1st Edition

Emplaced Resistance in Palestine and Israel The Cases of Hebron, Silwan and al-Araqib

By Marion Lecoquierre Copyright 2022
    324 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    324 Pages 39 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict gravitates constantly around the question of territorial control due to the settler-colonial principle present at the core of the Zionist project. Acknowledging space as a central tool of domination used by the Israeli authorities, this volume sheds light on the way space can become both a resource for and an outcome of protest, with an emphasis placed on the way it is used and produced through practices of resistance by subaltern groups.

    The research relies on a comparative approach, relying on data collected in the course of fieldwork conducted between 2012 and 2015 in Palestine and Israel. It focuses on three "sites of contention", which include the H2 area in Hebron (the occupied Old City, under Israeli authority), the "core" neighbourhoods of Silwan (Wadi Hilwe and al-Bustan) and the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Araqib, in the Negev desert. Through these three case studies, the book tackles different strategies that engage with the materiality of space, place, sense of place, territory, landscape, network and scale, showing the mobilization of a real "spatial repertoire" of contention. The different regimes of control give rise to strategies that are first and foremost emplaced, i.e. rooted in the local.

    Providing an original comparison between flashpoints of the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli politics of dispossession and expulsion, the book is a key resource for scholars and readers interested in political geography, political science, sociology, and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

    Introduction

    1. A spatial entry to the case studies: the case for sites of contention

    2. Inhabiting - The value of presence and the right to place

    3. Planning - Conceiving and building space: a power game

    4. Protesting - Disrupting hegemony in the public space and sphere

    5. Sanctifying - Producing a sacred geography

    6. Globalizing - International networks of solidarity and advocacy

    Conclusion

    Biography

    Marion Lecoquierre is a French geographer, holding a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy). She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and specializes on the local practices and representations connected to the territorial struggle in Palestine and Israel.