2 - Background

Summary

This chapter provides a historical and theoretical background to the development of the settlements along the Trans-Israel Highway. It explains the geopolitical role of settlements in Israel/Palestine and how their production has transformed during the last century. It then presents key theories on the welfare nation-state and the global turn toward neoliberalism and the market economy, while explaining the Israeli version of the phenomenon. Illustrating the entangled relations between nationalism, territoriality, and privatization, the chapter presents the complexity of the subject and explains the entangled relations between nationalism, territoriality, and privatization. Offering a general view of the development of the different settlement phenomena along the Green Line and the Trans-Israel Highway, this chapter prepares the reader for those that follow, while explaining what makes this area a privately developed national project.