Isolation Through Humanitarianism: Subaltern Geopolitics of the Siege on Gaza

Scholars have argued that in attempts to achieve geopolitical goals, siege often results in covert assaults against civilian populations. In the Gazan context, siege subjects are rendered as surplus to the Israeli state, and are therefore isolated and deprived of basic human needs as well as human r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antipode 2016-06, Vol.48 (3), p.750-769
Main Author: Smith, Ron J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Basic needs
Covert
Data collection
Deprivation
Ethnography
Gaza
Geopolitics
Human rights
Humanitarianism
Intellectuals
Israel
microgeographies
Palestine
Services
subaltern
Subaltern identities
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Summary:Scholars have argued that in attempts to achieve geopolitical goals, siege often results in covert assaults against civilian populations. In the Gazan context, siege subjects are rendered as surplus to the Israeli state, and are therefore isolated and deprived of basic human needs as well as human rights. In 2006, siege was enacted against Gaza, enforced by the Egyptian and Israeli militaries. As a consequence, the population of Gaza is isolated from the exchange of goods, services, people, and ideas. This article begins with an analysis of siege as a violent process and as a subset of occupation practices. Using ethnographic data collected in Gaza between 2009 and 2014, this article mobilizes the methods and approach of subaltern geopolitics to undermine the notion of siege as a humanitarian alternative to war. This study reveals the micro‐scale, graduated nature of siege and its impacts on the civilians living in Gaza.
ISSN:0066-4812
1467-8330
DOI:10.1111/anti.12224