David NEWMAN, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
It is exactly forty years ago this summer when I published my first papers, based on my doctoral thesis, relating to the early stages of Israeli settlement colonisation in the West Bank. At the time it was even considered fictional to imagine that the settlers would achieve their geopolitical objctives. Forty years on and there are over half a million Israeli Jewish residents of the West Bank settlements - not including East Jerusalem. This paper examines the changing dynamics and processes, political and planning, which have enabled this to happen and discussees the impact of the settlement growth on attempts to broker a Two State solution (now seen as highly improbable by both sides to the conflict) and the need to establish permanent borders between Israel and a future State of Palestine. Drawing on this specific case study, the paper raises questions as to how notions of land settlement and colonisation should be understood in the contemporary era.
Mots clés : Israel|West Bank|Settlement|Colonisation|Borders
A104416DN