Teaching citizenship without politics? Soft citizenship and civic education in Israeli schools

Recent scholarship identifies a global shift towards ‘soft citizenship’, prioritising cooperation, volunteering and social cohesion over critical, justice-oriented political engagement. In conflict-affected, polarised democracies, this shift is especially consequential, as schools negotiate democratic learning, national cohesion and the limits of legitimate dissent. This article examines how adolescents experience civic education in Israeli secondary schools. Drawing on two focus groups and seven in-depth interviews with 19 adolescents, conducted during the ongoing war a year after 7 October 2023, the study identifies three interrelated processes: avoidance of controversial political discussion, redirection of civic participation towards volunteering and military service, and students’ search for political understanding outside school. We argue that soft citizenship operates through the moralisation of citizenship, whereby political disagreement and structural critique are displaced by a vocabulary of helping, contribution and cohesion. The wartime context amplifies these socially approved forms of participation while narrowing opportunities for critical democratic learning.