Seeing Israel through Palestine: knowledge production as anti-colonial praxis

Abstract

Knowledge production in, for and by a settler-colonial state hinges on both productive and repressive practices that work together to render its history and present, 'normal'. The settler state aims to maintain hegemony over its agents, subjects, supporters and challengers by controlling, how, where, to and through whom it tells its story. This makes the production and dissemination of knowledge production an important battleground for anti-colonial counter-hegemonic struggles. The State of Israel, in its ongoing search for patrons and partners in its colonising project in the Middle East, is especially focused on how to produce and appropriate 'knowledge', and the arenas in which it is developed and shared, to this purpose. In so doing, it works to reshape critique of its political, social and economic relationsin which the dispossession of the native is a ceaseless featureand redefine the moral parameters that inform its legitimacy and entrench its irrefutability. Inspired by existing literature on and examples of anti-colonial struggles and practices of decolonisation, this paper investigates and challenges the myriad modalities through which Israel produces and normalises the colonial narrative. By critiquing existing representations and framings of the Israeli stateand the spaces and structures in which these take holdour article contributes to the range of scholarship and communities of scholars working to radically recalibrate knowledge of 'Israel' and 'Palestine'. As part of this work, the article deliberately and purposefully centres indigenous anti-colonial frameworks that reconnect intellectual analysis of settler colonial relations, with political engagements in the practice/praxis of liberation and decolonisation. Keywords Israel Studies; Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies; hegemony and counter hegemony; critical pedagogy; anti-colonial/decolonising praxis passions it evokes often present obstacles to balanced analysis and evenhanded discussion. In the six decades since its founding, the State of Israel has spawned a vibrant culture and a multiethnic democracy. It has also faced ongoing challenges and has had to grapple with complex geopolitical issues. An appreciation of the complexities that are Israel requires knowledge, probing analysis and dialogue across different disciplines and viewpoints. Through a commitment to academic rigor and interdisciplinary approaches, the Nazarian Center fosters a broad understanding of Israel and its place in the region and the world." The Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, UCLA 'About US' 2 The two quotes above expose the multiple terrains upon which Israel is currently battling for legitimacy. In the first of these, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, stands on the UN stage, selling the image of Israel as the stable bastion of 'civilisation' in the Middle East to a global audience; a part of the world that Western/US audiences have positioned as the 'heart of darkness' in their global imaginary. In the second, UCLA's Israel Studies ...

Political geographical perspectives on settler colonialism

“…While we will not reflect on the reasons for this present absence here, we want to identify it and emphasize that it has been consequential in terms of circumscribing the kinds of political analysis that geographers can offer, as well as the nature, depth, and scope of radical critique of violent domination, by skirting certain questions about the core drivers of dispossession and responsibility for them. As others have recently emphasized, the production and dissemination of knowledge is central to settler colonial projects but also a key battleground in anti‐colonial struggles (Hawari, Plonski, & Weizman, ). Recognizing this requires that scholars actively center anti‐colonial approaches that link intellectual analysis of settler colonialism with political struggles centered on liberation and decolonization (Hawari et al, , ).…”

“…As others have recently emphasized, the production and dissemination of knowledge is central to settler colonial projects but also a key battleground in anti‐colonial struggles (Hawari, Plonski, & Weizman, ). Recognizing this requires that scholars actively center anti‐colonial approaches that link intellectual analysis of settler colonialism with political struggles centered on liberation and decolonization (Hawari et al, , ). In this spirit, as we have argued, the development to engage more meaningfully with the settler colonial framework is welcome and significant both analytically and politically, particularly alongside radical geographers' broader efforts to consider the terms and consequences of academic complicity with forms of empire, war, state violence, and militarism both past and present (Koopman, ; Wainwright, , ).…”

Tracing Settler Colonialism: A Genealogy of a Paradigm in the Sociology of Knowledge Production in Israel

“…As Yara Hawari, Sharri Plonski, and Elian Weizman argue, the settler colonial framework is a necessary tool in anticolonial liberation praxis and decolonization. 105 The intellectual, thereby, is implicated as a subject with great responsibility. In this sense, Antonio Gramsci articulates the role of the "organic intellectual" in countering hegemony (while for him it will always be the mass who can precipitate revolution), and Said sees a powerful role for the intellectual as someone who can contest conventions and institutions, and be wholly invested in critique, for a public.…”

Guest Editor’s Introduction: Queerness with Middle East Studies: Mapping out the Useful Intersections

“…Scholars on Palestine/Israel increasingly are emphasising the need to challenge the "piecemeal approach" designating ontological categories such as "post-conflict" or "state building" inscribing a disavowal of "larger structures of Israeli settler colonialism. 13 "Growing scholarly attention to the need "centres indigenous anti-colonial frameworks that reconnect intellectual analysis of settler colonial relations, with political engagements in the praxis of liberation and decolonisation" 14 while at the same time calling upon us to contemplate the value of such analytics to Middle East area studies, especially within the current and increasing geopolitical normalisation of the Israeli state both at the regional 15 and international levels. 16 From here comes the value of charting the centrality of Palestine to conceptualising and advancing a decolonial queering theory as I argue in "Palestine and the Will to Theorise Decolonial Queering."…”