Paper short abstract:

Focused on the role of migrant workers in reconstruction of Israel’s “Gaza Envelope” following the Hamas attack of 7/10 and the subsequent assault on Gaza, my paper traces the consolidation of a mode of colonial sovereignty which no longer depends on the national identity of those working the land.

Paper long abstract:

Agricultural settlements worked by “Hebrew labor” were historically a hallmark of Israeli settler colonialism, but the murder and abduction of dozens of Thai migrant workers in Hamas’ 7 October attack highlights how some things have changed, while others have not. The settlements of the region known in Israel as the “Gaza Envelope” – populated by Palestinian farmers until the expulsion of 1948 – are still heavily agricultural, but the Jewish pioneers who once “plowed the last furrow” have been replaced by Thai migrant workers. For a generation, these disenfranchised workers, with no stake in the colonial conflict, have been expected to endanger their lives on the frontier.

As Israel began its onslaught on Gaza following the attack, a spokesman for agricultural employers clarified that elites’ vision for reconstruction continues to rely on migrant labor: “if there are no foreign workers,” he remarked, “there won’t be any agriculture. And if there is no agriculture, there won’t be a region.” However, the exodus of Thai migrants from Israel at the start of the war raises the possibility that new “foreign workers” may need to be imported from elsewhere. My paper, based on observation of the first stages of reconstruction in the “Gaza Envelope,” will trace the consolidation of a mode of sovereignty which no longer depends on the national identity of those working the land for its coherence. This mode, I suggest, is apt for a period in which “territoriality” is resurgent while the transnational movement of people seeking livelihood continues apace.