The Settler-Dilemma: Multitudes of Denial in the Settler-Colonial State

I am interested in denial as a feature of settler-colonialism, the multi-layered form it acquired within Israeli society, and how it operates in the Israeli-Palestinian context. More specifically, my research concerns how denial enthralls human rights activists in Israel and liberal settlers in general. Exploring the Israeli liberal agenda and the activism it cultivates is interesting as part of the vast critique of liberal settler-colonisers and the ostensible logical deadlocks and theoretical impasses that enthrall them. Since denial is not monolithic nor stable, and it exerts both external and internal powers, I am also concerned with the question of how denial is accomplished and maintained.

Settler-colonialism and the resistance to it has become increasingly the subject of research, playing a revitalized role in depicting and theorising Israeli-Palestinian relations of the past and present. Palestinian, Israeli, and international scholars extensively and knowledgeably examine Israel in settler-colonial terms, but do not usually attend to the pervading aspect of denial, the role denial maintains in settler-colonial societies, how it functions, and the extensive implications it carries.