The Settler Colonial Present: Palestinian State-Building Under Apartheid

Abstract

Significant anniversaries for Israel and the Palestinians during 2017–2018 were an opportunity to take stock of the current situation on the ground in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and, in particular, to acknowledge how Israeli authorities have created a de facto, single state in all of Mandate Palestine. This status quo—which is being increasingly identified as matching the definition of apartheid in international treaties and conventions—is unlikely to change soon, as none of the Israeli political parties who either currently hold power, or who could conceivably form an alternative government, recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination or sovereignty. Given these realities, the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah, and Palestinian political factions more broadly, are facing difficult and significant questions, including whether a focus on “state-building” under occupation has, in fact, laid the foundations for a Bantustan.