Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation, by Eyal Weizman London: Verso, 2007 318 pp $3495 Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation examines how "the different forms of Israeli rule" over the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 "inscribed themselves in space" (p 5) To accomplish this purpose, Eyal Weizman uses the term architecture in two ways In its first meaning, he describes in detail the planning, construction, physical, and political attributes of several of the built structures of the occupation and the roles of the Israeli architects who designed them The structures analyzed include the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem, the settlements, the separation barrier, the checkpoint at Qalandia, the border crossing at the Allenby Bridge, and the Rafah Terminal The separation barrier is arguably Israel's most egregious violation of international law in the course of over forty years of occupation, since an International Court of Justice ruling determined that it is illegal Yet Israeli architects protested against being excluded from participating in the design process Weizman also employs architecture "as a conceptual way of understanding political issues as constructed realities" (p 6) Each of the chapters examines a structure or related set of structures and the way they enforce Israel's domination of the Palestinians through the control of physical space The chapters are self-contained essays; most of them contain fascinating detail that is little known outside Israel Among the best is the chapter on Israel's targeted assassinations in the Gaza Strip beginning in 2003 It is an incisive, albeit depressing, discussion of the politics and technology of what Weizman terms "the airborne occupation" and the extension of the occupation along a vertical axis Underscoring the relevance of this issue to current developments beyond Israel/Palestine, Weizman traces the use of aerial bombardment of rebellious "natives" to the tenure of Winston Churchill as Britain's Minister of War and Air in the 1920s Churchill enthusiastically promoted "aerially enforced colonization" in Somaliland and Iraq The structure of Hollow Land does not permit Weizman to offer a comprehensive history of the occupation, and he acknowledges that this is not his objective Surprisingly, there is still no fully satisfactory narrative of this kind Gershom Gorenberg's, The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 (New York: Times Books, 2006), while based on good historical research on the first decade of the settlement project, is ultimately flawed and problematic (for my review see "When Doves Cry," The Nation, April 17, 2006) Weizman, although he is a more consistent critic of the Israeli occupation than Gorenberg, adopts the same fundamental thesis: that there was no "master plan" guiding the settlement project in its early years Rather, "the colonization of the mountain district of the West Bank  …

Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation

Palestinian Labour Migration to Israel: Labour, Land, and Occupation, Leila Farsakh. Routledge, Abingdon [England]\New York (2005), 264 pp., Hardback, ISBN: 0415333563

Shir Hever’s book examines the underlying economic dynamics of Israel’s occupation. Hever’s analysis brings out several overlooked mechanisms that function to make the Occupation profitable to Israeli state and corporate interests, but he also argues that for Israeli society, the costs of Occupation far outweigh the benefits. Hever is highly critical of Marxist accounts that, he claims, misunderstand the political economy of the Occupation, but this review argues that Hever’s critique is mistaken. It attempts to show how Hever’s analysis of the Occupation and account of Palestinian resistance would have benefited from a more careful engagement with materialist work on Israel and Palestine.

Paul Kohlbry

Papers

Accounting for the Occupation: A Review of The Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation: Repression beyond Exploitation by Shir Hever