Jewish Settlement Research Articles

The Political and Economic Consequences of the BALDASSI Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 11 June 2020.

In a landmark ruling handed down by unanimous decision on 11 June 2020 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a scathing disavowal of French authorities who violated the freedom of expression of BDS campaigners calling for a boycott of Israeli products in supermarkets in Alsace in 2010. Legally, the ruling renders the ministers of Justice Mrs. Alliot-Marie and Mr. Mercier circulars (2010&2012) which penalized BDS in France null and void and pours scorn on the official discourse of stigmatization of the BDS campaign. Politically, it will stop the lobbying of Israel and CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) to abusively describe BDS as pure antisemitism. If the economic consequences of the lifting of the French penalization of the BDS campaign are more difficult to evaluate, they will undoubtedly be more significant on the long term, in link with the recent ruling dated 12 November 2019 by the Court of Justice of the European Union which imposes a separate and specific labelling in the UE for goods made in Israeli settlements.

The good Arab: conditional inclusion and settler colonial citizenship among Palestinian citizens of Israel in Jewish Tel Aviv

AbstractDominant majorities often use idealized categories to validate the ‘goodness’ and deservingness of minority citizens. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, this category is the ‘good Arab’. Since its origins in early Jewish settlement of Palestine, it has become a powerful and controversial metaphor in Israeli public discourse. As an experienced condition of limited inclusion, the ‘good Arab’ exemplifies the Palestinian dilemma of accessing socioeconomic opportunities in Jewish Israeli spaces that stigmatize and fend off their ethnonational identity. Combining a historical genealogy of the ‘good Arab’ with ethnographic research among Palestinians in Tel Aviv, this article shows how a historically evolved logic of settler colonial control and indigenous erasure continues to define liberal frameworks of conditional citizenship and inclusion. Theorized through the emerging concept of conditional inclusion, these insights open up new avenues for analysis and comparison in anthropological debates surrounding indigenous struggles, settler colonialism, urban inclusion, and citizenship.

Kill me a mosquito and I will build a state: political economy and the socio-technicalities of Jewish colonization in Palestine, 1922–1940

Scholars see Israel as a settler state, comparable with North American, South African and Oceanian cases. But how was Jewish settlement-colonization in pre-Israel Palestine even possible? In the North American, Oceanian and South African cases, European settlers did not encounter diseases like malaria that scholars argue impede settlement. Palestine, however, had high malaria morbidity rates. The disease incapacitated and killed settlers and was one of the most serious threats to Jewish settlement and political economic development. I argue that the exigencies caused by malaria are exactly what fostered Jewish settlement-colonization in Palestine because they prompted the formation of socio-technical arrangements in order to combat the disease. These arrangements included, among other things, people, organizations, scientific knowledge, procedures and larvicides as well as considering the agency of mosquitos and other elements in the environment in disrupting settlement. These arrangements were marshalled by medical-national and political institutions that developed to combat malaria. Only then were Jewish settlers able to effectively colonize Palestine, make their colonies economically viable and make Palestine habitable for future Jewish immigrants. I demonstrate this argument by drawing on archival and library materials that describe the work of an important Zionist Malaria Research Unit (MRU) as well as malaria control efforts in Hefer Valley in the 1930s–1940s, after the unit’s disbandment. Then, I discuss the theoretical implications of this paper to settler-colonial and state-building literatures that, for the most part, neglected the socio-technical nature of state-building and settlement.

Supply-side territoriality: reshaping a geopolitical project according to economic means

ABSTRACT The ‘Stars’ are series of suburban settlements adjacent to the border with the occupied West-Bank which illustrate the increasing privatisation of the Israeli settlement mechanism. Unlike earlier examples, which were dictated by pioneer ideology or individualistic attempts to achieve better living standards, during the 1990s the state adopted a supply-side territorial policy, which tried to ensure the continuation of its geopolitical project by securing the economic feasibility of the private sector. Analysing the development of the ‘Stars’, this paper sheds light on the privatisation and commodification of the Israeli settlement mechanism and with it the transformation of its spatial product.

Conducting Research on West Bank Settlements: Architecture as Punctum and Archive

Abstract Conducting research on Israel's settlement project has become increasingly difficult throughout the past decade due to restrictions on public access to both the field and archives, including those of contemporary planning data. Meanwhile, scholars and activists have continued to document the spatial implications of settlements by diversifying their methods, including using architecture as forensic evidence of political aggression. In response, those who regulate access to archives and the field have focused on obfuscating information that could corroborate the illegality of settlements. This has led to a cyclical process in which the exposure of information and data has prompted the creation of further barriers to the field. Deep gaps in formal, authoritative data require methodological creativity and flexibility, such as reading the built environment itself as a primary source. Borrowing from Roland Barthes, this article points to the transgressive potential of architecture as a punctum, a point that opens research to multiple interpretations and helps researchers circumvent restrictions imposed by those regulating access to primary material. In this case study, we show how limited access to archival data has led researchers to study pre-approved settlement planning documents and settler-produced documentary clips, interweaving field and archive in meaningful ways. We argue that, by taking such an approach, researchers may transcend not only issues of access, but also traditional boundaries of disciplines.

Rada Jesza jako przykład instytucjonalizacji ruchu osadniczego w Izraelu

<p>Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie działalności Rady Jesza, która po ponad trzech dekadach może zostać uznana za w pełni ukształtowaną i zinstytucjonalizowaną organizację reprezentującą żydowskich osadników na Zachodnim Brzegu. Wytworzyła ona szerokie sieci powiązań i wachlarz działań promujących osadnictwo w kraju i za granicą oraz dąży do uznania żydowskiej obecności na tym obszarze. Autor uznał, że w analizie pomocny będzie nowy instytucjonalizm z naciskiem na sieciowość i racjonalność wyboru. W ukazaniu rozwoju ruchu osadniczego wykorzystano także metodę ilościową. W tekście przedstawiono krótki rys historyczny Rady Jesza, sposoby działania organizacji oraz rozwój żydowskich osiedli w Judei i Samarii. Hipotezę niniejszego artykułu oparto na stwierdzeniu, że Rada Jesza, pomimo iż z początku była związana z radykalną ideologią narodowo-religijną, to stała się ona na przestrzeni lat swojego funkcjonowania zinstytucjonalizowaną organizacją, która rości sobie przez to prawo reprezentacji wszystkich osadników. Przeprowadzona analiza Rady Jesza pozwala stwierdzić, że jest to w pełni zinstytucjonalizowana organizacja, mająca wypracowany szeroki zakres działań i narzędzi pozwalających na realizację celów wewnątrz państwa i poza jego granicami.</p>

The Wars in Eastern Europe, the Jews of Jerusalem, and the Rise of Sabbateanism: The Shaping of the Jewish World in the Mid-Seventeenth Century

This paper revisits the question of the connection between the wars in Eastern Europe (beginning with gezeirot taḥ ve-tat in 1648) and the rise of Sabbateanism. It argues that the key issue is the ways in which the Ashkenazi Jews of Jerusalem dealt with the collapse of Polish-Lithuanian Jewish funding for the Land of Israel in the wake of the wars. Following 1648, an extended transregional philanthropic network began to support the relief efforts for Polish Jewry, diverting resources from the Land of Israel. Initially, this caused great suffering in Jerusalem, including a famine in which many, particularly women, died. In response, great pressure was put on the philanthropic network supporting Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel: the Ashkenazi women of Jerusalem tried to establish their own independent fundraising mechanism, while the men employed a Polish Jew, Nathan Shapira, to collect for them. A major kabbalist, Shapira found common ground with millenarian Protestants in north-western Europe, who saw in the suffering of the Jews in both Eastern Europe and the Holy Land a sign of the Messiah’s imminent return. When they sent money to Jerusalem, the local community—including Nathan of Gaza, then a student—was forced to consider its attitude towards them and their ideology. Nathan had grown up in the post-1648 expanded world of philanthropy and, after the appearance of Shabbetai Zvi, used many transregional fundraising strategies with great success to help spread the new messianic movement.

The establishment of Natzrat Illit: setting the foundations for the Israeli settlements project

Natzrat Illit (‘Upper Nazareth’) was one of the dozens of ‘new towns’ established by the state of Israel during the 1950s, following the 1948 war. However, because of its unique location, in the midst of a region widely inhabited by a Palestinian population, and the specific objectives of its establishment, the penetration of a Jewish population into the region and the reinforcement of control over Nazareth, the only Palestinian city that survived the war and remained within the borders of the newly established state, it demanded particular means and forms of action. Based on archival materials, this article delineates the particular methods and practices used to confront and overcome the specific conditions set for the establishment of Natzrat Illit. These methods and practices will later become advantageous when similar objectives would be set for the state-led expansive settlement project into new territories.

H.R.C. Res. 37/36, Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan, A/HRC/RES/37/36 (Mar. 23, 2018)

H.R.C. Res. 37/36, Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the Occupied Syrian Golan, A/HRC/RES/37/36 (Mar. 23, 2018)

G.A. Res. 73/98, Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Occupied Syrian Golan (Dec. 18, 2018)

G.A. Res. 73/98, Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Occupied Syrian Golan (Dec. 18, 2018)

Israeli Territory, Settlements, and European Union Trade: How Does the Legal and Territorial Jurisdictional Regime that Israeli Imposes throughout Israel-Palestine affect the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the EU-Palestinian Authority Association Agreement?

Israeli Territory, Settlements, and European Union Trade: How Does the Legal and Territorial Jurisdictional Regime that Israeli Imposes throughout Israel-Palestine affect the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the EU-Palestinian Authority Association Agreement?

Database of All Business Enterprises Involved in the Activities Detailed in Paragraph 96 of the Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to Investigate the Implications of the Israeli Settlements on the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Palestinian People throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/37/39 (Feb. 1, 2018)

Database of All Business Enterprises Involved in the Activities Detailed in Paragraph 96 of the Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to Investigate the Implications of the Israeli Settlements on the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the Palestinian People throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/37/39 (Feb. 1, 2018)

Erich Neumann and the Crisis of Western Ethics

This article explores Erich Neumann’s Depth Psychology and a New Ethic (Tiefenpsychologie und Neue Ethik, 1949). Nine years after Erich Neumann left Nazi Germany for Palestine in 1934, he began writing Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. In 1942, he was living in Tel Aviv when the news came that Panzerarmee Afrika under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had started the second phase of its advance toward Egypt, aiming to seize the oilfields all the way to the Caspian Sea. Already aware of the Holocaust, the small groups of Jewish settlers in Palestine could only expect the worst. In this crucial existential moment, with Rommel “at the door”, as Neuman put it, he began Depth Psychology to reveal the psychological antecedents of the triumph of Nazism and the horrors of the Second World War.

Menachem Begin and the question of the settlements: 1967–1977

ABSTRACT This paper has sought to examine Menachem Begin’s considerations on the issue of the settlements in the territories occupied by Israel in the decade prior to his becoming prime minister. In those years, the gap between what Begin defined as the role of his party—the gatekeeper against an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank—vis-à-vis its actual scanty settling activity was striking. The core of the article tackles the repeated attempts made by a group of youths involved with right-wing circles to establish a Jewish settlement in or adjacent to Nablus, from 1969 to 1970. The little aid that Begin extended to these almost unknown youths sheds light on some significant facets of his perspective on the settlements. At that stage of his political career, Begin held a legalistic position and distanced himself from any unlawful clashes with the government. Begin’s adamant standpoint was consistent until the first attempt made by the religious Zionist youths to establish a settlement near Nablus in the spring-summer of 1974. Begin changed his mind only upon realizing that the clash between the settlers and the government in the summer of 1974 did not generate a noticeable public uproar.

Trump Legalizes Israeli Settlements

Trump Legalizes Israeli Settlements

Between Caregiving and Soldiering: Filipina Non-Citizens and Settler Militarisms in Israel

ABSTRACT While Filipinas often appear in studies of gendered reproductive care, Filipinos appear commonly as militarized labor extending American hegemony. Both sets of Filipinx labor aspire to attaining citizenship and rights to permanent settlement. This article focuses on Filipinas in the Israeli Defense Forces. Filipina IDF recruits have recently appeared in Israeli media in order to reframe Israeli settler militarism as benevolent. Yet these instrumental portrayals build on longer histories of Philippine-Israeli entanglement. By situating two Filipinas’ stories within transnational contexts of humanitarian and reproductive care, we highlight how legacies of U.S. and Israeli settler militarism tether the Philippines to Israel.

Playing with Antagonists: The Politics of Humor in Israeli‐Palestinian Market Encounters

AbstractThis article identifies playful antagonism as a defining mode of rare Israeli‐Palestinian encounters in Israeli settlement businesses. It is based on ethnographic work primarily in an Israeli settlement supermarket where the lowest‐paid workers are mostly occupied Palestinians. This playful antagonism characterizes heated Israeli‐Palestinian political exchanges as well as Palestinian workers’ mockery of their settler bosses and customers, through gestures and jokes alike. These practices navigate an incongruity between the high‐stakes antagonisms of Israeli settler‐colonization and the banality of the workplace. Rather than preventing more “serious” antagonism, this playful antagonism is itself serious, enacting and contesting existential struggles over settler‐colonization, in a context saturated with suspicion and risk to Palestinian livelihoods. Thus, rather than framing humor as standing outside of or transcending political domination and antagonism, this article frames humor as a way of enacting these forms of settler‐native politics. It thus stages a fresh conversation between the recent literature on settler colonialism in Palestine, which has understandably focused on Israeli domination but ignored Israeli‐Palestinian contact and humor, and the literature on humor, which has often ignored scaled‐up forms of power and domination. The article thus contributes to a political anthropology of humor as intertwined with power and domination.

Typology as situatedness: the architectural dialectics of modern vernaculars in British Mandate Palestine

This article examines the ways in which several key figures in Jewish architectural circles sought to create an appropriate style that would reflect their emerging national identity in British Mandate Palestine. I analyse the 1930s texts by two architects and educators at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technion Polytechnic, Yohanan Ratner and Julius Posener, whose efforts were motivated by a notion of belonging. Belonging or affirming a connection to a specific place, and creating architecture that reflected this connection, was a pressing question for architects in the pre-state Jewish settlement in Palestine, which was mainly populated by new immigrants. The article argues that Ratner (who immigrated to Palestine in 1923), and even more so Posener (who did so in 1935), addressed the notion of belonging by articulating a ‘local bearing’ for modern Israeli architecture. Stemming from a critical historiography of interwar modernism, ‘local bearing’ refers to the process of situating modern architecture, and claiming its historic and vernacular sources. I show that typological reflections, or the examination of architecture’s cultural and disciplinary history, became the means through which these architects sought to localise modern architecture.

Secretary of State Describes Israeli Settlements in the West Bank as “Not Per Se Inconsistent with International Law”

On November 18, 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the “establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.” This announcement contrasts with the approach taken by the State Department late in the Obama administration. Although embraced by Israel, the position announced by Pompeo was criticized by Palestinians, Security Council members and other states, who maintain that Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate international law. In January of 2020, the Trump administration released its proposed peace plan for the Israelis and Palestinians, which met with approval from Israeli leaders and rejection from Palestinian leaders.

Israeli Settlements, U.S. Foreign Policy, and International Law

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement that Israel’s settlements are not contrary to international law caused international outrage as it marked a dramatic departure from previous U.S. statements on the legality of Israel’s West Bank settlements. This paper argues that the announcement was connected to developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where the Prosecutor, a month later, announced that there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Palestine by Israel and Hamas.