A historiographical analysis of the Oslo peace process and its impact on life on the ground through the lens of Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower.
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2025-06-15
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en
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My thesis examines the Oslo Accords through Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, questioning whether these agreements created the capacity for the continuation of Israeli occupational practices in Israel/historical Palestine. Employing a historiographical approach, it analyses the Accords’ structure, land division, and water management, focusing on the period from 1992 to 2000. The research explores how interim arrangements, particularly the division of the West Bank and the creation of the Joint Water Committee, reinforced pre-existing asymmetries rather than dismantling them. The study incorporates Judith Butler’s notion of precarity to assess the lived consequences of water politics, revealing how access to vital resources remains unequally distributed. By contextualizing the Accords within the broader trajectory of Israeli-Palestinian relations and colonial dynamics, the paper argues that the Oslo process, while framed as a peace initiative, legitimised and institutionalised mechanisms of control. The findings contribute to re-evaluating the Accords’ role in perpetuating systemic inequality on the ground.
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