Under the cover of the kippah: on Jewish settlers, performance, and belonging in Israel/Palestine

Abstract

What can a kippah – the Jewish head cover – reveal about settlers’ politics of belonging in the Israeli‐Palestinian space? During fieldwork among settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, I selectively put on and took off the kippah, using it to control social identity and interactions, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. This article interrogates my use of the kippah as a reflexive means of highlighting its powerful meanings and effects within the Israeli‐Palestinian space. In showing how the wearing and removal of the kippah bears upon the social construction of Jewish identity, this article offers new insights into the sociopolitical significance of sartorial practices in Israel/Palestine. These insights contribute more broadly to debates at the intersection of studies of settler colonialism, material culture, identity, and performativity.