Passion and Territory in Israeli Historiography

The question of the Zionist passion for the land has been discredited lately by new historians and critical sociologists, who see it as an epiphenomenon, legitimizing the dislocation and disinheritance of others. In some later works, a backlash can be seen that criticizes the neglect of actors' subjectivities, while advancing research beyond previous understanding of Zionist ideology. This article examines four books, by Zali Gurevitz, Boaz Neumann, David Ohana, and Alexandra Nocke that place the phenomenological understanding of Zionism and Israeli society at the center of their research. Taken together, these four works follow the logic and development leading from the days of the early pioneers' passion, to the territorial alternatives of contemporary post-ideological age.