The Tribes of Joshua Land

This chapter focuses on the conquest rhetoric that echoed in Israeli politics, institutions, and statistics that attempt to erase the presence of Palestinian people jointly inhabiting the land. It describes the post-1958 legacy of the Book of Joshua and its elaboration in David Ben-Gurion's study group in Israel. It also mentions the sociologist Baruch Kimmerling that described Israeli society as characterized by a strong central government and unified national culture until 1967, at which time differing responses to holding occupied territories fractured the culture into distinct and often oppositional camps. The chapter covers Moshe Dayan's appropriation of Joshua in order to describe the occupation of the West Bank as the fulfillment of the Bible and political Zionism. It also points out that after Dayan, the Book of Joshua became increasingly important to religious settlers in citing the biblical grant of the land as their charter.