Conclusion

Abstract

The story of the establishment of the Israeli nation-state exemplifies some of the main ingredients of nation-state building in the 20th century. Israel came into being where historical narratives, national imaginations, scientific and technical know-how, human and material resources, and national and international support intersected. In the struggle to establish a nation-state, cartography had become crucial for both building the nation, and for building the state. With the 1993 Oslo Interim Agreement, Palestinians also started to survey and map the territory allocated to a future State of Palestine, with the expectation that they would, within five years, have full sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza. For Palestinians to survey, map, and plan for the territory is crucial for establishing the legitimacy and functionality of a future state. At the same time, their attempt to map their land, as well as the production of various alternative maps by various organizations, are challenging the top-down mappings of the Israeli state and its dominant geopolitics. As boundaries continue to be controversial and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains intractable and unresolved, Israel and Palestine provide different governmental and non-governmental organizations, interest groups, and political protagonists ongoing fodder for persistent map wars. The focus on nationally based cartographic discourses in Israel/Palestine thus provides insights into the complexity, fissures, and frictions within internal political debates, but it also reveals the persistent power of the nation-state as a framework for forging identities, citizens, and alliances.