The Oslo Dispositif

Abstract

In this paper I argue that Oslo, instead of being a peace process, is a dispositif (in Foucault’s sense), since, instead of seeking a solution to the colonial problem of Palestine, what it actually does is to introduce in the region, and in the Palestinian case in particular, the new logics of government and economy deployed in the post-Cold War context from US strategic thinking as new prevailing rationalities. This would come together with the necropolitical logic of the colonial occupation of Palestine, the logic of governmentality (as defined by Foucault), insofar as, omitting the Palestinian quest for national liberation, Oslo introduced the transformation of the Palestinian national movement into a police and democratic government, along with the obligation of economic cooperation with Israel at the local and regional level.