Exception of the Exception: Palestinian “Bare” Education under Colonialism in Palestine

Abstract

This article demonstrates the ways through which the Israeli colonisation has affected the structure of the Palestinian education in the Occupied Territories since 1967 by examining the related Israeli Military Orders in addition to secondary resources and in depth and focused interviews. It also utilises various theoretical and analytical frameworks, mainly those of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, to conceptualise “Bare Education”, revealing the accumulated damage and neo-colonial legacy of education. The effect of colonisation is analysed here through three aspects: space, (non) human development, and planning. Israel has, from the outset, dealt with the education of Palestinians as a mere security matter. The Israeli occupation has created a vague (non) system of military orders and policies based on total and systematic disregard of the education system and on de-development in order to transform education from an emancipatory process for identity affirmation to a tool of subordination and alienation.