A Monopoly of Violence? Security Coordination in the West Bank

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. New Perspectives on Rule

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on ethnographic and qualitative research to trace the genealogy of security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo "peace process." In doing so, I explain how Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territories has been re-organized through the creation of an advanced network of security agencies – including forces of the US Empire and segments of the colonized Palestinian population. I then analyze the strategies and tactics of security coordination. Although justified by a discourse of “Palestinian/Arab/Muslim terrorism,” the security forces target all Palestinian opponents of Oslo. Finally, I analyze the dynamics of contestation and cooperation within the network. Security coordination in the West Bank is one of the most sophisticated – and some would say successful – efforts to manage an unruly population. But tensions and contradictions undermine the illusion of stability.

Author

• Andy Clarno, University of Illinois at Chicago