New Article: Bowman | Encystation: Containment and Control in Israeli Ideology and Practice

Bowman, Glenn. “Encystation: Containment and Control in Israeli Ideology and Practice.” Journal of Palestine Studies 44.3 (2015): 6-16.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jps.2015.44.3.6

 

Abstract

The radical closure of Gaza serves here as an extreme example of a process of isolation and immiseration of national enemies that is deeply rooted in Israeli ideology and practices of state formation. I use encystation to reveal the dual meaning of the term—that of radical isolation of diseased elements and that of protecting a fetus within a womb—and to show how the two meanings connect with respective Israeli policies toward Palestinians and Jews. I suggest in closing that the Oslo Accords have put in place mechanisms for the future imposition on West Bank Palestinians of the same containment currently afflicting Gaza.*