We tend to associate practices of population surveillance with Western modernity and the intensif... more We tend to associate practices of population surveillance with Western modernity and the intensification of security routines with the last decade defined by the “Global War on Terror.” I suggest, however, that proliferation of methods to monitor and control populations are legacies of the practices that were developed in the colonies to manage civilian populations. Here, I outline those institutional colonial legacies.
The function of the West Bank–Israeli separation barrier, designed to segregate Palestinians away... more The function of the West Bank–Israeli separation barrier, designed to segregate Palestinians away from Israeli territory, was subverted by the COVID-19 crisis. For the first time, the barrier locked West Bank Palestinians inside Israel. For a two-month period, construction workers from the West Bank were sequestered at work sites in Israel to reduce movement of people between the territories while also minimizing economic losses. This turn of events illustrates the ad hoc economic interests underlying Israeli security policy toward the West Bank.
Through a study of the situation in Palestine and Israel, this Essay argues that collective self-... more Through a study of the situation in Palestine and Israel, this Essay argues that collective self-determination can, in some circumstances, be realized through voting in the political system of an occupying power. More specifically, we contend that (1) a power exercising "indefinite occupation" has a duty to grant voting rights in its own domestic political system to those members of the occupied population who may wish to vote; (2) a demand for voting in the political system of an occupying power does not, in itself, constitute consent to acquisition of title by the occupier; and (3) a demand for voting under occupation can be a viable part of a struggle for decolonization, even without a preexisting social contract among members. The argument we set forth amounts to a paradigm shift in the way the international community should understand the international law of occupation both in the Palestinian territories and more broadly.
I will first describe the permit regime briefly, then continue to the existing sociological criti... more I will first describe the permit regime briefly, then continue to the existing sociological critique of liberal bureaucracies, based on the classical work of Max Weber, and offer an alternative critique of the bureaucracy of the occupation, based on the features of the colonial bureau ...
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: The Van Leer Institute and …
"The book introduces readers to the bureaucracy of the o... more "The book introduces readers to the bureaucracy of the occupation in the West Bank. Drawing on legal materials, administrative documents, interviews, and observations, the author uncovers the population control system and permits regime that restrict the movement of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and that rely on a complex and sometimes Kafkaesque organizational dynamic that is largely hidden from public view. Unlike the bureaucracies of liberal regimes, whose fundamental principles were laid forth by Max Weber, the bureaucracy of the occupation employs the colonialist and imperialist model that undemocratic regimes use to control the native population. This bureaucracy benefits from administrative flexibility and permanent emergency regulations based on the exceptions to the law. The lives of the Palestinian residents of the territories are ruled by an array of agencies, including the Police, the Civil Administration, the Border Police, the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories, the Employment Service, and the General Security Service. This system, whose activities are based on mechanisms for identifying and screening human beings on the basis of secret decisions, inconsistent policy, and the collection of intelligence, is an extreme case of the population control mechanism whose practices and modes of operation influence not only the West Bank and its Palestinian residents but also mold the state bureaucracy that runs the lives of the citizens and residents of Israel."
In Space and Mobility in Palestine, Julia Peteet provides a rich ethnography of the most salient ... more In Space and Mobility in Palestine, Julia Peteet provides a rich ethnography of the most salient component of Israeli occupation and control of Palestinian life. Peteet's focus is the restructuring...
This article delves into the everyday dynamics of colonial rule to outline a novel way of underst... more This article delves into the everyday dynamics of colonial rule to outline a novel way of understanding colonized–colonizer interactions. It conceives colonial management as a social field in which both the colonized and colonizers negotiate and exchange resources, despite their decidedly unequal positions within a racial hierarchy. Drawing their example from the West Bank, the authors argue that a Palestinian economic elite has proactively participated in the co-production of the colonial management of spatial mobility, a central component of Israeli colonial rule. The study employs interviews and document analysis to investigate how the nexus between Palestine’s commercial-logistical needs and Israel’s security complex induced large-scale Palestinian producers to exert agency and reorder commercial mobility. The authors describe and explain the evolution of a ‘Door-to-Door’ logistical arrangement, in which large-scale Palestinian traders participate in extending Israeli’s system o...
In the ABC of the OPT, Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo offer a guidebook for the... more In the ABC of the OPT, Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo offer a guidebook for the legal tourist – a narrated cartography to the strange legal planet that has become Israel/Palestine, governed by hundreds of military and civil officials that harbor wide discretion and a flexible rule that I call phantom sovereignty. Shaped as a lexicon, it includes entries that offer both a thematic and a chronological history of what Ben-Naftali has previously called “the Israeli version of international law”. It is also a guide to the relics and ruin of old colonial practices, and to the legal and administrative legacies of old empires that have been adopted, innovated upon and developed into international law, as well as into the Palestinian past and present (see Stoler, Duress: Imperial durabilities in our times, 2016, 37-67).
We tend to associate practices of population surveillance with Western modernity and the intensif... more We tend to associate practices of population surveillance with Western modernity and the intensification of security routines with the last decade defined by the “Global War on Terror.” I suggest, however, that proliferation of methods to monitor and control populations are legacies of the practices that were developed in the colonies to manage civilian populations. Here, I outline those institutional colonial legacies.
The function of the West Bank–Israeli separation barrier, designed to segregate Palestinians away... more The function of the West Bank–Israeli separation barrier, designed to segregate Palestinians away from Israeli territory, was subverted by the COVID-19 crisis. For the first time, the barrier locked West Bank Palestinians inside Israel. For a two-month period, construction workers from the West Bank were sequestered at work sites in Israel to reduce movement of people between the territories while also minimizing economic losses. This turn of events illustrates the ad hoc economic interests underlying Israeli security policy toward the West Bank.
Through a study of the situation in Palestine and Israel, this Essay argues that collective self-... more Through a study of the situation in Palestine and Israel, this Essay argues that collective self-determination can, in some circumstances, be realized through voting in the political system of an occupying power. More specifically, we contend that (1) a power exercising "indefinite occupation" has a duty to grant voting rights in its own domestic political system to those members of the occupied population who may wish to vote; (2) a demand for voting in the political system of an occupying power does not, in itself, constitute consent to acquisition of title by the occupier; and (3) a demand for voting under occupation can be a viable part of a struggle for decolonization, even without a preexisting social contract among members. The argument we set forth amounts to a paradigm shift in the way the international community should understand the international law of occupation both in the Palestinian territories and more broadly.
I will first describe the permit regime briefly, then continue to the existing sociological criti... more I will first describe the permit regime briefly, then continue to the existing sociological critique of liberal bureaucracies, based on the classical work of Max Weber, and offer an alternative critique of the bureaucracy of the occupation, based on the features of the colonial bureau ...
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: The Van Leer Institute and …
"The book introduces readers to the bureaucracy of the o... more "The book introduces readers to the bureaucracy of the occupation in the West Bank. Drawing on legal materials, administrative documents, interviews, and observations, the author uncovers the population control system and permits regime that restrict the movement of the Palestinian residents of the West Bank and that rely on a complex and sometimes Kafkaesque organizational dynamic that is largely hidden from public view. Unlike the bureaucracies of liberal regimes, whose fundamental principles were laid forth by Max Weber, the bureaucracy of the occupation employs the colonialist and imperialist model that undemocratic regimes use to control the native population. This bureaucracy benefits from administrative flexibility and permanent emergency regulations based on the exceptions to the law. The lives of the Palestinian residents of the territories are ruled by an array of agencies, including the Police, the Civil Administration, the Border Police, the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories, the Employment Service, and the General Security Service. This system, whose activities are based on mechanisms for identifying and screening human beings on the basis of secret decisions, inconsistent policy, and the collection of intelligence, is an extreme case of the population control mechanism whose practices and modes of operation influence not only the West Bank and its Palestinian residents but also mold the state bureaucracy that runs the lives of the citizens and residents of Israel."
In Space and Mobility in Palestine, Julia Peteet provides a rich ethnography of the most salient ... more In Space and Mobility in Palestine, Julia Peteet provides a rich ethnography of the most salient component of Israeli occupation and control of Palestinian life. Peteet's focus is the restructuring...
This article delves into the everyday dynamics of colonial rule to outline a novel way of underst... more This article delves into the everyday dynamics of colonial rule to outline a novel way of understanding colonized–colonizer interactions. It conceives colonial management as a social field in which both the colonized and colonizers negotiate and exchange resources, despite their decidedly unequal positions within a racial hierarchy. Drawing their example from the West Bank, the authors argue that a Palestinian economic elite has proactively participated in the co-production of the colonial management of spatial mobility, a central component of Israeli colonial rule. The study employs interviews and document analysis to investigate how the nexus between Palestine’s commercial-logistical needs and Israel’s security complex induced large-scale Palestinian producers to exert agency and reorder commercial mobility. The authors describe and explain the evolution of a ‘Door-to-Door’ logistical arrangement, in which large-scale Palestinian traders participate in extending Israeli’s system o...
In the ABC of the OPT, Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo offer a guidebook for the... more In the ABC of the OPT, Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo offer a guidebook for the legal tourist – a narrated cartography to the strange legal planet that has become Israel/Palestine, governed by hundreds of military and civil officials that harbor wide discretion and a flexible rule that I call phantom sovereignty. Shaped as a lexicon, it includes entries that offer both a thematic and a chronological history of what Ben-Naftali has previously called “the Israeli version of international law”. It is also a guide to the relics and ruin of old colonial practices, and to the legal and administrative legacies of old empires that have been adopted, innovated upon and developed into international law, as well as into the Palestinian past and present (see Stoler, Duress: Imperial durabilities in our times, 2016, 37-67).
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