Israeli State Security and the Palestine Issue

State security figures out predominantly in discussions involving privacy, citizenship rights and human rights in general. We have come across the debate surrounding state security in the use the internet, social media and various legislations intended to maintain a balance between national security and individual rights. But the use of state security to justify state intrusiveness and violence as forms of defense is seen mot glaringly in the clash between the rights of a subject population and military occupation in conflict zones, as in Israel/Palestine. “In the name of security” Israel has launched preemptive wars against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and abrogated the rights of a subject population under the Geneva Conventions. Many researchers have labeled Israel’s violence against the Palestinian population as disproportional. Others have viewed Israel’s attitudes to security as a form of “theology” in which the state preaches and practices absolute adherence to its unilateral security declarations. The presentation in this session explores the various mechanisms that distinguish a colonial state in its uses of national security arguments.