Thinking Palestine

Ed. Ronit Lentin

Hardback: £60.00 ISBN: 9781842779064 –
Paperback: £18.99 ISBN: 9781842779071 –

This book brings together an inter-disciplinary group of Palestinian, Israeli, American, British and Irish scholars who theorise ‘the question of Palestine’. Critically committed to supporting the Palestinian quest for self determination, they present new theoretical ways of thinking about Palestine. These include the ‘Palestinization’ of ethnic and racial conflicts, the theorization of Palestine as camp, ghetto and prison, the tourist/activist gaze, the role of gendered resistance, the centrality of the memory of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) to the contemporary understanding of the conflict, and the historic roots of the contemporary discourse on Palestine. The book offers a novel examination of how the Palestinian experience of being governed under what Giorgio Agamben names a ’state of exception’ may be theorised as paradigmatic for new forms of global governance. An indispensable read for any serious scholar.

What People Have Said About the Book:
‘This book presents us with sharp critical thinking about everything from the applicability of Agamben’s concept of the “state of exception” or Foucault’s theory of modern “biopower” to Israel’s control over Palestinians in prisons, camps, and ghettos, to the specific dynamics of racialization, colonial violence against, and appropriation of Palestinians, even by the well-meaning. Both theorizing and chronicling the varied forms of Israeli power, these provocative essays are grounded in details that can still shock.’
– Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University

‘This timely volume provides a fresh epistemological framework to think Palestine in the context of the Israeli colonial occupation of its territories as well as of its dispersed populations. It shifts the center of gravity from the temporal dimension of ’state of exception’ to its spatial as well as its racializing features. The book makes an important critical contribution to political theory and deserves to be read by anyone concerned with the question of Palestine.’ – Yehouda Shenhav, Tel-Aviv University

Reviews:
Because its contributors — sociologists, historians, legal experts and cultural critics — work from within an activist perspective, Thinking Palestine escapes the trap of “scholastic reason” (Pierre Bourdieu’s phrase), whereby the content of theory reflects the walled-off condition of the theorist comfortably ensconced in her/his “schola.” The book should be read closely by serious pro-Palestinian activists wishing to sharpen their conceptual tools in the ceaseless battle against Zionist propaganda.
Raymond Deane, Electronic Intifada- http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9743.shtml

The authors analyze the Israeli-Palestinian state of exception on different realms. Some discuss the racial basis of the state of exception; others exhibit how problematic practices are adopted by the Israeli army or the Israeli security forces; and yet others deal more directly with the representation of Palestine in different discourses: political or academic. This broad scope provides the lay reader with an interesting introduction to the Palestinian perspective, and it provides the well-versed reader with some interesting case studies which broaden the scope of present analyses of the Palestinians (e.g. management of the moment of death in a chapter on ‘Thanatopolitics’)… Overall, it is an important book for students of Palestine, but ipso facto of those interested in Israel too. The two political entities are exceptionally entwined, and the book provides an original conceptual discussion for framing this state of exception.
Gad Yair, Hebrew University Jerusalem, Sociological Research Online-http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/1/reviews/yair.html