A Biopolitical Analysis of Israel's Separation Barrier

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

Second Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Keywords

Biopolitics, Israel, Palestine, Foucault, Michel, Agamben, Giorgio, Arendt, Hannah, Human Rights

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to re-conceptualize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through an analysis of the separation barrier that applies a Foucaultian framework of biopolitics. The first chapter offers a context for this analysis by providing a necessarily brief historical overview of events in the conflict over Palestine leading up to the current seemingly intractable state of affairs. The second chapter provides the theoretical framework of biopolitics as discussed by Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Hannah Arendt. The third chapter will investigate the hypothesis that conventional human rights discourses, on which international law is based, have failed to adequately address the violations of "rights" that occur in modern conflicts of power, in part by remaining constrained by the classical nation-state model of sovereignty. The fourth chapter will argue that institutions of domestic and international law have been complicit in the advancement of biopolitical agendas by examining two legal cases regarding Israel�s separation barrier: one before the Israeli Supreme Court and the other before the International Court of Justice. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the biopolitical perspective highlights nuances in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are not evident in traditional discourse, allowing us to consider more effective ways to protect human rights.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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