| Contents |
Understanding Israeli soldiers -- Israel: a militarized society -- Uprisings -- Soldiers as perpetrators -- Misbehaviour and violence -- Conclusion -- Studying soldiers -- Becoming or being a perpetrator -- Space, power, (mis)behaviour and morality -- Physical closeness and distance -- Constructed moralities in speech -- Moral disengagement and denial -- Perpetrators' accounts -- Conclusion -- Checkpoints, arrests and patrols: spaces of occupation -- Policing by soldiers: dirty work -- Checkpoints: obstruction of passage -- Arrests and 'straw widows': entering the private Palestinian domain -- Patrolling -- Conclusion -- Performing as occupiers: operational dynamics -- Routine -- Relations of power -- Tired, bored and scared: emotional, physical and cognitive numbing -- Anger, boredom, frustration and more: the emotional dimension -- Hot, cold and tired: the physical dimension -- Unclear categories and uncertainty: implications of the cognitive dimension -- Conclusion -- Blurring morals: the numbed moral competence of soldiers -- Moral professionalism -- Cognitive blurring -- Detachment: 'not thinking about it' -- Conclusion -- Morality in speech: discursive strategies of soldiers -- The minimization of moral agency -- Professionalism (miktsoayut) -- Bottom-up: soldiers' talk -- Strategic talk -- Ideology -- No need for explanation -- Critical voices: moral re-sensitizing -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- The systemic approach: taking the Israeli case outside of its borders. |
