Book of Joshua

== Moral and political interpretations ==
[[File:Joshua Leading the Israelites Across the Jordan on 10th of Nisan.jpg|thumb|250px|Joshua Leading the Israelites Across the Jordan on 10th of Nisan]]
The Book of Joshua deals with the conquest of the Land of Israel and its settlement, which are politically charged issues in [[Culture of Israel|Israeli society]]. In her article "The Rise and Fall of the Book of Joshua in Public Education in the Light of Ideological Changes in Israeli Society," Israeli biblical scholar Leah Mazor analyzes the history of the book and reveals a complex system of references to it expressed in a wide range of responses, often extreme, moving from narrow-minded admiration, through embarrassment and thunderous silence to a bitter and poignant critique.<ref>{{Cite book|title=הבנת המקרא בימינו: סוגיות בהוראתו, עיונים בחינוך היהודי|publisher=ט, ירושלים תשס"ד, עמ‘ כא-מו|year=2004|editor-last=פרנקל|editor-first=מ"ל|pages=21–46|language=Hebrew|editor-last2=דיטשר|editor-first2=א'}}</ref> The changes in the status of the Book of Joshua, she shows, are the manifestations of the ongoing dialogue that Israeli society has with its cultural heritage, with its history, with the Zionist idea, and with the need to redefine its identity.

[[David Ben-Gurion]] saw in the war narrative of Joshua an ideal basis for a unifying national [[myth]] for the State of Israel, framed against a common enemy, the [[Arabs]].{{sfn|Havrelock|2013}} He met with politicians and scholars such as Biblical scholar [[Shemaryahu Talmon]] to discuss Joshua's supposed conquests and later published a book of the meeting transcripts; in a lecture at Ben-Gurion's home, archaeologist [[Yigael Yadin]] argued for the historicity of the Israelite military campaign pointing to the conquests of [[Tel Hazor|Hazor]], [[Bethel]], and [[Lachish]].{{sfn|Havrelock|2013}} [[Palestinians|Palestinian]] writer [[Nur Masalha]] claimed that Zionism had presented the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|1948 Arab-Israeli War]] (which saw the creation of the [[State of Israel]]) as a "miraculous" clearing of the land based on Joshua, and the Bible as a mandate for the expulsion of the Palestinians.{{sfn|Masalha|2014}}

The biblical narrative of conquest has been used as an apparatus of critique against Zionism. For example, Michael Prior criticizes the use of the campaign in Joshua to favor "colonial enterprises" (in general, not only Zionism), which have been interpreted as validating [[ethnic cleansing]]. He asserts that the Bible was used to make the mistreatment of Palestinians more morally palatable.<ref>{{cite journal|last1= Prior|first1=Michael|title= Ethnic Cleansing and the Bible: A Moral Critique |journal= Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies|date=2002|volume= 1|issue=1|pages=37–59 |doi= 10.3366/hls.2002.0003}}</ref>  A related moral condemnation can be seen in "The political sacralization of imperial genocide: contextualizing Timothy Dwight's ''The Conquest of Canaan''" by Bill Templer.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Templer|first1=Bill|title= The political sacralization of imperial genocide: contextualizing Timothy Dwight's The Conquest of Canaan |journal= Postcolonial Studies: Culture, Politics, Economy|date= 1 December 2006|volume=9 |issue= 4 |pages= 358–391 |doi= 10.1080/13688790600993230|s2cid=154858344}}</ref> This kind of critique is not new; [[Jonathan Boyarin]] notes how [[Frederick W. Turner]] blamed Israel's [[monotheism]] for the very idea of genocide, which Boyarin found "simplistic" yet with precedents.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Boyarin|first1= Jonathan |title= Palestine and Jewish History: Criticism at the Borders of Ethnography|date=1996|publisher= University of Minnesota Press |isbn= 978-1-4529-0029-2 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=w6udrws0zE4C&pg=PA42 |chapter =  2: Reading Exodus into History|page= 42}}</ref> In her tenure as [[Ministry of Education (Israel)|Minister of Education]], [[Israeli Left|Israeli leftist]] politician [[Shulamit Aloni]] often complained about the centrality of the book of Joshua in the curricula, as opposed to the secondaryness of humane and universal principles found in the [[Nevi'im|Books of the Prophets]]. Her attempt to change the Bible study program was unsuccessful.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Book of Joshua: Chap. 12|url=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/11198|access-date=2022-01-12|website=Israel National News|date=30 January 2012 |language=en}}</ref>