Settler Colonial Studies, Terminations of Colonialism, and Ethnonationalism

An Edward Saidian consideration?

Lecture by Moshe Behar (University of Manchester).

Recent years have witnessed the framework of Settler Colonialism gaining hegemonic explanatory dominance amongst attempts to elucidate the Palestine/Israel trajectory. Scrutiny of many texts in this (newly-awoken) domain ultimately reveals that a rather modest number of new insights have been added to those already published by (anti-Zionist) Arabs and Israelis between 1962 (the foundation of Israel’s Matzpen) and 1974 (the PLO’s adoption of its Ten Point Programme).

Whereas the pre-1974 Settler Colonial school was ‘historical’, the 21^st century one appears somewhat ‘ahistorical’. This draft-verdict grows out of what I view as three lacunas detectable equally in these ‘old’ and ‘renewed’ schools spotlighting the Palestine/Israel case: (i) insufficient attention to comparative anti-colonialisms; (ii) obliviousness vis-à-vis the (post-WW1) phenomenon of ethnonationalism; and (iii) a puzzling epistemological detour around social constructivism. In his seminal 1999 essay, The One State Solution, Edward Said advocated for a single binational state. In the aftermath of his 2003 passing two asymmetric schools emerged: (i) a miniature Saidian one warranting the label ‘bi-national’; and (ii) a non-Saidian liberal and Eurocentric school which is home to effectively all affiliates of ‘Settler Colonial Studies’. These schools make dissimilar sense of the concept ‘de-colonisation’ and of notions of individual and collective rights.

Moshe Behar holds a PhD in Comparative Politics from Columbia University and is Senior Lecturer in Arabic & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester. His work includes the anthology Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Politics and Culture (1893-1958) and can be further explored.