Tag: Middle East

By: Ahmed El-Halabi

Introduction

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute that’s been going on since the end of World War II and is one of the longest conflicts to happen around the world. Despite numerous attempts to establish peace in the region, the conflict isn’t going anywhere, and it’s hard to see when it could end. Despite the deployment of the oldest peacekeeping operation by the United Nations in 1948 and the United States’ attempt to organize peace, a lasting solution has not been found. The seriousness of the situation, rooted in over 2000 years of history and disputed land control, makes it a challenging issue to resolve. Both Jews and Arab Muslims claim historical rights to the territory, furthering the conflict from any sort of peace.

This essay will explore the idea of postcolonialism and how the BDS movement can be analyzed in promoting a more equitable and authentic postcolonial future for Palestine and Israel. This essay examines the Palestine-Israel conflict through the lens of postcolonialism, utilizing Orientalism and postcolonialism theories from authors Edward Said and Frantz Fanon’s works, “Orientalism” and “The Wretched of the Earth”. By applying these concepts, the essay seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the BDS movement in promoting a more equitable and authentic postcolonial future for Palestine and Israel. To achieve this, the essay analyzes the movement’s success in raising global awareness, challenging Israel’s legitimacy, and fostering communication and cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli activists.

Understanding Post-Colonialism

Postcolonialism emerged in response to the long-lasting effects of colonialism, seeking to examine and mitigate its influence on modern society. Through Edward Said’s book, “Orientalism,” he supports this claim that postcolonialism emerged as a necessary response to the ongoing effects of colonialism (Said, 1978, p. 3). Postcolonialism challenges colonialism’s entrenched influence and aims to amplify the voices of those marginalized and oppressed by it. While analyzing how colonialism imposed Western values and systems of governance, leading to the subordination and exclusion of native cultures and knowledge systems. Said highlights the importance of examining the ways in which colonialism has influenced cultures, communities, and power structures, and the need to challenge the pervasive influence of colonialism on contemporary society (Said, 1978, p. 2). Overall, it is a vital area of research that aims to challenge and undermine the persistent legacy of colonialism and promote a more equitable society. He emphasizes the significance of challenging the dominant narratives and viewpoints that colonialism produced in addition to pointing out that colonialism produced unequal power arrangements between colonizers and colonized people. (Said, 1978, p. 8).

Said’s work emphasizes the importance of recognizing and amplifying the voices of those who have been marginalized and oppressed by colonialism (Said, 1978, p. 5). Said’s work remains a critical intervention into ongoing discussions around postcolonialism, highlighting the effects of colonialism on countries and cultures while questioning the ongoing legacy of colonialism. We may work towards a more equal society by recognizing these impacts and providing an outlet for minority views to be heard. (Said, 1978, p. 13).

Brief History of Palestine and Israel

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a protracted and intricate disagreement over who has governmental and territorial control over Palestine. When Jewish immigration to Palestine expanded in the early 20th century, tensions within Arab populations began (BBC News, 2021). Following Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, thousands of Palestinian refugees were uprooted because of the Arab-Israeli War (BBC News, 2021). Despite several attempts at negotiation and ceasefires, the conflict has lasted for decades without ending. The establishment of a Palestinian state, the rights of Palestinian refugees, and the status of Jerusalem are the primary issues at the center of the conflict (BBC News, 2021). Palestinians contend that Israel’s continuous occupation of Palestinian areas violates international law and prevents them from being independent and exercising their right to self-determination (Amnesty International, 2021). As a result, this has caused suffering for both Palestinians and Israelis, with numerous displacements of civilians. The international community has called for peaceful resolutions to the conflict, specifically, proposing a two-state solution that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel (United Nations, 2021). However, achieving this peace agreement remains a challenge.

Israelis and Palestinians are living in fear and insecurity in the area as a result of the prolonged conflict. The conflict has also had wider geopolitical repercussions due to regional and international countries getting involved and using it to further their own objectives. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to promote dialogue and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians, despite the challenges and complexity of the situation. Individual activists, movements, and non-governmental organizations have all worked to improve rapprochement and peace, typically through initiatives that emphasize forging connections between the two communities and fostering mutual respect. Despite the slow progress, these initiatives have demonstrated that a peaceful resolution to the issue is still possible.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement

In reaction to the traditional diplomatic and negotiating methods’ failure to end the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel, the BDS movement was born in 2005. The movement’s proponents contend that Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians constitutes a violation of international law and human rights and that the international community must hold Israel accountable. Some people have opposed and criticized the BDS movement, claiming that it unfairly targets Israel and has antisemitic undertones. However, supporters of the movement insist that it is an acceptable, peaceful method of protest and that critiquing Israeli policies need not always be antisemitic.

Overview of postcolonial theory and its Application to Palestine and Israel

The postcolonial theory offers an insightful lens through which to analyze the conflict between Palestine and Israel, given its focus on the legacy of colonialism and its impacts on societies and cultures. By examining the historical context of the Zionist settlement in Palestine, a postcolonial framework can help understand the ways in which the conflict has been shaped by power dynamics and the imposition of Western values and beliefs on the region. Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth” provides important insights into the impacts of colonialism on societies and cultures. Fanon notes that “The colonial world is a world divided into compartments” and “The colonial world is a Manichean world.” (Fanon, 1961, p. 2) This division perpetuates unequal power relations, with the settler’s world being a “world without spaciousness.” (Fanon, 1961, p. 3) Furthermore, Fanon argues that the violence of colonialism is a central aspect of the conflict, stating that “The violence which has ruled over the ordering of the colonial world…that same violence will be claimed and taken over by the native at the moment when deciding to embody history in his own person, he surges into the forbidden quarters.” (Fanon, 1961, p. 35) Thus, a postcolonial framework can help raise awareness about the complex historical and cultural factors that underlie the Palestine-Israel conflict and work towards a more just and equitable resolution. Furthermore, postcolonial theory can highlight how the continued influence of colonialism on the conflict reinforces unequal power relations and perpetuates injustices against Palestinians. Through postcolonial theory, activists can raise awareness about the complex historical and cultural factors that underlie the conflict and work towards a more just and fair resolution.

Significance of the BDS movement

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has gained widespread attention as a movement advocating for Palestinian rights. According to the BDS National Committee, the movement’s goals include “ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands,” “recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel,” and “respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties” (BDS National Committee, n.d.). These objectives have created much discussion among scholars, who have also examined the movement’s nonviolent strategies, including as boycotts and divestments, and their effects on Israeli society and politics as well as on how the world perceives Israel (Human Rights Watch, 2021).

The BDS movement’s founding principles are founded on the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people and seek to address the conflict’s underlying causes. The three guiding principles are listed on the website of the BDS National Committee as ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, recognizing the fundamental rights of Arab-Palestinian Israeli citizens, and respecting, promoting, and defending the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and property (BDS National Committee, n.d.). Scholars have debated the movement’s demands extensively, looking at its nonviolent strategies like boycotts, divestments, and sanctions as well as how they have affected Israeli politics and society as well as how the rest of the world views the conflict.

The BDS movement has faced allegations of anti-Semitic views and bias against Israel, leading to controversy and debate (Human Rights Watch, 2021). However, the movement continues to advocate for Palestinian rights and pressuring Israel to change its policies. Similarly, Amnesty International (2021) acknowledges the criticism but emphasizes that the movement’s three core principles reflect the longstanding grievances of the Palestinian people and seek to address the root causes of the conflict. While supporters of the BDS movement argue that sanctions, boycotts, and divestment are required to address the injustice of the Palestinian people, those opposed assert that the movement is biased and unfairly targets Israeli citizens and businesses (Middle East Monitor, 2021). The BDS movement continues to play a vital role in the conflict for Palestinian rights despite the controversies.

Israeli violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories

Israeli violations of international law have had a profound impact on Palestinian communities, particularly those living in the occupied territories. The construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land has led to the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, while the demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure has left many without access to basic services such as water and electricity. Sources, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have harshly criticized Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory for violating both international law and human rights. The establishment of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land is viewed as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prevents an occupying army from moving its own population into the territory it occupies (Amnesty International, 2022). The demolition of their homes and infrastructure has left a large number of Palestinians homeless and cut off from necessities, such as water and electricity. (Human Rights Watch, 2021). The excessive force, which included the use of live ammunition, used to suppress Palestinian protesters has resulted in many deaths and injuries (Amnesty International, 2022). As a result, this has contributed to a culture of fear and insecurity in Palestinian communities. These policies have also had a significant economic impact, with restrictions on movement and trade making it difficult for Palestinians to access employment and essential goods and services.

In response, the BDS movement has been successful in putting Israel under pressure economically and politically to cease its occupation of Palestinian areas and offer Palestinians equal rights. The movement has also been successful in establishing communication and cooperation amongst activists on all sides of the conflict as well as raising awareness of the predicament of Palestinians. The BDS movement has remained active and expanded despite opposition and criticism from people and groups all around the world. The movement acts as a reminder that regular people can alter the world and make governments responsible for their deeds.

Implications for the future

The BDS movement has the potential to be a tremendous tool for the goal of justice and equality in Palestine and Israel. Nevertheless, it faces several challenges, including opposition from pro-Israel organizations and nations as well as sanctions that would have an impact on both Israelis and Palestinians. Because of this, it will be crucial to continuously evaluate and analyze the movement’s methods and objectives to guarantee sure it stays significant, effective, and based on the concepts of justice and equality. The BDS movement must serve as a beginning to a solution. This issue could be resolved by granting Palestine and Israel equal recognition. However, Israel must accomplish this without breaking any international laws.

The BDS movement has the potential to be a tremendous tool for the goal of justice and equality in Palestine and Israel. Nevertheless, it faces several challenges, including opposition from pro-Israel organizations and nations as well as sanctions that would have an impact on both Israelis and Palestinians. Because of this, it will be crucial to continuously evaluate and analyze the movement’s methods and objectives to guarantee sure it stays significant, effective, and based on the concepts of justice and equality. The BDS movement must serve as a beginning to a solution. This issue could be resolved by granting Palestine and Israel equal recognition. However, Israel must accomplish this without breaking any international laws.

Conclusion

It is important to acknowledge that the struggle for justice and equality requires a multifaceted approach that considers issues such as colonialism, nationalism, and power dynamics. The BDS movement is just one tool in this struggle, and it is not without limitations and challenges. Through continued analysis, dialogue, and collaboration, we can work towards a future that is more equitable and just for all people in the region. It is crucial to approach this issue with empathy, respect, and a willingness to listen and learn from all perspectives. The BDS movement has been successful in raising global awareness about the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel. The movement’s nonviolent tactics of boycotts have drawn attention to the human rights violations committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, including the displacement of Palestinians, the construction of unjust settlements, and the restriction of movement. The movement has helped to educate people around the world about the history of the conflict, including the ongoing impact of colonialism and the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. The BDS movement has provided a platform for Palestinian and Israeli activists to come together and work towards a common goal of promoting human rights and justice. Although building alliances across political and social divides is difficult, the BDS movement has created a platform where Palestinian and Israeli activists can come together to talk and work towards common goals. This has the potential to create understanding and build bridges between the two groups.

By applying Orientalism and postcolonialism theories from Edward Said and Frantz Fanon’s works, “Orientalism” and “The Wretched of the Earth,” this essay has examined the effectiveness of the BDS movement in challenging Israel’s legitimacy while using communication and cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli activists. Although there have been criticisms of the BDS movement, it remains a vital initiative in promoting peaceful resolutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by holding Israel accountable for violating international law and human rights. Ultimately, a peaceful resolution to the conflict is still possible, and individual activists, movements, and non-governmental organizations can help foster mutual respect and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Bibliography:

Amnesty International. 2021. “Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories 2020.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and- occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/.

Amnesty International. 2015. “Israel: The Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north- africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian- territories/.

Amnesty International. 2021. “Palestine: Everything You Need to Know about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/campaigns/demand-dignity/palestine- everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds- movement/.

BBC News. “Israel ramps up demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.” PBS NewsHour, July 23, 2019. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/israel-ramps-up-demolition-of-palestinian-homes-in-jerusalem.

BBC News. 2021. “Israel-Palestinian Conflict: What You Need to Know.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11107739.

BDS National Committee. n.d. “What is BDS?” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 2003, 1-28.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963, 1-35.

Human Rights Watch. 2021. “Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.hrw.org/tag/boycotts-divestment-and-sanctions-bds.

If Americans Knew. “History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” If Americans Knew. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://ifamericansknew.org/history/.

Middle East Monitor. 2021. “BDS Movement.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/bds-movement/.

Schulman, Joshua. “BDS Movement Highlights Need to Restore Civil Discourse on Campuses.” Inside Higher Ed, April 1, 2016. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/04/01/bds-movement-highlights-need-restore-civil-discourse-campuses-essay.

United Nations. 2021. “The Question of Palestine.” Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/question-palestine/.

by Chrissy Stamey

Narrative control over the Holy Land’s inhabitation currently hinges upon a false dichotomy of both recognition and silence–the ability to make invisible the Palestinian while projecting the Israeli. The public image presented by archaeological projects is not relegated to just that of Israeli tourism, although tourism and archaeological excavation often trod over the Palestinian hand-in-hand under the direction of government and private organizations. The fate of national history depends upon the spatiality–and story–that emerges through archaeology in Israel, and this story has disproportionately swayed towards the marginalization of the Palestinian out of the history and land of Israel-Palestine.

This paper will assess the historical context of archaeological research in Israel as originating from colonialism. The utilization of archaeology as a mode of creating knowledgepower directly relates to its appropriation today by the Zionist ideology in Israel (Said 2003). Additionally, archaeology is weaponized for the purpose of land dispossession and settlement colonialism–the inherent physical spatiality of archaeological excavation is key in this analysis. The governmental institute for Israeli archaeology–the Israel Antiquities Authority–has structurally incorporated capitalist logic and organization into the practice of state-funded archaeology work in Israel, allowing for private Zionist organizations to assert their influence on the direction of public archaeological work. This structural bias appears in the form of systematic corruption and the politics of recognition in historical narratives. The praxis of archaeology as a vehicle of apartheid will be analyzed through the metaphor of the root, relevant both in terms of the strangulation of Palestinian living spaces by apartheid-like architecture and via the historical genealogy of a modern Israeli national heritage. The Jewish Israeli national history is artificially constructed by the disappearance of Islamic presence from the archaeological record, and relationships between Palestinians and their national identity through shared heritage suffers because of unreliable, Zionist-influenced archaeology.

History of Archaeology in the Holy Land

Under the watchful eye of European colonialism emerged the field of biblical archaeology, a foundational realm of material culture studies that created a chance for Westerners to materialize the immaterial heritage of Judeo-Christianity. These early excavations, exclusively led by European academics, began a new intellectual field that merged both the spiritual history of Judeo-Christianity and the radical new science of archaeology, allowing for European explorers to possess the past through a knowledge supported by quantifiable fact and reasoning (Galor 2017, 5). Archaeology, unlike literature and biblical studies, revolutionized European exploration of the Holy Land through the ability to grasp, dig, and hold the ‘objective’ ancient past as opposed to an intangible conception of spiritual heritage. Early archaeological excavations of the Holy Land coincided with a colonial desire to definitively know the human world, and the focus of archaeological excavation onto areas of biblical importance continued throughout the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of the British Mandate of Palestine. While the origins of biblical archaeology exhibited an ethically dubious exertion of colonial power over native Palestinian peoples, the findings of these 19th century European excavations did not yet translate into a canonized national heritage for Zionist Jews. Archaeology emerged as a technology of nationalist colonialism with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 (Murphy et al.), which reframed archaeological research in the Holy Land into a project of establishing a cultural history canon for the Jewish ethnostate.

In the aftermath of the Six Days War of 1967, Israel occupied multiple Palestinian-Arab regions previously determined autonomous in the original establishment of Israel: West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and Eastern Jerusalem (Murphy et al.). These territories passed between the control of Israeli and Palestinian authority throughout the 21st century before Israel definitively occupied the West Bank and Gaza again after the Second Intifada in 2002 (Murphy et al.). Official control over these regions remained legally dubious throughout the turn of the century, but nonetheless, Israel has conducted a project of settlement colonialism to bypass official ordinances of land ownership since the 1990s (Weizman 2007, 3). Archaeological excavations organized by the Israeli government have additionally been weaponized into a way of taking Palestinian land through legal land dispossessions and excavation permits (Weizman 2007, 2). Consequently, the conflict between Israel and Palestine spills into the archaeological world through the violent politics of material culture and land rights.

The Institution of Archaeology and Zionist Politics

The Israel Antiquities Authority, or IAA, is the governmental body created to protect antiquities and oversee the process of archaeological research in Israel. While organized under the direction of the Israeli government, the IAA is theoretically a politically neutral entity concerned with maintaining the integrity of archaeological research within state borders. The escalation of settlement colonialism and nationalistic sentiment in Israeli politics has weakened the integrity of this organization through the outsourcing of administrative positions and the influence of right-wing settler organizations like El-Ad.

The IAA has fallen prey to a series of capitalistic reorganizations that center the influence of private companies over the integrity of unbiased, public archaeological excavation (Kletter 2019, 59). Officially, the IAA receives funding from the Israeli government, but decisions regarding excavation location and methodology have become increasingly directed by private companies who engage in economic deals regarding tourism and cultural development of archaeological sites. One of these powerful organizations is El-Ad, a real-estate group dedicated to the creation of a Jewish national ethnostate by establishing Zionist-oriented tourist sites around archaeological regions of East Jerusalem (Peace Now 2020). El-Ad controls one of the most politically contentious archaeological parks in Jerusalem, the City of David park located in the Silwan Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem (Peace Now 2020), which has been developed for tourism against the original wishes of the IAA (Kletter 2019, 17). The IAA’s resistance to private corporation involvement in archaeological affairs has been steadily worn down throughout decades of lobbying, lawsuits, and political coercion from uber-rich, right-wing Zionist groups who convert public archaeological heritage sites into tourist centers of settler propaganda. Despite internal resistance from IAA archaeologists, El-Ad has redirected the focus of IAA excavations towards East Jerusalem Palestinian land deemed desirable for Jewish settlement, turning the public archaeology sector into a “subcontractor” to the El-Ad’s metaphorical “landlord” (Kletter 2019, 57). El-Ad has effectively demeaned the IAA–and public archaeology in Israel–to a technology of colonialism through the forced removal and development of Palestinian neighborhoods for Israeli tourist sites by way of public land dispossession. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic structure of the IAA allows for corporate corruption of public archaeology and prevents resistance from IAA archaeologists who “do not enjoy academic freedom” as civil servants–speaking against El-Ad incurs a risk of removal without pay (Kletter 2019, 164).

Institutional public archaeology, like the IAA, additionally evokes colonial power dynamics through the politics of authority recognition. Permission to excavate in the state of Israel requires a license from the government granted by the IAA; Neither foreign nor domestic entities can conduct excavations without this explicit permission (Kletter 2019, 68). This process is generally standard for all archeological excavation, but the matter of authority becomes greatly problematized when the land being excavated is under dubious legal control. According to the Hague Convention of 1993, UNESCO law, and other international law (Kletter 2019, 166), Israel is legally prohibited from conducting excavations in occupied land, which embeds deep ethical doubt into the respectability of archaeological excavation on Palestinian land. Israel shirks responsibility for this infringement by utilizing settlement colonialism to assert control over occupied Palestinian land, complicating the matter of ownership within international law. The creation of archaeological parks on Palestinian land is almost immediately followed by a new Jewish settlement built nearby, thereby carving out legally justifiable Jewish settlement ownership from the previously Palestinian landscape (Peace Now 2020). These settlements often emerge as pockets within larger Palestinian neighborhoods, further severing the cohesion of continually weakened Palestinian communities through the disruption of the neighborhood landscape. Additionally, the authority of the Israeli government to control Palestinian land can be granted by the recognition politics inherent in legal excavation permits. Demanding a license before excavation validates Israel’s authority over the land being excavated, as well as any antiquities unearthed from that site–which, naturally, become the property of the IAA, not the Palestinians who previously owned said land. Excavation permits represent the colonial power asserted over Palestinians living within Israeli occupation, who are marginalized from the project of archaeological excavation in Israel and occupied Palestinian land through material heritage and land dispossession.

Archaeology and the Suffocating Root

Archaeology is a uniquely spatial field of historic investigation that interacts with its physical environment as a feature of knowledge production. As a tool of colonial oppression, this spatiality has been abused as a means of constricting Palestinian settlements, literally ‘hollowing’ out the land beneath Palestinian feet and entrapping Palestinian communities with wire-fence barricades (Weizman 2007, 15). Archaeological excavation sites can act similarly to architecture in their ability to dominate and divide a space. Like the military barricades of Israeli borders, active excavation sites are marked as private areas restricted from outsider view, lined with fences to keep looters and civilians from contaminating the delicate process of stratigraphy. These controlled barriers are integral for maintaining the methodological security of archaeology research, but there is no coincidence that these fences mirror those which barricade Palestinian neighborhoods from Israeli ones, and vice versa. In the landscape of apartheid, metal fences dominate the landscape, and the bodies allowed to pass between restricted areas are few. The spatial nature of archaeological sites allows for excavations to act similarly to Israeli settlements in the elastic battlefield of settler colonialism, displacing Palestinians living nearby a historical site destined for development. As a result, Palestinian neighborhoods–especially within East Jerusalem–are physically constricted to the point of becoming inhospitable. To complicate the physical politics of settler colonial apartheid, Israeli barricade constriction has adapted into a “war of verticality” as well (Weizman 2007, 12). Starting in 2011, illegal excavation methods have been permitted by El-Ad and the IAA to tunnel underneath the homes of East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods, infringing upon the sovereignty of Palestinian private spaces and further undermining the legal protections they hold over property within Jerusalem (Kletter 2019, 176). The metaphorical roots of Palestinian neighborhoods are snipped from below ground, while the wire fences articulating archaeological sites, Palestinian neighborhoods, and Israeli settlements grow further constricting around the Palestinian residents of Silwan. The physical process of archaeological research is weaponized to support an “elastic” geography of borders that Israeli authorities use to push Palestinians off their land by slow, methodological strangulation (Weizman 2007, 6).

Through nationalist culture narratives, the roots of Israeli archaeology extend beyond the physical realm of settler colonialism and into the metaphysical world of heritage genealogy. Archaeological work directed by Zionist organizations often focus the lens of historical narrative on sites associated with Jewish cultural heritage, namely Second Temple or Herodian era sites described in the New Testament of the Bible. These organizations support the excavation and development of these Jewish culture sites to continue the project of a Jewish ethnostate supported by the narrative of a deep-past of heritage in the Holy Land. Selectively developing Jewish heritage sites allows the Israeli state to connect the modern Jewish population to the ancient Jewish communities of the Hasmonean or Herodian kingdoms of antiquity (Galor 2017, 7; Ra’ad 2019, 79), establishing the genealogical roots of a mythicized national “family tree” (Ra’ad 2019, 85-86). The goal of this project is inevitably canonizing a historical indigeneity that precedes Palestinian connections to control of the land (Ra’ad 2019, 91). The validity of the Israeli ethnostate depends upon this pre-existing claim to land ownership (Sommer 2017, 179). The IAA and El-Ad have recently come under fire for committing a kind of “selective” archaeological excavation, often entirely bypassing more recent Islamic levels of habitation in order to access the “culturally important” Christian and Jewish culture material below (Kletter 2019, 129). This selective method of excavation is entirely inconsistent with the respectable procedure of archaeological work, which requires a full and thorough excavation of all strata throughout the dig process. The IAA has additionally failed to recognize any Muslim heritage sites as protected by law in accordance with the number of Jewish and Christian sites declared “holy” and protected by law; There have been “16 declared holy sites for Jews” since 1981 (Kletter 2019, 17). Failure to protect Islamic history in archaeological research further erases Islamic history from the Israeli historical narrative. Lack of representation of Islamic history–and by consequence, Palestinian heritage–has caused Palestinians to become dispossessed from their historical ties to the land as well as their official legal ownership, resulting in Palestinian heritage roots being cut from the historical narrative of the Holy Land altogether.

What of the Palestinian Identity?

In dynamic front lines of settlement colonialism, the historical stories that either side interprets as truth can affect the reality of conflict resolution in the future. In the culture politics of nationalism, history is utilized as a pillar of national identity formation that defines the genealogical borders of in-group status. Positivist, “apolitical” interpretations of history fail to recognize the deeply seeded subjectivity of human interpretation when attempting to “objectively” narrate the history of a people or place (Kletter 2019, 24; Trouillot 1995, 6; Said 2003). Archaeology, an often-self-declared science of rational objectivity (Kletter 2019, 168), can fall victim to the myth of apolitical history narratives by assuming material culture fails to reflect human subjectivity. Yet, unlike the natural sciences, all social sciences cannot exist in a vacuum of apolitical neutrality; Every human interacts with history and material culture in ways that reflect their unique experiences of the world (Trouillot 1995, 23). Attempting to ignore the socio-politics of real human life falsely projects positivist archaeological work as a “pure”, or somehow objective, knowledge, somehow distanced from the “political” by virtue of its scientific rationality (Said 2003, 10). The falsehood of archaeology as producing a politically untainted, “pure” knowledge creates an especially harmful silence in the face of a Zionist, nationalist rhetoric dominating the political sphere of Israel (Kletter 2019, 63). The result of IAA compliance in Zionist political agenda is the suspension of belief in an alternate multicultural narrative of history, a monoethnic Israeli story deeply rooted in biblical Jewish history that further validate the dispossessions of Palestinians who are culturally identified as interlopers in the seemingly eternal national history of Jewish Israel.

In addition to bolstering the Israeli national identity, biased depictions of cultural history reflect negatively onto the self-identity of Palestinians. Archaeology connects cultural groups to their shared heritage by establishing collective histories, and modern relationships with cultural ancestors are made real by accessing the material culture of said historic peoples. Holding a shared history contributes to the creation of an ethnic community (Sommer 2017, 181), meaning that the relationship between shared ancestors and descendants is integral in shaping the identity of a cultural or ethnic group. Biased archaeology distances Palestinians from accurate representation of their Islamic Arab ancestors in the archaeological record of the Holy Land (Ra’ad 2019, 90), thereby damaging the ability for Palestinians to create a comprehensive communal history with their ancestral heritage genealogy. This genealogical inheritance does not necessarily constitute a biological relationship between past and present peoples. The important aspect of forming a modern identity is the “belief in a common descent… history, culture and religion… [to] characterize an ethnic group” (Sommer 2017, 181), thereby prioritizing a shared historical truth of belonging as the foundation of a common self-identity. This means that the stories that Israel tells about itself–and about Palestine–truly matter to the modern definition of what it means to be Israeli, or Palestinian, or a member of any nation state affiliated with the occupation conflict today. The politics of identity are woven into discussions of the Israel-Palestine conflict because, at its core, the conflict concerns itself with who is “allowed” to exist as a nation state in the face of massively complex cultural history lineages. Zionists argue that one Jewish state of Israel is the solution to the national conflict; Palestinian supporters alternatively demand a two-state solution that shares the land between two independent nation-states. Negotiating a resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict requires a sound understanding of what nationhood means for both Israelis and Palestinians since the creation of a nation state depends upon holding a strong national identity. Severing Palestinian connections to Palestinian cultural history is an active, conscious destabilization of a possibility for Palestinian nationhood (Ra’ad 2019, 91). This destabilization of Palestinian cultural heritage is the project of Zionist policies within the Israeli government, and public archaeology has ultimately been weaponized to erase Palestinians from the historical narratives of the Holy Land. The consequence of Palestinian erasure reverberates throughout modern politics of recognition and national identity in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Conclusion

A post-colonial analysis of archaeological work in Israel has shown that the project of archaeology has been weaponized as a tool of oppression against Palestinians from within the Israeli state. Government-funded public archaeology in Israel has been contracted by right-wing private organizations to displace and forcibly separate Palestinians from their land. The disruption of Palestinian neighborhoods by excavation sites creates unlivable conditions for Palestinian communities through the barriers of apartheid-like architecture. Influence from Zionist organizations has disproportionately skewed the authenticity of archaeological excavation by prioritizing Jewish and Christian heritage sites over Islamic ones. The erasure of Islamic features in Israeli archaeological work selectively develops the history of Jewish and Christian history as accessible to academia and tourists, further denying Palestinian communities access to their own historical roots. Palestinian history has been disregarded as a feature within the rich history of the Holy Land, and the severance of Palestinian history from modern Palestinian communities is a disruption to the cohesive national identity of Palestinians trapped within a settler colonialism regime.

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