Oppositional Lives: Sustaining, skirting, and subverting systems of oppression in Palestine

Abstract

How do daily frustrations, indulgences, and seemingly innocuous actions relate to, bolster, or undermine broader systems of power? How do people come to understand their place within and their ability to resist these systems? This dissertation takes a critical and nuanced look at the lives of a single, relatively privileged community in the Palestinian West Bank as a way to investigate these dynamics. The main argument of this dissertation is that it is precisely in the everyday moments among everyday people that systems of oppression are perpetuated. Through a close examination of everyday lives, I argue that Palestinians make routine, unremarkable choices every day that “buy into” and bolster Israeli authority (thus sustaining the Occupation). While this insidious reality may allow certain configurations of dominance to persist globally – despite massive disapproval – we must also recognize the everyday lives of people as important sites of agency and growth in an otherwise stifling system. Oppression, certainly, but also possibilities for flourishing and resistance inherently develop within these systems of power. While perhaps not as eye-catching as all-out political upheaval, exploring these seemingly mundane times of political stasis may help us better understand how systems of injustice persist and how roots of potential resistance are sown and carried through these times. I conclude by suggesting that calls for change must recognize of the realities of daily life and the full spectrum of both oppressive experience and potential action that unfolds within this space. I argue that, in Palestine, an exclusionary vision of revolution that calls for “all or nothing” participation, combined with shared feelings of political despair, creates a situation in which hope for institutional change dissipates. To address this phenomenon, I advocate for a re-stimulation of the political imaginary, a “bringing back” of hope and political promise. To do so, I propose we begin to acknowledge that flourishing and oppression occur hand-in-hand, that human relations and day-to-day lives seriously complicate the nature of all-out revolution, and that looking towards institutional (rather than individual) shortcomings may provide more effective, if more elusive, paths towards change.