Israel And The Gaza Strip Since 1967 (a History Of Occupation, Domination And Unilateralism)

By (author) Strand, Trude
Short description/annotation:
Explains Israel’s evolving domination and control of Gaza following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Description:

Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israeli decision-makers opted to conquer, colonise, occupy and dominate the Gaza Strip.

Why was this sliver of land - home and refuge to around 400,000 Palestinians - so important to Israel? Why did it come to play a major role in Israeli-Palestinian affairs, Israeli domestic and foreign policy, and – increasingly – Israel’s international relations? This book answers these questions.

Placing the Gaza Strip within the context of Zionist ideology and practice and the wider Question of Palestine, the book charts Israel’s Gaza policy from early attempts to put the area under Israeli rule before 1967, and up until the military campaign against Gaza beginning in 2023.

Based largely on Israeli archival material, official Israeli records , leaked US, Israeli and Palestinian documents, and international media reports, each chapter interrogates a pivotal moment in Israeli policymaking, its outcome, implementation and implications .

While historical accounts and political commentary often suggest Israel has acted in an ad-hoc way based on military developments on the ground, unaware of the consequences of its actions, or the advantages and disadvantages of its policies, the book reveals that this is far from the case.

Table of contents:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Room for Manoeuvre
Chapter 3: Gaza in Context: Israel’s Quest for Domination Pre-1967
Chapter 4: A ‘Bone Stuck’ in Their Throat? The Onset of Israel’s Occupation
Chapter 5: ‘An Inseparable Part of Israel’: Strengthening Domination
Chapter 6: ‘Gaza First’: Recycling an Old Idea for Peace-Making
Chapter 7: ‘Painful Concession’ or Diplomatic Capital?
Chapter 8: Divide and Rule
Chapter 9: Bringing Down the House
Bibliography

Review quote:
Strand’s analysis of Israel’s Gaza policy from the early Zionist project until the 2023-25 Gaza war is essential reading. By showing how Israel has treated Gaza as “strategic asset, diplomatic capital, liability, and battlefield”, Strand provides us with a deep understanding of how Israeli strategy faces Palestinian agency.
Biographical note:
Trude Strand is a Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland and is a Visiting Academic at St. Antony''s College, University of Oxford, UK. She holds a PhD from the University of Oslo, Norway and an MPhil in Middle East Studies from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK. She worked previously for the United Nations in the Gaza Strip and in other countries in the Middle East.
Promotional headline:
Explains Israel’s evolving domination and control of Gaza following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Feature:
Meticulously examines the under-researched subject of Israeli policy towards Gaza
Feature:
Based on recently released Israeli archival material and leaked US, Israeli and Palestinian documents
Feature:
Shows how the Gaza Strip has played a central role in Israeli domestic and foreign policy as well as international relations
Feature:
Reveals the extent to which Israel has relied on unilateral approaches and retroactive approval for its actions