War, terror, girls and God: the construction of the religious Zionist female citizen in a state religious junior high school in Israel, 1999–2002

State religious schooling in Israel constitutes a fascinating setting for examining forces of conformity and resistance. This study, which examines the identity formation of adolescent girls and their teachers in this complex cultural‐educational setting during the Al‐Aksa Intifada (1999–2002), highlights the complexities of agency within a religious setting fraught with ethnic, religious, political and socio‐economic meanings. The study explores a complicated religious culture under attack in a state religious girls’ junior high school with a very mixed population. It examines the ways in which the school culture as an arm of religious Zionism seeks to take ownership of its female constituents, and the divergent forms of resistance that emerge in different subsections of the school society.