Part 10. When Violence Becomes Society


Totalised Violence as a Social Structure

Violence in Israel/Palestine is not only a matter of the army, settlers or police.

It has become a social structure that permeates everyday life, institutions, and culture.

When methods of control migrate into planning rules, public services, and daily logistics, a society emerges where coercion is embedded in forms, queues, and permits rather than uniforms.

Violence becomes an infrastructure — determining who can move freely, work, receive care, or simply remain.

When exceptions turn into routines, when “security logic” shapes education, and when settler attacks are shielded by the military, violence ceases to appear extraordinary; it becomes an accepted, even desired, element of social order.

This part ties together threads from earlier chapters to show how violent logic has been normalised within the entire civic body.

Key Points

  • Violence becomes part of daily regulation – through permits, checkpoints, confinement.
  • Institutions (schools, universities, culture) reproduce the logic of security and legitimise control.
  • Settler violence functions as an extension of state policy when protected by the army.
  • Emergency mechanisms are cemented into laws, plans, and administrative routines.
  • The result: violence is perceived not as an exception, but as a necessary component of order.

Everyday Violence – the Small and the Large

For many Palestinians, violence is first felt in small details:

planning the day around a checkpoint, not knowing if a building permit will be granted, finding the road to school blocked.

These are not random inconveniences — they are parts of a system where control structures daily life.

Tiny fragments of uncertainty accumulate into a constant background of insecurity.

Institutions that Reproduce the Logic

Schools teach “resilience” and “security awareness”; universities reward military service; cultural production builds narratives that obscure the occupation.

Step by step, institutions transform the logic of control into a civic value.

Violence thus moves from the battlefield into the classroom, the gallery, and the bureaucracy.

│ Ethical question:

When education, research and culture normalise militarised thinking — what happens to the idea of civic responsibility?

Settler Violence and the Role of the State

When settler groups attack Palestinian communities, it often occurs under military presence.

Interventions rarely target the attackers; instead, movement and access for Palestinians are restricted.

In this way, settler violence becomes part of the state’s coercive architecture — presented as “civilian incidents”, yet embedded in official protection.

Exceptions that Became the Rule

Many of today’s laws and routines rest on emergency regulations introduced during earlier conflicts.

Once these are integrated into normal governance, they cease to appear temporary.

Citizens learn to live with permanent exception — a quiet, lasting erosion of the boundary between war and peace.

│ Ethical question:

When emergency becomes ordinary law, who still decides where peace begins?

Deepening: Concepts and Examples

Concepts & Definitions

  • Normalised Violence: when coercive logic is accepted as everyday reality.
  • Structural Violence: systemic obstacles that shorten or impoverish lives.
  • Impunity: lack of consequences for violence, turning it into a sustainable pattern.
  • Emergency Law: temporary measures that have become permanent governance.

Examples

  • A checkpoint initially temporary, later permanent. [LINK]
  • School curricula emphasising security preparedness. [LINK]
  • Cultural festivals highlighting innovation while ignoring occupation. [LINK]

Media

  • QR: Short documentary on everyday violence shaping Palestinian life.
  • QR: Interview clip with researchers on the role of violence within institutions.

Sources

  • Johan Galtung (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research, Journal of Peace Research.
  • B’Tselem: reports on everyday barriers and settler violence.
  • UN documents on emergency law and human rights.
  • Jeff Halper (2008). An Israeli in Palestine.

Reflection Questions

  1. Where can you identify structural violence in rules, infrastructure, or economy compared with visible physical violence?
  2. How is your own sense of freedom or safety affected when exceptions become the norm?
  3. Whose needs are prioritised when decisions are justified as “public security” or “common good”?
  4. What small changes in rules, services, or mobility could most improve life for those affected?

Tips for Dialogue

  • Compare visible violence (raids, demolitions) and invisible violence (permits, closures, price policies). Which shapes life more over time — and why?
  • Discuss how language and labels (“security zone”, “state land”, “temporary measure”) influence what appears legitimate.
  • Identify cases where local needs are systematically outweighed by state or military priorities.
  • Reflect on what would be required to reverse a normalised state of exception in practice.

Related

  • Part 5: Culture as Camouflage (narratives and invisibility)
  • Part 6: The School as a Soldier Factory (education and mobilisation)
  • Part 8: The Elite’s Dual Loyalties (state–settler interaction)
  • Part 11: Land, State and the Machinery of Expansion (structural analysis)

Resources

PDF: When Violence Becomes Everyday – Overview – download

Video: Daily Life under Control Regimes – watch

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