Open Access
Holding on to place : spatialities of resistance in Israel and Palestine : the cases of Hebron, Silwan and al-Araqib
Loading...
Files
Lecoquierre_2016.pdf (9.24 MB)
Embargoed until 2020
License
Access Rights
Cadmus Permanent Link
Full-text via DOI
ISBN
ISSN
Issue Date
Type of Publication
Keyword(s)
Other Topic(s)
EUI Research Cluster(s)
Initial version
Published version
Succeeding version
Preceding version
Published version part
Earlier different version
Initial format
Author(s)
Citation
Florence : European University Institute, 2016
EUI; SPS; PhD Thesis
Cite
LECOQUIERRE, Marion, Holding on to place : spatialities of resistance in Israel and Palestine : the cases of Hebron, Silwan and al-Araqib, Florence : European University Institute, 2016, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/38905
Abstract
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict centres on ensuring the control of land and territory; space thus plays a critical role in the power relations between the parties involved in the conflict. Acknowledging space as a central tool of domination used by the Israeli authorities, the following question arises: how is space mobilized by those opposing this control? This thesis endeavours to shed light on the way in which space can become both a resource for and an outcome of protest, with an emphasis placed on the way it is used in and produced through practices of resistance. This research will utilise a comparative approach, relying on material collected in the course of fieldwork conducted between 2012 and 2014 in Israel and Palestine. The three "sites of contention" analysed here include the H2 area in Hebron (the 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 the prism of these three case studies, the thesis will tackle different strategies built around the materiality of space, place, sense of place, territory, landscape, network and scale. We will see that beyond the struggle against occupation and discrimination, the protests also attempt to re-appropriate the local space and make territorial claims in multiple ways and at different scales. It appears that place is the fundamental spatiality used in the contention in each of the three cases: inhabiting the place, and affirming one's attachment to the neighbourhood is considered to be one of the only viable strategies available. This attachment, or sense of place, is connected to the attachment to the land, and to a territory, conceived in light of nationalist, religious and cultural perspectives. Through place-based practices and representations, but also via international advocacy, the actors of contention attempt to affirm the everlasting Palestinian rooting in space, thus challenging the deterritorialization provoked by the Israeli measures of control.
Table of Contents
Additional Information
Defence date: 5 February 2016
Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, formerly European University Institute, Scuola Normale Superiore (supervisor); Professor Paul Routledge, Leeds University (co-supervisor); Professor Philippe Schmitter, European University Institute; Professor Eitan Alimi, Hebrew University.
Examining Board: Professor Donatella della Porta, formerly European University Institute, Scuola Normale Superiore (supervisor); Professor Paul Routledge, Leeds University (co-supervisor); Professor Philippe Schmitter, European University Institute; Professor Eitan Alimi, Hebrew University.