Israel in the ‘Occupied Territory’, Memory, and the Conundrum of ‘Sovereign Violence’ in Gaza

Abstract

The last two decades of the 20^th century saw the formation and proliferation of fundamentalist and extremist groupings within the Middle East such as the cases with both Hamas and Hezbollah respectively. Even though these movements are considered to differ greatly especially along Shia and Sunni ideological lines, I demonstrate in this paper that despite their significant differences, the Palestine-Israeli conflict has not only deepened and led to their respective formations but has largely assisted in shaping and perpetuating their seemingly common ideologies especially, anti-Zionism, and the resultant resistances thereafter. To this end, I make a brief attempt in this paper to discuss the Israeli invasion and the intifada, and their respective links to the formation of resistance. A case study of the Israeli occupation and idea of settler-colonialism will be highlighted towards comparing and contrasting the necropolitical strategies employed to withhold the ‘bodies’ of the colonized with the focal point being on the different conceptions of the notions of sovereignty and alternative sources of power evident in both Israel and Palestine and shows why Gazans are troubled with the catastrophic atrocities committed against them. Finally, I also underscore the role played by apartheid/colonial regime in fostering violence, in perpetuating sovereign violence by aiding us understand such themes as necro politics, the politics of memory, elimination and ‘‘immigration policing seen as a hol(e)y war’’, as well as the colonial management of death.