settle wherever they want,” underlines researcher Yoav Peled.

A resident of the colony of Kiryat Arba, stronghold of the radical and supremacist movement of "Youth of the Hills", Itamar Ben Gvir has long displayed the portrait of Baruch Goldstein in his living room. In 1994, this religious fanatic murdered 29 Muslim Palestinians who were praying at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a holy site contested by Jews and Muslims. He has also never hidden his admiration for Ygal Amir, author of the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

A minority ideology until the turning point of 1967

The religious Zionism in which these ministers are part is ancient, reports Philosophie Magazine. It dates back to the end of the 19th century, when theorist Theodor Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Israel. At this time, Zionist ideology was not necessarily linked to religion, and rather infused into socialist and labor circles. “For the religious ultraorthodox, Zionism is even blasphemy, since they only believe in the establishment of a Jewish state after the arrival of the messiah,” explains to franceinfo Stéphanie Laithier, historian of Judaism at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

But Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, originally from Eastern Europe, helped to change the position of certain believers by calling for intervention in society to accelerate the coming of the messiah. The first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, he created the Merkaz Harav yeshiva. This Talmudic school will convince more and more Orthodox people to adhere to Zionism.

The Six Day War of 1967 marked another turning point for religious Zionism. The lightning victory of the Jewish state against its Arab neighbors, Syria, Egypt and Jordan, is seen by Rabbi Kook and his young students as "the indisputable sign of a divine plan to make the Earth whole Israel to the people of Israel,” explains Yoav Peled in an academic article.

Therefore, occupying Palestinian territories such as the West Bank and Gaza is for these young religious Zionists “a divine command”. The Goush Emounim organization was created in their wake in the 1970s. It promotes the creation of Jewish colonies in the occupied territories and its vision gradually permeates all of religious Zionism, underlines in a recent study Alain Dieckhoff, research director at CNRS.

This current benefits from “a form of wear and tear of initial socialist Zionism”, adds Stéphanie Laithier. “Religious Zionists will present themselves as those who will regenerate the original Zionism. They highlight the fact that by settling in these territories, they are fulfilling biblical prophecy and securing Israel.” The Labor camp is more divided on the question of the occupied territories. With the Israeli failure of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, “Labor lost its grip on the territorial and security aspects of the Zionist project,” writes Yoav Peled. The left was ousted from power in 1977, replaced for the first time by Likud.

The third force in the 2022 legislative elections

In recent years, religious Zionism has gained ground at the heart of Israeli power. Former Education Minister Naftali Bennett became, in 2021, the first head of the religious Zionist government. During the legislative elections of November 2022, the current represented by the “Religious Zionism” list becomes the third force in the country, obtaining 11% of the votes and 14 seats in the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu is forced to form an alliance with his members to return to power. This result was “the most significant fact of the last elections”, points out the study by Alain Dieckhoff.

Bezalel Smotrich is appointed Minister of Finance and gains significant power over the civil administration, responsible, among other things, for planning Jewish settlements in the West Bank. At the head of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir aspires to use the police "to repress more harshly the Arab citizens of Israel (...), but also the Palestinians", according to Alain Dieckhoff.

This “political environment” encourages Jewish settler projects, in the opinion of the Israeli NGO Peace Now. The year 2023 was a record year, both in terms of settlement construction and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Religious Zionist influence has also been seen since the terrorist attacks of October 7. “Benyamin Netanyahu fears losing his government [by losing the support of religious Zionists] if he announces ways out of the current fighting,” analyzes Yoav Peled.

This political progression reflects a more marked presence in Israeli society. The community is experiencing "very significant demographic growth", because it is often made up of families "with many children", observes Stéphanie Laithier. It represents between 10% and 30% of the Israeli population, reports the New York Times.

Its influence also reaches the army and education. According to Yoav Peled, in 2019, religious Zionists made up half of the graduates in the combat sections of the IDF officer school. At the same time, the researcher notes "an increase in Jewish religious content in the secular school curriculum", as well as "a greater emphasis on the Jewish aspect of Israel's identity".

With the Hamas attacks in Israel and the stagnation of the conflict in Gaza, can this ideology gain further ground? “There is a before and after October 7,” explains Stéphanie Laithier. A significant part of the Israeli population remains opposed to religious Zionism, but with the Hamas attacks, "there is still the idea that an installation in the occupied territories would make Israel secure." For Yoav Peled, the war even “accelerates” the influence of religious Zionism within society. “Some people don’t see any other way to deal with this situation.”