Occupied Minds: A Journey Through the Israeli Psyche

How are Israelis able to see themselves as victims while victimising others?

Israel’s founders sought to create a nation of new Jews who would never again go meekly to the death camps. Yet Israel’s strength has become synonymous with an oppression of the Palestinians that provokes anger throughout the Muslim world and beyond.

Arthur Neslen explores the dynamics, distortions and incredible diversity of Israeli society. From the mouths of soldiers, settlers, sex workers and the victims of suicide attacks, Occupied Minds is the story of a national psyche that has become scarred by mental security barriers, emotional checkpoints and displaced outposts of of victimhood and aggression.

It charts the evolution of a communal self-image based on cultural and religious values towards one formed around a single militaristic imperative: national security.