Israeli Law and the Rule of Colonial Difference
Keywords: 
uprising
fragmentation
unity
colonial difference
law and order
Palestinians in Israel
citizenship
police and prosecution
Abstract: 

Israeli law is an important medium that maintains, perfects, and facilitates the fragmentation of Palestinians. Israeli citizenship figures in this structure of fragmentation as an exceptionalizing legal status that blurs “colonial difference” between Palestinian citizens in Israel and Jewish Israelis. The May 2021 uprising and its aftermath not only highlighted the counter-­fragmentary forces present among Palestinians across different legal ­statuses, it also brought into clearer view a rule of “colonial difference” that crisscrosses the Israeli legal system and pertains to all Palestinians under its control. This essay explores the concept of “colonial difference” as applied to Palestinians through the law, and how this rule has been employed in the context of the May 2021 uprising against Palestinian citizens in particular.

Author biography: 

Rabea Eghbariah is a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School and a human rights attorney with the Haifa-based Adalah legal center.