By Sultan Aben
“I have given you a country for which you have not toiled, towns you have not built although you lie in them, vineyards and olive groves you have not planted, although you eat their fruit.”
Joshua 24:13 (NIV)
For many, the Book of Joshua is foundational for the nation of Israel. The biblical story of Joshua’s conquest provided blueprints for centralised nationalism, territorial conquest and the dehumanisation of the ‘other’, all of which resonate with Israeli politics today. Despite traditionally being a long-forgotten book in the diasporic Jewish consciousness, Joshua became an “appealing way of legitimising” the emerging Zionist movement [1] – with David Ben-Gurion inviting top politicians, generals and justices into his home twice a month for his “Joshua Study Group”. For the elites, the book was “an ideal basis for a unifying narrative of national identity” [2].
Today, the Book of Joshua is required reading in all Israeli schools, treated as the first history book for all schoolchildren, refusing to “exclude from the curriculum [Joshua’s] shameful accounts of extermination” [3]. Its verses are frequently cited by successive administrations to justify the expansion of Israeli settlements. Joshua’s conquest further resonates with modern Israeli militarism – the Hebrew word for the Israeli Occupation (כיבוש/kibbush) derives from the wars against Canaanite peoples, while the word for settlement in the book of Joshua ( נחלה /nahalah) similarly forms the root of the word for Jewish settlements in the West Bank ( התנחלות/hitnahalut). Thus, Joshua’s narrative not only anchors Israel’s historical identity but actively informs its contemporary policies of territorial expansion and national consolidation.
Conquest and Cleansing
The Book of Joshua retells the Israelite tribes’ conquest of Palestine, triumphing over the Canaanite locals through a divinely ordained campaign of territorial seizure and annihilation. This narrative establishes a blueprint for total war, where violence isn’t just a tool but a sacred act of identity formation and separation. The “Canaanites” are politically constructed as the “other”, for not submitting to God and his commander Joshua, and systematically dehumanized to justify aggression. There can be no mixing (23:16-13), and the inevitable conflict for survival devolves into a “curse of destruction on everyone in the city: men and women, young and old, including the oxen, the sheep and the donkeys, slaughtering them all” (6:21). Bodies are burnt (7:25), corpses desecrated (8:29), and an exception is made for the Gibeonites only to turn them into serfs.
This cleansing of the native peoples of Canaan is driven by a divine mandate (חרם/herem). There were no simmering inter-ethnic tensions, no historic resentment. Abraham is mentioned only once (24:2), where a potential claim of the Israelites to ancestral land could’ve been made (but isn’t). The genocide is simply ordained by God – the supremacy of the people of Joshua is self-evident. They needed land for their nation, so they seized it. This rationale echoes in political rhetoric in Israel today, which similarly dehumanises Palestinians and delegitimises them as mere obstacles to a promised Israeli settlement.
Forging a Nation
Just as the Canaanites are annihilated, a new unified Israelite identity is consolidated from the diverse tribes under Joshua – a process that mirrors the construction of modern Israel. The very terms “Israelite” and “Canaanite” are social constructs rather than ethnic, shaped by political necessity than an inherent unity. Without a mobilising story, the various Hebrew-speaking groups, wandering aimlessly before, lacked reason to coalesce into a single state. Joshua provides that narrative, forging a political identity through conquest and a shared “YHWHist creed” [4], cemented by the covenant at Shechem. This unity emerges not from cultural homogeneity but from a deliberate state-formation process, where land and law bind disparate tribes into “the People of God”. Today, Israel replicates this pattern, uniting a global Jewish diaspora under a nationalist banner. Just as Joshua’s narrative overcame tribal diversity to assert a singular identity against the Canaanite “other,” modern Israel mobilizes a settler ethos to consolidate its statehood, sidelining historical ambiguities and indigenous claims.
Notably, Joshua’s new Israelite identity relies on centralised nationalism, enforced through coercion and divine legitimacy. The book’s unabashed violence is meant to inspire fear and instil complete subservience to Joshua over any other supposed affiliations. Canaanites can submit and survive (Rahab, Gibeon) while dissenting insiders are punished (Achan’s execution). Thus, the violence of the conquest also warns potential ‘Achans’ that they too can become the ‘other’, ensuring acceptance of centralised authority. Sociologist Max Weber helps explain this: he argued that social order gains legitimacy through tradition (historicity), emotional appeal (charisma), and practical reasoning (legality) [4]. In Joshua, tradition ties the conquest to Moses’ uprising; charisma emerges from divine election, with Joshua as God’s chosen leader stirring tribal loyalty; and legality justifies violence as a rational means to secure land, encoded in Mosaic Law. This triad cements Joshua’s authority, creating a unified nation from scattered tribes. Today, Israel reflects this: biblical claims fuel tradition, Zionist zeal provides charisma, and state laws legalize settlement expansion. Joshua’s fear-driven centralization thus resonates in modern Israeli nationalism, where historical narratives, emotional unity, and legal mechanisms uphold a militarized identity against the “other”.
Conclusion
The Book of Joshua’s narrative of conquest, dehumanization, and centralized authority continues to shape Israeli identity and settler nationalism, offering a historical and ideological basis for territorial expansion. Its themes of total war and exclusion of the “other” echo in modern Israeli policies and rhetoric, legitimizing settlement growth and militarism. On October 9, 2023, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, reflecting this Joshua-like mindset, declared, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” announcing a complete siege on Gaza [5]. This dehumanising language and call for unrestrained conflict reveal how Joshua’s influence persists.
References
1. Masalha, N. (2007). The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism, in Palestine-Israel. Zed Books.
2. Havrelock, R. (2020). The Joshua Generation: Israeli Occupation and the Bible. Princeton University Press.
3. Sand, S. (2012). The invention of the land of Israel: From Holy Land to homeland. Verso Books.
Identity Hunters 