Dr Yael Ben David

New York University

Bio

Yael Ben David is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University. Her research examines political discourse, polarization, collective emotions, and the dynamics of conflict and dialogue, with a particular focus on Israeli society. Her work combines discourse analysis, qualitative methods, and social-psychological perspectives to explore how political divisions are produced, sustained, and negotiated in everyday and institutional settings.

The Politics of Shame: Moral Criticism and Collective Boundaries in Israeli Political Discourse

Abstract

This article examines how shame has shaped the boundaries of moral criticism in Jewish-Israeli political discourse across Kafr Qasim (1956), Sabra and Shatila (1982), and the 2024 “Flour Massacre.” Combining discourse-historical and emotional-discursive analysis, it traces a shift from shame as internal moral regulation to counter-shaming as exclusion. This transformation is linked to political-historical changes that weakened the Zionist-left position capable of holding morality and security together, narrowing legitimate public criticism during conflict.