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Political Economy of Palestine pp 155–176Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Palestinians in Israel: Neoliberal Contestations and Class Formation

Part of the Middle East Today book series (MIET)

Abstract

Palestinian citizens of Israel (also known as Palestinians of 1948) have largely been excluded from analyses on Palestinian political economy and on discussions of Israeli capitalism. This chapter seeks to address this invisibility. Palestinians in Israel face conditions of settler colonialism and neoliberalism that may be distinct from Palestinians elsewhere, yet their history and indigenous status continue to underlie discussions on their political future. The chapter focuses on transformations in Palestinian capital and labor and on the ways in which Palestinians have, as active agents, often embraced neoliberal processes to challenge their precarious situation in Israel. The chapter traces class contestation and formation by highlighting the emergence of an indigenous capitalist class that has coalesced around ideas of economic development and whose members have become key intermediaries in processes and mechanisms of neoliberalism. In doing so, the chapter simultaneously engages with the role of this class as a supposed “patriotic bourgeoisie” and demonstrates that members of a neo-liberalizing class are an integral node in sustaining the relationship between capitalism and Zionism.

Keywords

  • Bourgeoisie
  • Class
  • Development
  • Globalization
  • Indigenous capitalism
  • Neoliberalism
  • Poverty
  • Proletarianization
  • Settler colonialism
  • Workers

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Hebatalla Taha

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  1. Hebatalla Taha
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Correspondence to Hebatalla Taha .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva, Switzerland

    Alaa Tartir

  2. Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Doha, Qatar

    Tariq Dana

  3. Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

    Timothy Seidel

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Taha, H. (2021). Palestinians in Israel: Neoliberal Contestations and Class Formation. In: Tartir, A., Dana, T., Seidel, T. (eds) Political Economy of Palestine . Middle East Today. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68643-7_7

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