Settler colonial inversions: Israel's ‘disengagement’ and the Gush Katif ‘Museum of Expulsion’ in Jerusalem

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyze the emergence of a new discourse among Jewish settlers during the 2005–2006 Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank. I define this new discourse as settler colonial inversions – the mimic transformation of the settler subject into the indigene, and of the Palestinian indigene into the settler. After reconstructing the context of the 2005–2006 disengagement and the emergence of new settler colonial actors and discourses, I turn to analyze an interview I carried out with one of the settlers involved in the disengagement, an art therapist who also took part in the creation of the Gush Katif Museum. Next, I reconstruct the narrative structure of the museum and its crucial discursive operations, analyzing the settler inversions appearing in the museum. I conclude by comparing Jewish settler inversions with other forms of settler colonial mimicry.