Otherwise occupied : an analysis of the causes and consequences of Zionist carceral practice : a thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Politics at Massey University, Turitea, New Zealand
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Date
2012
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Massey University
Abstract
This thesis examines the employment of particular carceral tactics both inside and outside Israeli prisons in the
context of the Zionist colonial occupation of Palestinian territories. Together these tactics are considered to form
an overarching strategy to crush Palestinian resistance to the forty-five year-old occupation. Central to this
study is application of Michel Foucault’s model of carceral practices which occur within the walls of the modern
prison and extend capillary-like into wider Palestinian society, to the extent it resembles a Foucauldian “carceral
archipelago” of control. Various components of Foucault’s concepts of power, discipline, punishment and
resistance are applied in order to analyse overlapping canons of colonialism and Zionism, and the response of
Palestinians to them. Occupied Palestinians are also linked with Giorgio Agamben’s concept of people killed
with impunity - homo sacer - whom Agamben refers to as living a “bare life” without human or political rights, at
the margins of society or beyond. Colonial-era laws and regulations are found to have dehumanised
Palestinians as a mass security threat to Israel. This categorization is in turn used to justify mass incarceration,
detention without trial, torture, extra-judicial executions, collective punishments and the commodification of
Palestinian prisoners exemplified in lop-sided prisoner exchanges. The thesis finds Zionist carceral practices
entrench the occupation and immiserate Palestinian society, disrupting economic, social and political cohesion,
and the potential of the Palestinian people. The thesis identifies hunger strikes, the commandeering of Zionist
prison space as sites of Palestinian nationalist education and political recruitment, and a refusal to vacate their
own land as clear mechanisms of Palestinian resistance. An oppression-resistance cycle is evident, reinforcing
the centrality of the prisoner and the prison in Palestinian life. Contemporary behaviour by Israel indicates this
cycle will continue for as long as Zionist carceral practice criminalizes all resistance to its occupation.
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Keywords
Israeli prisons, Palestinian prisoners, Political prisoners, Israel, Occupation of Palestine, Palestinian resistance, Michel Foucault, Mass incarceration, Zionist carceral practices, Prisoner exchanges, Palestinians, Israeli oppression