CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Phillips, Paolo Xela |
|---|---|
| Title | National Coercion and Aversion: Ethnographic Reflections on Ideological Socialization Within Birthright Israel |
| Summary | The present thesis investigates the experiences of participants in Birthright Israel, with a focus on how they encounter and internalize thematic elements within the Zionist national habitus. Drawing on ethnographic interview data, the study analyzes how the structure and messaging of these trips function as an ideological state apparatus (Althusser, 1970), revealing Zionist social paradigms. Birthright is framed as a site of affective nationalism (Antonsich, Skey, et al. 2020), where emotional and embodied experiences shape how Jewish individuals in the diaspora build attachments to the State of Israel (Hecht et al. 2006; Sasson et al. 2014; Saxe et al. 2009). Through exposure to the security apparatus, the promotion of Jewish endogamy, and narratives of national continuity, the trips deploy social mechanisms that align personal identity formation with national belonging. Ethnographic data also highlights participants’ moments of dissonance and critique, revealing both the effectiveness and the limits of Zionist ideological interpellation. Ultimately, this research contributes to scholarship on diaspora politics, nation-building, and embodied nationalism by offering a grounded analysis of how ideological narratives are lived, negotiated, and sometimes resisted within highly curated experiential settings. |
| Supervisor | Rybak, Jan |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/phillips_paolo.pdf |
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