Recognizing the Assemblage: Palestinian Bedouin of the Naqab
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Recognizing the Assemblage: Palestinian Bedouin of the Naqab in Dialectic with Israeli Law VICTOR NASSER REGO A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN LAW, OSGOODE HALL, YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO SEPTEMBER 2018 ©Victor Nasser Rego, 2018 ABSTRACT In the five case studies, we examine how Israel, as a collection of individuated interests given expression in the form a state, is in a dialectic of recognition with the Naqab Bedouin community. Recognition happens on a few registers. Palestinians from the Naqab seek recognition for their particular identity and lifeways. They seek legal recognition for their living spaces. And they seek these things from the Israeli state, the sovereign. But the struggle for recognition from the sovereign is fraught, particularly in settler colonial situations like this one, in part because it pivots around a particular identity for which autonomy or freedom is sought. Identities in law tend to be, after all, static, constrictive and generalizing. The five case studies concern a land ownership case, a crop-spraying case, the eviction of Bedouin from Umm al-Hieran, discriminatory land allocation in the Wine Path Plan case and the vaccinations case. Four of the five case studies concern land, which speaks to the centrality of land in the dialectic between Naqab Palestinian Bedouin citizens and the Israeli state. The dissertation is principally informed by the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory, postcolonial theory and feminist theory, but is at the same time theoretically and methodologially eclectic, and beyond just using theory to validate phenomena, this dissertation attempts to understand why phenomena come to be phenomena – whether it be ‘Bedouin’ as identity or the organized, legal struggle for recognition – what makes these phenomena identifiable, stable states of being? After aggregating the individual conclusions to the case studies, the dissertation finally posits the question, how might we imagine freedom for the Naqab Bedouin community given that their social justice struggle continues to be confined to a particular identity? ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Nuri and the Palestinian community of the Naqab – for opening your homes, your hearts and for sharing your stories. I hope this dissertation does your steadfastness justice. To my supervisor, Susan, for her patience and insight while accompanying me on this rather long journey. To my family – the dynamic Katie and Jaleel – for, in spite of yourselves, being those constants when things were in flux. Gratitude and love to you all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. iii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: The Case Study of Nuri al-‘Oqbi and Bedouin Lifeways .................................... 14 The Nakba and the First Displacement ..................................................................................................15 The Second Displacement and Life in Khirbet al-Hura ...................................................................17 The Seventies and the Second Return to al-‘Araqib .........................................................................19 Nuri returns to al-‘Araqib for a third time ............................................................................................20 The Land Claims Case ...................................................................................................................................21 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................................................28 Chapter 2: A Postcolonial Reading of the Abu Mdeghem Crop-Spraying Decision ....... 34 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................34 The Facts of the Case and the Rationales for the Decision ............................................................37 A Discussion around Postcolonial Theory ............................................................................................39 Structural Violence and Historical Amnesia.........................................................................................44 What a Postcolonial Reading Enables: Locating Foreclosure, Racialization and Humanitarianism, and the Trace of the Native Informant ............................................................47 Foreclosure in the Abu Mdeghem Case .............................................................................................49 Explicit Elements of the Decision: Racialization and Law’s Humanitarianism ..................51 A Postcolonial Sensitivity to Power Relations and Judicial Reasoning .................................59 Tracing the Native Informant in the Decision .................................................................................61 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................67 Chapter 3: The Eviction Orders for Umm al-Hieran ............................................................... 73 Native Testimony: His-Story ......................................................................................................................74 The Abu al-Qi'an Case ....................................................................................................................................78 iv The Legal Issues: Adverse Possession and Prescriptive Easement, Equality and Non- Discrimination .................................................................................................................................................81 Space, Representation and Power ............................................................................................................91 On Spatial Theory ...........................................................................................................................................94 On Umm al-Hieran Spatiality .................................................................................................................. 102 The Courts’ Representation of Space ................................................................................................... 108 Residents’ Interpretation of Perceived and Conceived Space: Their ‘Lived’ Space ........... 113 Taking Stock................................................................................................................................................... 127 Inside/Outside Law .................................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter 4: The Wine Path Plan, Security, Equality ............................................................... 134 Section 1: Ethnographic Tour and Case Study ................................................................................. 134 The Case ...................................................................................................................................................... 141 Critique of the Decision ....................................................................................................................... 149 Section 2: Liberal Concepts of Equality ............................................................................................... 157 Legal Liberalism ...................................................................................................................................... 159 Barak’s Role in Israel’s Liberal Jurisprudence ............................................................................. 169 ‘In principle, I agree with you’ ............................................................................................................ 174 Section 3: On Security ............................................................................................................................... 183 The Concept of the Wine Path Plan ................................................................................................. 191 The Pervasiveness of National Security ......................................................................................... 198 “Liberal security”? ................................................................................................................................... 202 Section 4: Israel, (and) the State of Exception .................................................................................. 204 Why national security as fundamental principle is antithetical to a rule of law project..... 206 The downward spiral ............................................................................................................................ 207 Section 5: Conclusion - Security as right? ........................................................................................... 210 Chapter 5: Vaccinations ................................................................................................................