Extending Ethnocracy: Reflections and Suggestions

As prelude to the special issue, this short piece reflects on the scholarly origins of the 'ethnocracy' concept, and comments on the arguments made by James Anderson's insightful opening article. It then outlines several concepts developed in the author's own work in later years as 'offsprings' of ethnocracy. Finally, it answers the challenge raised by Anderson by suggesting future theoretical, conceptual and empirical directions for research into ethnocratic dynamics on urban, state and global scales

Sacred Rhythms and Political Frequencies: Reading Lefebvre in an Urban House of Prayer

In recent years, Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm analysis has been implied in various ways to critically examine how rhythms are formed, disrupted, and reformed through different urban venues. One theme that this body of knowledge has yet to comprehensively examine, however, is how changes in the urban sphere impact the spatial rhythms of religious institutions in cities, which can be pivotal for understanding how religious institutions are formed as urban public spaces. This article addresses this issue with a rhythm analysis of a particular religious urban locus: a synagogue in the mixed Palestinian and Jewish city of Acre in northern Israel. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and an urban survey, the article discusses how different forms of rhythm making undergo a process of contested synchronization with linear and cyclical rhythms of the city. More specifically, how the ability to forge a space hinges on the ability to maintain a rhythmic cycle of attendance, which, in turn, is not only dependent on the ability to achieve synchronization amongst the needs of the different participants but is also intertwined with the larger linear cycle of urban life as a rhythmic equation that fuses the personal with the political, the linear with the cyclical, and the religious with the urban

The One-State as a Demand of International Law: Jus Cogens

This article provides the initial contours of an argument that uses International Law to challenge the validity of Israeli apartheid. It challenges the conventional discourse of legal debates on Israel’s actions and bordersand seeks to link the illegalities of these actions to the validity of an inbuilt Israeli apartheid. The argument also connects the deontological doctrine of peremptory norms of International Law (jus cogens), the right of self-determination and the International Crime of Apartheid to the doctrine of state recognition. It applies these to the State of Israel and the vision of a single democratic state in historic Palestine

Border collapse and boundary maintenance: militarisation and the micro-geographies of violence in Israel–Palestine

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Drawing upon subaltern geopolitics and feminist geography, this article explores how militarisation shapes micro-geographies of violence and occupation in Israel–Palestine. While accounts of spectacular and large-scale political violence dominate popular imaginaries and academic analyses in/of the region, a shift to the micro-scale foregrounds the relationship between power, politics and space at the level of everyday life. In the context of Israel–Palestine, micro-geographies have revealed dynamic strategies for ‘getting by’ or ‘dealing with’ the occupation, as practiced by Palestinian populations in the face of spatialised violence. However, this article considers how Jewish Israelis actively shape the spatial micro-politics of power within and along the borders of the Israeli state. Based on 12 months of ethnographic research in Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem during 2010–2011, an analysis of everyday narratives illustrates how relations of violence, occupation and domination rely upon gendered dynamics of border collapse and boundary maintenance. Here, the borders between home front and battlefield break down at the same time as communal boundaries are reproduced, generating conditions of ‘total militarism’ wherein military interests and agendas are both actively and passively diffused. Through gendering the militarised micro-geographies of violence among Jewish Israelis, this article reveals how individuals construct, navigate and regulate the everyday spaces of occupation, detailing more precisely how macro political power endures.This work was supported by the SOAS, University of London; University of London Central Research Fund

Making cheaper labor: Domestic outsourcing and development in the Galilee

Middle Eastern Studie

Partners No More: Relational Transformation and the Turn to Litigation in Two Conservationist Organizations

The rise in litigation against administrative bodies by environmental and other political interest groups worldwide has been explained predominantly through the liberalization of standing doctrines. Under this explanation, termed here the floodgate model, restrictive standing rules have dammed the flow of suits that groups were otherwise ready and eager to pursue. I examine this hypothesis by analyzing processes of institutional transformation in two conservationist organizations: the Sierra Club in the United States and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI). Rather than an eagerness to embrace newly available litigation opportunities, as the floodgate model would predict, the groups\u27 history reveals a gradual process of transformation marked by internal, largely intergenerational divisions between those who abhorred conflict with state institutions and those who saw such conflict as not only appropriate but necessary to the mission of the group. Furthermore, in contrast to the pluralist interactions that the floodgate model imagines, both groups\u27 relations with pertinent agencies in earlier eras better accorded with the partnership-based corporatist paradigm. Sociolegal research has long indicated the importance of relational distance to the transformation of interpersonal disputes. I argue that, at the group level as well, the presence or absence of a (national) partnership-centered relationship determines propensities to bring political issues to court. As such, well beyond change in groups\u27 legal capacity and resources, current increases in levels of political litigation suggest more fundamental transformations in the structure and meaning of relations between citizen groups and the state

Nation-Building or Ethnic Fragmentation? Frontier Settlement and Collective Identities in Israel

The paper analyses the evolution of collective identities from a critical geographical perspective. It focuses on the impact of frontier settlement policies in settler states, during the course of nation-and state-building efforts. In its theoretical part, the paper highlights the key role of space, place and social control policies in the formation of ethnic identities. These are shown to be shaped, reshaped and reproduced during the process of settlement, migration and intergroup territorial conflict. The discussion probes in depth the link between spatial control policies and the settlement of 'internal frontiers'.Within that framework, the paper then explores the case of Israel, and the impact of the settlement and spatial planning in the Galilee region on the formation of regional collective identities. The analysis shows that the process of settling the frontiers has given rise to ethnic, social and institutional fragmentation, particularly between Palestinian-Arabs, Oriental Jews and Ashkenazi Jews. These sociospatial divisions may -- paradoxically -- undermine the very nation-building and state-building settlement projects which had instigated the settlement of the Galilee internal frontier

The Internal Frontier: Territorial Control and Ethnic Relations in Israel

YIFTACHEL O. (1996) The internal frontier: territorial control and ethnic relations in Israel, Reg. Studies 30, 493-508. In settler societies the development of frontier regions has played an important role in the complementary processes of nation building and state building. However, studies of frontier and regional development have paid little attention to the creation of 'internal frontier' regions, where large concentrations of ethnic minorities exist within established multiethnic states. The present study proposes a theoretical framework for the understanding of internal frontiers, drawing on the physical, social and cultural characteristics of frontier colonization and settlement in pre- and post-state periods. It further argues that state policies in such areas are marked by constant attempts to exert territorial control over minority populations. The paper then illustrates the above propositions, by analysing in detail Israel's policies and their impact on a typical Arab village in the Galilee - one of Israel's internal frontier regions. The analysis concentrates on the content, implementation and consequences of Israel's spatial policies. These policies have indeed been marked by a consistent attempt for territorial control over the Arabs in the village, as part of an internal frontier environment. Consequently, Israel's policies have worked to erode the village's land resources, contain its residential development, encircle it with Jewish settlements and manipulate its administrative and planning boundaries. The analysis has thus demonstrated the heavy toll exerted by internal frontier policies on residents of a minority village. YIFTACHEL O. (1966) La frontiere interne: le controle territorial et les rapports ethniques en Israël, Reg. Studies 30, 493-508. Dans des societes composees de colonisateurs le developpement des regions frontalieres a joue un role important des les processus complementaires, a savoir la construction des nations et des etats. Toujours est-il que des etudes du developpement frontalier et regional n'ont guere porte sur l'etablissement des regions de 'frontieres internes', ou de fortes concentrations de minorites ethniques existent au sein des etats multiethniques bien etablis. La presente etude propose une base theorique qui permet une comprehension des frontieres internes, puisant dans les caracteristiques physiques, sociales et culturelles de la colonisation frontaliere au cours des periodes avant et apres la construction des etats. En outre, on soutient que les politiques d'etat dans de tels domaines sont marquees par des tentatives continuelles visees a exercer du controle territorial sur les populations minoritaires. A titre d'exemple, il s'ensuit une analyse detaillee des politiques de l'Israël et de leur impact sur un village arabe type situe dans la Galilee, l'une des regions de frontieres internes. L'analyse porte sur le contenu, la mise en oeuvre et les consequences des politiques d'amenagement du territoire menees en Israël. Certes, ces politiques ont ete marquees par une tentative reguliere de prendre le controle territorial sur les Arabes du village, comme partie integrante d'un environnement de frontieres internes. Par consequent, les politiques de l'Israël ont joue en faveur de l'erosion des ressources foncieres du village, de l'endiguement de sa construction de logements, de son encerclement des villages juifs et de la manipulation de ses limites politiques et de planification. Ainsi l'analyse a demontre la facon dont les politiques de frontieres internes ont serieusement ebranle les habitants d'un village minoritaire. YIFTACHEL O. (1996) Die interne Grenze: Territorialgewalt und ethnische Beziehungen in Israel, Reg. Studies 30, 493-508. In Siedlergesellschaften spielt die Entwicklung der Grenzgebiete eine wichtige Rolle in den einander erganzenden Prozessen des Aufbaus der Nation und dem Aufbau des Staatswesens. Untersuchungen der Grenz-und Regionalentwicklung haben jedoch der Schaffung “interner Grenzgebiete” wenig Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt, wo starke Konzentrationen ethnischer Minoritaten in festetablierten Staaten verschiedener ethnischer Gruppen bestehen. Die vorliegende Studie schlagt einen theoretischen Rahmen fur das Verstandnis interner Grenzen vor, wobei auf physikalische, gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Charakterzuge der Grenzkoloniesierung und Besiedlung in Zeiten vor und nach der Staatsgrundung zuruckgegriffen wird. Daruberhinaus wird die Behauptung aufgestellt, dass die Bestrebungen des Staates in solchen Gebieten darauf abzielen, durch anhaltende Versuche die Oberaufsicht uber das Gebeit der Minderheitsbevolkerung zu erreichen. Der Aufsatz veranschaulicht sodann die oben gemachten Aussagen, indem er Israels Bestrebungen und ihre Auswirkungen auf ein typisches Araberdorf in Galilaa, einem der internen Grenzgebiete Israels, zu analysieren. Die Analyse konzentriert sich auf Inhalt, Vollzug und Folgen der israelischen Raumpolitik. Diese Bestrebungen sind tatsachlich durch anhaltende Versuche gekennzeichnet, die Gebietsaufsicht uber die Araber im Dorf als Teil eines internen Grenzgebiets zu fuhren. Demzufolge haben Israels Bestrebungen darauf abgezielt, die Bodenreserven des Dorfes zu reduzieren, den Wohnungsbau zu beschranken, es mit judischen Siedlungen zu umgeben und seine Verwaltungs- und Planungsgrenzen zu manipulieren. Die Analyse hat somit aufgezeigt, was fur ein schwerer Zoll den Einwohnern eines Minderheitendorfes durch die Politik der internen Grenzen abverlangt wird.Grenzentwicklung, Palastinsische Araber, Volkerkonflikt, Gebietsaufsicht, Israel, Galilaa,