Decolonizing Epistemological Violence: Settler Colonialism and Intracommunal Crime and Violence in Palestinian Society in Israel

• In Event: Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Peace, War, and Social Conflict Roundtable #2: Collective Violence

Abstract

This paper critically examines production of knowledge about intracommunal violence and crime among Palestinian society in Israel, highlighting the relationship between power structures and epistemological frameworks. It centers the ontological relationship of power to colonial structures, interrogating how knowledge is shaped within domination and resistance. The paper identifies two paradigms: the first, a pathological-cultural paradigm that frames violence as a manifestation of cultural or social dysfunction; the second, an ethnic-minority or liberal paradigm, which attributes violence to inequality and social stratification, positioning Palestinians as a marginalized minority within a liberal state. It then introduces a third burgeoning paradigm, the settler colonial and apartheid paradigm, conceptualizing violence as a consequence of structural dispossession, systemic neglect, and “organized abandonment.” Drawing on a systematic review of academic, NGO reports, and journalistic sources reports in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, the paper demonstrates how certain paradigms reinforce dominant narratives that stigmatize Palestinian society in Israel while obscuring the Israeli settler state’s role in sustaining violence and Jewish supremacy. It further highlights the key role of Palestinian NGOs, activists, and journalists in challenging two hegemonic frameworks and producing counter-knowledge. By advocating anti-colonial epistemology within social sciences, the paper calls for centering counter-hegemonic knowledge production, affirming indigenous struggles for epistemological and material decolonization.

Author

• Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Hebrew University of Jerusalem