Ron J. Smith, ‘Graduated incarceration – The Israeli occupation in subaltern geopolitical perspective’, Geoforum ?, ? (2011)

This paper highlights the importance of analysis of the microgeographies of occupation, and the spatially-differentiated means that the Israeli Occupation Forces use to maintain the occupation and create spaces of graduated incarceration for Palestinians. Using the examples of the hinterlands of Qalqiliyah and the old city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank, this paper exposes the microgeographical differentiation the occupation mobilizes in its attempt to enact a panoptic sovereignty over the population, in the process of dispossession. This study challenges geopolitical formations of the state as primary actor, and focuses instead on narratives of Palestinians describing their own experiences of occupation by a hostile state. By relying on popular media, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, this paper seeks to incorporate a Palestinian vision of life under occupation to challenge traditional geopolitical visions of the Palestinian Israeli conflict, in effect creating a subaltern geopolitical narrative.