Settler-Colonialism and the Diary of an Israeli Settler in the Golan Heights: The Notebooks of Izhaki Gal

Abstract

In 1967 the Golan Heights saw a dramatic change: a hundred villages were destroyed and replaced by new Israeli settlements. We study the beginning of this settlement through the lens of settler-colonialism, using documents of the time. The settlers claim to be ‘original natives’, ‘returning’ to the land and, like other colonial settlers elsewhere, bringing culture and civilisation to a terra nullius. To justify the settlement, they create a ‘deep’ narrative that combines the ancient past and the new settlement, erasing the in-between Arab past. The settlement — and the destruction — are on-going processes. The settler appears as a young, heroic figure, who patronises the ‘Others’ as weaklings (tourists, women, etc.) and is oblivious to the tragedy of the displaced Syrian inhabitants of the Golan Heights.