Territory or Commodity: Land, Law, and Narrative in Israel and East Jerusalem

תקציר

The inseparability of property and sovereignty, and of law and narrative, form this paper’s theoretical framework. I argue that Zionist-Israeli narratives and legal practices have co-constituted a conceptualisation of Jewish-held land as territory and Palestinian-held land as a commodity. I suggest that this conceptualisation helps explain why and how Zionist-Israeli society has accepted, as natural and legitimate, the exploitation of purchase and property law to advance Jewish sovereignty. Through an analysis of narratives and legal practices in three eras of the Israeli land regime, I illustrate that the Jewish territory/Palestinian commodity conceptualisation has been co-produced though law and narrative’s reciprocal relationship. I then examine how this conceptualisation shapes and is shaped through the narratives and legal mechanisms of land transfer in East Jerusalem, including through close consideration of two Israeli Supreme Court judgments. This analysis offers a fresh insight into Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and identifies the limits of the surrounding Zionist-Israeli legal and political discourse.