Research Mentor(s)
Sniderman, Robert
Description
Despite international legal consensus declaring the separation wall in Palestine/Israel as illegal, Israel has continued this geopolitical project unchallenged. Examining the judicial decisions of the International Court of Justice and Israel’s High Court of Justice on the wall, and their following political developments, reveals that Israel’s wall project was motivated by a political desire to protect illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories, confiscate Palestinian land, and constrict their movement and space. Analyzing the entirety of the wall through the lens of containment illuminates how the wall’s fracturing of Palestinian land created the material conditions, or the ‘facts on the ground’, for Israel’s political objectives manifested in the US’s recently announced “Middle East Peace Plan” or “Deal of the Century”. By collaging maps of the wall throughout Palestine to the map of the proposed future of Israel/Palestine by the recent plan, its juxtaposition reveals how Israel’s creation of the wall set the foundation for actualizing further colonial land confiscation in Palestine. Judicial activism in Israel was minimally successful in mitigating the worst effects of the wall but did reduce the amount of land trapped east of the wall and west of the border by roughly half. The result, however, was a wall seen by Israel’s eye as humanitarianly and proportionally considered by its’ courts, which allowed it to withstand international criticism while maintaining its purpose to actualize its geopolitical objectives.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
18-5-2020 12:00 AM
End Date
22-5-2020 12:00 AM
Department
Law, Diversity, and Justice
Genre/Form
student projects, posters
Type
Image
Keywords
Israel, Palestine, legal studies, settler colonial studies
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Included in
"Contained: The Separation Wall in Palestine/Israel"
Despite international legal consensus declaring the separation wall in Palestine/Israel as illegal, Israel has continued this geopolitical project unchallenged. Examining the judicial decisions of the International Court of Justice and Israel’s High Court of Justice on the wall, and their following political developments, reveals that Israel’s wall project was motivated by a political desire to protect illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories, confiscate Palestinian land, and constrict their movement and space. Analyzing the entirety of the wall through the lens of containment illuminates how the wall’s fracturing of Palestinian land created the material conditions, or the ‘facts on the ground’, for Israel’s political objectives manifested in the US’s recently announced “Middle East Peace Plan” or “Deal of the Century”. By collaging maps of the wall throughout Palestine to the map of the proposed future of Israel/Palestine by the recent plan, its juxtaposition reveals how Israel’s creation of the wall set the foundation for actualizing further colonial land confiscation in Palestine. Judicial activism in Israel was minimally successful in mitigating the worst effects of the wall but did reduce the amount of land trapped east of the wall and west of the border by roughly half. The result, however, was a wall seen by Israel’s eye as humanitarianly and proportionally considered by its’ courts, which allowed it to withstand international criticism while maintaining its purpose to actualize its geopolitical objectives.