Elian Weizman
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Weizman, Elian (2013) Hegemony, law, resistance: struggles against Zionism in the State of Israel. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/17366 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Hegemony, Law, Resistance: Struggles Against Zionism in the State of Israel Elian Weizman Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Politics and International Studies 2013 Department of Politics and International Studies School of Oriental and African Studies University of London Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________ 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 6! Preface ............................................................................................................................ 7! Aims and arguments ................................................................................................... 9! Case selection, methods and sources ........................................................................ 13! Chapter outline .......................................................................................................... 16! Chapter One: Introduction: Hegemony and Law .......................................................... 18! Hegemony and law: theoretical reflections .............................................................. 20! Understanding ‘hegemony’ ................................................................................... 20! Understanding law ................................................................................................ 22! Law, state, society ............................................................................................. 23! The Janus face of the law: education/repression .............................................. 25! The ‘rule of law’, ‘liberalism’ and ‘democracy’ ............................................... 29! Zionism: law and consciousness in the State of Israel .............................................. 32! Historical contextualisation and definitions ......................................................... 32! Zionist hegemony ................................................................................................. 35! The Palestinian citizens of Israel: hegemony or domination? .......................... 40! The Israeli legal system .................................................................................... 43! Palestinian citizens in the Israeli legal system .................................................. 48! Chapter Two: Conceptualising Resistance ................................................................... 51! Intent and recognition ............................................................................................... 52! Strategies of resistance: within or withdrawal? ........................................................ 56! Law as resistance: possibilities and limitations ........................................................ 61! Limitations of resistance ........................................................................................... 67! Resistance and counter-hegemonic practice in Israel ............................................... 68! 3 The master’s tools ..................................................................................................... 72! Chapter Three: Resisting Hegemony at its Stronghold: The Legal Resistance of Adalah ........................................................................................................................... 76! The fight for collective rights as a counter-hegemonic project ................................ 78! The possibilities and limitations of litigation: Israeli citizenship law ...................... 83! Truth and power: Adalah and the al-Aqsa intifada ................................................... 93! The Or Commission .............................................................................................. 96! The Or commission’s report and its aftermath ..................................................... 99! Adalah’s democratic constitution ........................................................................... 104! The document ..................................................................................................... 108! A radical document or an accepted strategy of resistance? ................................ 113! Legal resistance re-evaluated .................................................................................. 115! Chapter Four: Law Making and Law Breaking in the Israeli Parliament ................... 120! Consolidating Palestinian identity in Israel ............................................................ 122! Democracy as a threat to the Jewish state ............................................................... 126! An exercise in democracy: law making in the Zionist parliament ......................... 133! ‘Law breaking’ outside the parliament: pushing the boundaries of resistance ....... 138! Bishara resists occupation and separation .......................................................... 138! Haneen Zoabi breaks the siege on Gaza ............................................................. 143! Redrawing the boundaries of resistance ............................................................. 147! ‘War of position’ in the Israeli parliament .............................................................. 149! Chapter Five: ‘Withdrawal’: Direct Action, Boycott and ‘Illegal’ Activity ............... 154! Resistance from without: introducing the main actors ........................................... 156! Anarchists Against The Wall .............................................................................. 156! Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian Call for BDS from Within ........................ 158! Patterns of activity: from direct action to the call for boycott ................................ 161! 4 Trespassing boundaries and borders: direct action ............................................. 161! The weapon of mass destruction called ‘email’ .................................................. 165! Legal or illegal? .................................................................................................. 167! Hegemonic reactions ............................................................................................... 170! Legislative backlash: the boycott prohibition law .............................................. 171! Reactions and fears ............................................................................................. 173! Assessing coercion .............................................................................................. 175! Law, resistance, disobedience ................................................................................. 181! Chapter Six: Evaluating Resistance’s Efficacy .......................................................... 185! Evaluating the efficacy of resistance ...................................................................... 189! Hegemonic reactions ........................................................................................... 190! Effect on target audience: the theatre of war ...................................................... 196! Repertoire of resistance ...................................................................................... 200! Ensemble of resistance ............................................................................................ 202! How to use the master’s tools ................................................................................. 204! Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 208! Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 214! Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 216! 5 Abstract In their struggles against Zionism, Israeli citizens, both Palestinians and Jews, paradoxically seek to challenge through the law the very laws that institutionalise the hegemony of the state’s ideology. Law and resistance are seemingly two contradictory concepts: while the law