"This is What My Fear Told Me": Fear as Key to Understanding Political Action

ABSTRACT:An experience of fear and dissonance during my fieldwork in the West Bank led me to explore the epistemological importance of fear as key to understanding political action and imagination. Although fear has been described in the literature as a political emotion and as a primary means of mobilization and control, in this article I suggest that it also unmasks systems of control, thereby spurring resistance and nurturing a counter-hegemonic political imagination. Based on my research of left-wing Jewish women living in Palestinian West Bank localities, and in line with anthropological and feminist scholarship, I demonstrate in this article how the emotional dissonance generated by fear of Palestinians from a left-wing political stance may create reflexivity, resistance, and a desire for change.