Currency and settler colonialism: the Palestinian case

Abstract

This paper aims to shed new light on the international dimension of monetary power by exploring currency policy as a systematic tool of settler colonialism. The latter is defined as a mode of domination whereby an exogenous hegemonic power aims to displace and dispossess the native society in order to establish a new permanent homeland. These arguments are developed by exploring the case of Israeli currency circulation in the occupied Palestinian territories. To this purpose, the heterodox critique of the classical theory of money is employed to provide a fresh geopolitical reading of the origins, evolution, implications, and continued viability of a so-called ‘settler currency.’ It is found that Israel’s settler colonial project has been expedited by the enforced shekelization of the oPt, in that the latter not only acts as a barrier to industrialization and economic liberation in line with other hegemonic institutions, but also offers a sophisticated tool for coercion that directly assists the hegemon’s political ends. It follows that a settler colonial currency represents a multifaceted vehicle that facilitates the settler state’s reproduction.