“A Knock on the Door”: Managing Death in the Israeli Defense Forces

Abstract

This paper discusses death that occurs within organizations through an analysis of how deaths of soldiers are handled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). While such deaths challenge the military's organizational order and legitimacy, the IDF handles them through the institution of a "moving bureaucracy": a combination of fixed administrative procedures and intense emotional work carried out by liminal military personnel (reserve officers). This arrangement enables the military to construct a highly controlled "buffer zone" around the deceased soldier's family, and thus to reconstitute its organizational order and the IDF legitimacy. The army as a palpable organization "reappears" on the scene, but that reappearance is gradual and takes place only after the funeral, when death is certain and finalized. For many Israeli Jews, "a knock on the door" represents the worst nightmare imaginable. Behind the "knock on the door" stands the army in the form of the announcement of a soldier's death. Family members who open the door face the certitude of the fact that their son, husband, father, or brother has died.' This is a moment people remember for the rest of their lives, a moment endlessly replayed in their minds. This article analyzes the processes by which soldiers' deaths are handled by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Specifically, we focus on the interactions between representatives of the Israeli military and family members of the dead soldiers during the first week after the death. These activities include announcing death, preparing the funeral, burying the body in a military cemetery, and accompanying the family during the first seven days of ritual bereavement.Our argument proceeds along the following lines. While the military regularly copes with the demise of its members, such deaths are unexpected and sudden from an individual (or familial) point of view. As a consequence, such deaths are potentially chaotic, possibly disturbing the military's organizational order and challenging the very bases of its legitimacy. What enables the army to reconstitute its organizational order and reestablish its legitimacy are the workings of a specialized administrative structure that may be termed a "moving bureaucracy." This bureaucracy includes a unique combination of administrative arrangements and distinct functionaries who are reserve officers, that is, people who are both military personnel and civilians. The standardized set of procedures

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