Summary
The ‘Separation’ policies adopted by the Israeli government in the 1990s, which Shir Hever presents as an apparent historic choice to favour segregation over exploitation of Palestinian labour — allowing the Palestinian Authority to manage the Palestinian population, imposing blanket closures, and subsequently erecting the Separation wall and besieging Gaza (Exploitation of Palestinian Labour in Contemporary Zionist Colonialism, PDF p.1-2 / printed p.124-125).
Details
- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin clearly favoured the segregation camp in the Zionist movement’s internal struggle between segregation and ‘demographic victory’ and expansionism and exploitation (PDF p.1).
- The Palestinian Authority takeover, closures, the Separation Wall and the Gaza siege are presented as integral parts of the same policy, minimising contact and friction between the populations (PDF p.1-2).
- The business sector was appeased for the severing of its ties to the Palestinian workforce with permits to import Labour Immigrants instead (PDF p.2).
- Gaza is the model of extreme separation: evacuating its colonies achieved total separation of populations and prevents Palestinian workers from entering Israel from Gaza, a model officials are considering for the West Bank (PDF p.3).
- Hever’s qualification: exploitation declined under separation but did not end, and was overtaken by security and military logic, ‘ethnic purity’ considerations and colonial politics (PDF p.4).
Related pages
Exploitation of Palestinian Labour in Contemporary Zionist Colonialism, Separation wall, Closure system, Labour Immigrants, Gaza Siege