In this talk, Lana Tatour draws on new archival findings of the 1948-52 period to trace the making of Israel's citizenship regime. She shows that racial subjects, space, and citizenship were constituted in relation to each other in intimate ways in Israel. Citizenship transformed space from Arab/Palestinian to Jewish, rendered settlers indigenous, and produced Palestinian natives as alien. Israel’s citizenship regime was predicated on the racial demarcation between Palestinians, whose citizenship was governed by the logic of naturalization, and Jewish settlers, viewed as natural and authentic subjects of citizenship.

Lana Tatour is the Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Palestine Studies.

Monday, March 9th 2020
12:10-1:30pm
Knox 207