Neoliberal Settlement as Violent State Project

West Bank Settlement Homes and Real Estate Occupation

Authors

  • Yael Allweil Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion and Israel Institute for Advanced Studies

Keywords:

Neoliberalism, real estate, settlement, West Bank, architecture history

Abstract

Intense ideological debates over the legal status of West Bank settlements and political campaigns objecting to or demanding their removal largely neglect the underlying capitalist processes that construct these settlements. Building upon the rich scholarship on the interrelations of militarism and capitalism, this study explores the relationship between capitalist and militarist occupation through housing development. Pointing to neoliberalism as central to the ways in which militarism and capitalism have played out in Israeli settlement dynamics since 1967, this paper unpacks the mutual dependency of the Israeli settlement project on real estate capitalism and neoliberal governance. Through historical study of the planning, financing, construction, and architecture of settlement dwellings as real estate, as well as interviews and analysis of settler-produced historiographies, this paper identifies the Occupied Territories (OT) as Israel’s testing ground for neoliberal governance and political economy. It presents a complementary historiography for the settlement project, identifying three distinct periods of settlement as the product of housing real estate: neoliberal experimentation (1967-1994), housing militarization (1994-2005), and “real-estate-ization” (2005-present). Drawing on Maron and Shalev (2017) and Springer (2014), this paper discusses neoliberal settlement as a violent state project, challenging conceptions of neoliberalism as rationalism as well as settlement as a public-housing enterprise.

 

References

Allweil, Yael. 2019. Both City and Village: The West Bank 'Communal Settlement' as an Architecture and Planning Lab, in Ben-Asher Gitler, Inbal. & Geva, Anat (eds.), Israel as A Modern Architectural Experimental Lab (1948- 1978), London: Intellect Press.

Allweil, Yael. 2017. Homeland: Zionism as housing regime, 1860-2011. London, Routledge.

Allweil, Yael. 2017. West Bank Settlement and the Transformation of Zionist Housing Ethos from Shelter to Act of Violence. FOOTPRINT 10(2), 13-36.

Anderson, Benedict. 1996. Introduction. In Mapping the nation. Gopal Balakrishnan (ed.), London, Verso: 1-16.

Anderson, Benedict.1991. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. New York, Verso Books.

Aran, Gideon. 2013. Kookism: The roots of Gush-Emunim, Jewish settlers' sub-culture, Zionist theology, contemporary messianism, Carmel Publishing.

Arrighi, Giovanni. 1994. The long twentieth century: Money, power, and the origins of our times. London, Verso.

Attorney, Israel State. 2017. Supreme Court ruling 8217/15. Jerusalem: State attorney response Jerusalem.

Basham, Victoria M. 2016. Raising an Army: The Geopolitics of Militarizing the Lives of Working-Class Boys in an Age of Austerity. International Political Sociology 10(3): 258-274.

Bechar, Ayelet. 2017. Armed Women. Israel, Kan Israel Broadcasting Corporation: 63 minutes.

Ben-Ari, Eyal, Zeev Rosenhek and Daniel Maman (eds.) 2001. Military, State, and Society in Israel: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, Transaction Publishers.

Bieler, Andreas., Sümercan. Bozkurt, Max. Crook, Peter. S. Cruttenden, Ertan. Erol, Adam. D. Morton, Camel. B. Tansel and Elif. Uzgören 2016. The enduring relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s The accumulation of capital. Journal of International Relations and Development 19(3): 420-447.

Brenner, Neil. and Stuart. Elden. 2009. Henri Lefebvre on state, space, territory. International Political Sociology 3(4): 353-377.

Brenner, Neil, Bob Jessop, Martin Jones and Gordon Macleod. 2008. State/space: a reader, Wiley Blackwell.

Brenner, Neil., Jamie. Peck and Nik. Theodore. 2010. After neoliberalization? Globalizations 7(3): 327-345.

Caldeira, Teresa. 2000. City of walls: crime and segregation in Sao Paulo. Berkeley, University of California Press Berkeley.

Callinicos, Alex. 2007. Globalization, imperialism and the capitalist world system. Globalization Theory: Approaches and Controversies. David. Held and Anthony. McGrew. Oxford, Polity: 62-78.

Carmon, Neomi. and Daniel. Chemanski. 1990. Housing in Israel, from planned economy to semi-free market management. Haifa, Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Technion.

Carr, Darius. 2016. Black Lives Matter: An Autoethnographic Account of the Ferguson, Missouri, Civil Unrest of 2014. Journal for the Study of Peace & Conflict: 6-20.

Charlap, Michael. 1973. Israel Builds. Jerusalem, State of Israel Ministry of Housing.

Chatterjee, Partha. 2004. The politics of the governed: reflections on popular politics in most of the world. New York, Columbia University Press.

Clarno, Andy. 2017. Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Cohen, Avner. 1998. Israel and the Bomb. New York, Columbia University Press.

Cohen, Stuart. and Ilan. Sollomon. 1995. From the People's Army to Professional Army. Ma'arachot (341): 2-17.

Comptroller, State. 2013. Comptroller report on the Settlement Division. Jerusalem, State Comptroller.

Comptroller, State. 2015. Report on the housing crisis Jerusalem, The State Comptroller of Israel.

Drobles, Matityahu. 1978. Master plan for developing settlement in Judea and Samaria for the years 1979-1983. Jerusalem.

Efrat, Elisha. 2006. The West Bank and Gaza Strip: A geography of occupation and disengagement, Routledge.

Efrat, Zvi. 2004. The Israeli project: Building and architecture 1948-1973. Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv museum of art.

Efrati, Ido. 2005. Housing evacuees in cara-villas - money thrown away. Yedioth Aharonot.

Elhanani, Abba. 1998. Israeli architecture struggle for independence in the 20th century. Tel Aviv, Misrad Habitachon.

Farmer, Paul. 1996. On suffering and structural violence: a view from below. Daedalus 125(1): 261-283.

Fleishman, Itamar. Somfalvi., Attila. 2013. Itamar hugely growing: 675 housing units addition. Yedioth Aharonot. June 12, 2013.

Gal, Shilo., Pinhas. Walerstein, Reuben. Rozenblatt, Meir. Har noy, Zeez. Friedman and Eliezer. Zelko. 1979. Why do we hunger strike?, Elon-More: 1-4.

Gillem, Mark. 2007. America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Golani, Yehonathan. and David. von Schwarze. 1970. Israel builds 1970. Jerusalem: State of Israel, Ministry of Housing.

Gordon, Colin. 1991. Governmental rationality: an introduction. The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality. Graham. Burchell, Colin. Gordon (eds.) Chicago, Chicago University Press: 1-17.

Gordon, Neve. 2008. Israel’s occupation, University of California Press.

Gregory, Derek. 2004. The colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq. New York, Wiley-Blackwell.

Greicer, Iris. and Ofer. Gonen. 2009. Design of the state's early settlement map. Studies in Israel's social history. M. Lissak. Jerusalem, Bialik Institute: 249-349.

Grinberg, Lev Luis. and Gershon. Shafir. 2000. Economic Liberalization and the Breakup of the Histadrut's Domain. The new Israel: Peacemaking and Liberalization. Gershon. Shafat. London, Routledge.

Gurvitz, Yossi. 2016. All Amona's lies. Ha'aretz. Tel Aviv, Ha'aretz. September 26, 2016.

Gush Emunim. 1978. Proposal for Settlement Plan in Judea and Samaria. Jerusalem, Gush Emunim.

Guttwein, Dan. 2004. Comments on the class foundations of the occupation. Theory and Criticism 24: 203-211.

Guttwein, Dan. 2017. The Settlements and the Relationship between Privatization and the Occupation. Normalizing the Occupation. Ariel. Handel, Marco. Allegra and Erez. Maggor. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.

Hadad, Shmulik. 2011. Cara-villas before tents? the Gush Katif evacuees were forgotten. Ynet.

Haeitan, Amazia. 2003. Mizpe-Yishay history. Israel, Etrog Films: 12 minutes.

Handel, Ariel., Marco. Allegra and Erez. Maggor. 2017. Normalizing Occupation: The Politics of Everyday Life in the West Bank Settlements, Indiana University Press.

Hardt, Michael. and Antonio. Negri. 2000. Empire, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Harvey, David. 2005. A brief history of neoliberalism, Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Harvey, David. 2007. Neoliberalism as creative destruction. The annals of the American academy of political and social science 610(1): 22-44.

Helman, Anat. 2002. Even the Dogs in the Street Bark in Hebrew: National Ideology and Everyday Culture in Tel-Aviv. The Jewish Quarterly Review: 359-382.

Johnson, Walter. 2016. What Do We Mean When We Say,“Structural Racism"? A Walk down West Florissant Avenue, Ferguson, Missouri. Kalfou 3(1).

Kahana, Freddie. 2011. Neither town nor village - Kibbutz architecture 1910-1990 Jerusalem, Yad Tabenkin.

Kallus, Rachel. and Hubert. Law-Yone. 2002. National home/personal home: public housing and the shaping of national space in Israel. European Planning Studies 10(6): 765-780.

Katz, Yossi. 1994. The "business" of settlement: Private entrepreneurship in the Jewish settlement of Palestine, 1900-1914. Jerusalem, Magnes Press, Hebrew University.

Kipfer, Stefan. and Kanishka. Goonewardena. 2013. Urban Marxism and the post-colonial question: Henri Lefebvre and ‘colonisation’. Historical Materialism 21(2): 76-116.

Larsen, Henrik Gutzon., Andres Lund. Hansen, Gordon. MacLeod and Tom. Slater. 2016. Introduction: The housing question revisited. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 15(3): 580-589.

Levinson, Chaim. 2013. Despite Kerry's efforts: Israel avances building plan in Itamar. Ha'Aretz. June 12, 2013.

Levinson, Chaim. 2013. The organization building illegal outposts in the territories is exposed. Ha'Aretz. Tel Aviv, Ha'Aretz. May 10, 2013.

Li, Darryl. 2006. The Gaza strip as laboratory. Journal of Palestine studies 35(2): 38-55.

Littman, Shany. 2017. Believe it or not, I am a leftist who believes settlers are human too - Interview with Ayelet Bechar. Gallery, Ha'aretz. September 25, 2017.

Lobao, Linda. M., Gregory. Hooks and Ann. R. Tickamyer. 2007. The sociology of spatial inequality, SUNY Press.

Luxemburg, Rosa. 1913. The Accumulation of Capital, translated by A. London, Roudedge and Kegan Paul.

Maggor, Erez. 2015. The State, the Market and the Settlements. Israeli Sociology 16(2): 140-167.

Mann, Michael. 1984. Capitalism and militarism. War, state and society, Springer: 25-46.

Mann, Michael. 1987. The roots and contradictions of modern militarism. New Left Review (162): 35.

Maos, Jacob O., Moshe Inbar and Debora Shmueli (eds.) 2004. Contemporary Israeli Geography, Special Issue. Horizons in Geography (60-61).

Marcuse, Peter. 1978. Housing policy and the myth of the benevolent state. Social policy 9(3): 21-26.

Maron, Asa and Michael Shalev (eds.) 2017. Neoliberalism as a State Project: Changing the Political Economy of Israel, Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Massey, Douglas. S. 2016. Confronting the Legacy of American Apartheid. Shared Prosperity in America's Communities. Susan Wachter and Lei. Ding (eds.), Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 91-102.

Matz, Aviva. 1986. Neither five minutes, nor half price: on the myth of West Bank settlements. Ma'ariv. Tel Aviv, Ma'ariv: 2-10.

Migdal, Joel. S. 2000. Changing boundaries and social crisis: Israel and the 1967 war. War, institutions and social change in the Middle East. Steven. Heydemann (ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press: 174-239.

Misselwitz, Phillip and Tim Rieniets, 2006. City of collision: Introduction, In, Misselwitz, Phillip and Tim Rieniets (eds.) City of collision: Jerusalem and the principles of conflict urbanism. Basel, Birkhäuser: 25-33

Misselwitz, Phillip and Tim Rieniets (eds.) 2006. City of collision: Jerusalem and the principles of conflict urbanism. Basel, Birkhäuser.

Newman, David. 2006. Colonization as suburbanization. In, Misselwitz, Phillip and Tim Rieniets (eds.) City of collision: Jerusalem and the principles of conflict urbanism. Basel, Birkhäuser: 113-120.

Newman, David. 2017. Settlement as Suburbanization. Normalizing Occupation: The Politics of Everyday Life in the West Bank Settlements, Bloomington: Indiana University Press: 34-47.

Oakes, Guy (ed.) 2016. The Anthem Companion to C. Wright Mills, London: Anthem Press.

Ofran, Hagit. and Michael. Sfard. 2017. Appeal to the Supreme Court on Amona lands. Jerusalem, Peace Now NGO.

Ong, Aihwa. 2006. Neoliberalism as exception: Mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. Durham, Duke University Press.

Peri, Yoram. 1996. The radical social scientists and Israeli militarism. Israel Studies 1(2): 230-266.

Perugini, Nicola and Neve Gordon. 2015. The human right to dominate, New York: Oxford University Press.

Raanan, Zvi. 1980. Gush Emunim. Tel Aviv, Sifriat Poalim.

Ram, Uri. 2013. The Globalization of Israel: McWorld in Tel Aviv, Jihad in Jerusalem. New York, Routledge.

Rotbard, Sharon. 2008. Tower and Stockade: The mold for Israeli planning. Sedek (2): 36-49.

Rynhold, Jounathan and Dov Waxman. 2008. Ideological change and Israel's disengagement from Gaza. Political science quarterly 123(1): 11-37.

Sasson, Talia. 2005. Report on Unauthorized Outposts - Submitted to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Jerusalem, Prime Minister Office.

Sasson, Talia. 2015. On the brink of the abyss: Is the triumph of the settlements the end of Israeli democracy? Jerusalem, Keter Books.

Scott, James. 1998. Seeing like a state: how well-intentioned efforts to improve the human condition have failed, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Segal, Raffi., Eyal Weizman and David Tartakover (eds.) 2003. A civilian occupation: The politics of Israeli architecture. London, Verso Books.

Shadar, Hadas, Zvika Orr and Yael Maizel. 2011. Contested homes: Professionalism, hegemony, and architecture in times of change. Space and Culture 14(3): 269-290.

Shafat, Gershon. 1995. Gush-Emunim: the story behind the scenes. Beit El, Sifryat Beit El.

Shafir, Gershon and Jacob Peled (eds.) 2018. The new Israel: Peacemaking and Liberalization. London, Routledge.

Sharon, Arie. 1951. Physical planning in Israel 1948-1953, Jerusalem: Government printer.

Shaw, Martin. 2015. War, Imperialism and the State System: A Critique of Orthodox Marxism for the 1980s. War, State and Society. Martin Shaw (ed.). London, Mcmillan: 47-70.

Shchori, Ilan. 1991. I Shell Build Thou Tel Aviv: Miloe and Association of Tel Aviv Contractors.

Shoshan, Malkit. 2010. Atlas of the conflict: Israel-Palestine, Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.

Smith, Ron. 2016. Military economics: the interaction of power and money. New York, Palgrave.

Sorkin, Michael. 2005. Against the Wall: Israel's Barrier to Peace. London, New Press.

Springer, Simon. 2016. The violence of neoliberalism. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Simon. Springer, Kean Birch and Julie MacLeavy (eds.) London and New York, Routledge: 153-163.

Swenarton, Mark, Tom Avermaete and Dirk Van den Heuvel (eds.) 2015. Architecture and the Welfare State, London: Routledge.

Swyngedouw, Erik. 2005. Governance innovation and the citizen: the Janus face of governance-beyond-the-state. Urban studies 42(11): 1991-2006.

Tzfadia, Erez. 2013. Informality as control: The leagl geography of colonization of the West Bank. Cities to be tamed? Spatial investigations across the urban south. Chiodelli, Francesco, Beatrice De Carli, Maddalena Falletti and Lina Scavuzzo (eds.) Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 192-214.

Tzfadia, Erez and Haim Yacobi. 2011. Rethinking Israeli space: periphery and identity, Taylor & Francis.

Tzfadia, Erez and Haim Yacobi. 2018. Privatization and Nationalization of Space in Israel: Are They Complementary Processes? The Privatization of Israel. Paz-Fuchs, Amir, Ronen Mandelkern and Itzhak Galnoor (eds.) New York, Palgrave: 51-71.

Wacquant, Loic. 2008. Urban outcasts: A comparative sociology of advanced marginality, Cambridge: Polity.

Weizman, Eyal. 2006. Principles of frontier geography. In, Misselwitz, Phillip and Tim Rieniets (eds.) City of collision: Jerusalem and the principles of conflict urbanism. Basel, Birkhäuser: 84-92.

Weizman, Eyal. 2007. Hollow land: Israel's architecture of occupation. New York, Verso Books.

Weizman, Eyal. 2014. The architecture of occupation, Al Jazeera English. August 12, 2014.

Weizman, Eyal. 2006. The architecture of Ariel Sharon. Third Text, 20(3-4): 337-353.

Yacobi, Haim and Hadas Shadar. 2014. The Arab village: a genealogy of (post) colonial imagination. The Journal of architecture 19(6): 975-997.

Yiftachel, Oren. 2009. Critical theory and ‘gray space’: Mobilization of the colonized. City 13(2-3): 246-263.

Zertal, Idith and Akiva Eldar. 2005. Lords of the land: the war over Israel's settlements in the occupied territories, 1967-2007. New York, The Nation Books.

Downloads

Published

2020-04-15

How to Cite

Allweil, Y. (2020). Neoliberal Settlement as Violent State Project: West Bank Settlement Homes and Real Estate Occupation. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 19(1), 70–105. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1743