Introduction

Ian Lustick, an astute observer and scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has remarked, 'What has been most striking about the position of the Palestinian Arab community that has lived in Israel since 1948 has been its political acquiescence'. In the words of anthropologist Patrick Wolfe: Zionist policy in Palestine constituted an intensification of, rather than a departure from, settler colonialism. Colonialism has three foundational concerns such as violence, territory, and population control, all of which rest on racialist discourse and practice. In discussing the 'colonial present' in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, cultural geographer Derek Gregory remarks that 'while they may be displaced, distorted, and denied, the capacities that inhere within the colonial past are routinely reaffirmed and reactivated in the colonial present'. This chapter presents overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.