The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Offers the first systematic analysis of critical cartography, with historical context, in Israel/Palestine
Includes interview with cartographers that speak first-hand about the designing of maps in complex territories
Analyzes the role of maps in constituting a national identity in an intractable conflict

The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Description

The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley has been one of the most disputed territories in history. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Palestinians and Israelis have each sought claim to the national identity of the land through various martial, social, and scientific tactics, but no method has offered as much legitimacy and national controversy as that of the map.

The Politics of Maps delves beneath the battlefield to unearth the cartographic strife behind the Israel/Palestine conflict. Blending science and technology studies, sociology, and geography with a host of archival material, in-depth interviews and ethnographies, this book explores how the geographical sciences came to be entangled with the politics, territorial claim-making, and nation-state building of Israel/Palestine. Chapters chart the cartographic history of the region, from the introduction of Western scientific and legal paradigms that seemingly legitimized and depoliticized new land regimes to the rise of new mapping technologies and software that expanded access to cartography into the public sphere. Maps produced by various sectors like the "peace camps" or the Jewish community enhanced national belonging, while others, like that of the Green Line, served largely to divide.

The stories of Israel's many boundaries reveal that there is no absolute, technocratic solution to boundary-making. As boundaries continue to be controversial and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains intractable and unresolved,The Politics of Maps uses nationally-based cartographic discourses to provide insight into the complexity, fissures, and frictions within internal political debates, illuminating the persistent power of the nation-state as a framework for forging identities, citizens, and alliances.

The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Why Maps Matter
Chapter 2: Imagining Nations and Making States: Some Prerequisites
Chapter 3: Map-Making and State-Building
Chapter 4: Map-Making and Nation-Building: Pre-state and Early State Mapping in Israel
Chapter 5: Maps with a Mission post-1967: Securing Jewish Land
Chapter 6: Maps with a Mission post-1967: Israeli 'Peace Camp' NGO's on the warpath
Chapter 7: Constructing Israel's Borders
Chapter 8: Map-Making for Building the Palestinian Nation-State
Chapter 9: Conclusion

The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Author Information

Christine Leuenberger, Senior Lecturer, Deparment of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, and Izhak Schnell, Professor Emeritus, the Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel Aviv University

Christine Leuenberger, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. Her work has been published in various academic journals, as well as in edited volumes and popular news outlets. She was a Fulbright Scholar, a Fulbright Specialist, and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Fellow. Dr. Leuenberger was a recipient of a National Science Foundation Scholar's award to investigate the history and sociology of mapping practices in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She is also conducting research on issues of migration and borders, and is engaged in peace and educational initiatives in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Izhak Schnell, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography and Human Environment at Tel Aviv University and former President of the Israeli Association of Geographers. His works focus on the analysis of social space under globalization and socio-spatial

integration and segregation of social groups in globalized realities, interpretations of the meanings of spaces and places including the representations of spaces and places like art and cartographic pieces and the monitoring of urban environments as risks for health and urban parks as restorative environments.

The Politics of Maps

Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell

Reviews and Awards

"Overall, this fascinating, informative, and critical book is a must-read for anyone interested in political cartography or the Israel/Palestine conflict. The authors reveal a country with a highly professional and technological mapping process, but one that can at times be manipulated as a means of disseminating or emphasising specific political messages. In an era of digitised and Google maps, it is far less easy than in the past to advance one side of the conflict, yet Leuenberger and Schnell make clear just how important mapping and cartography remain within the political process." - David Newman, Times Higher Education

"In this remarkable book, Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell have done a formidable job of demystifying, through the emblematic and concrete case of Israel/Palestine, the role of maps in state building. They establish that maps are merely representations, resulting from the processing of data through cognitive, cultural, and political filters. Their work is essential for understanding how mapping practices, far from being neutral and objective, are formidable tools for defining and legitimizing geographical knowledge and territorial imaginations." - Élisabeth Vallet, University of Quebec at Montreal

"Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell leave no stone unturned as they trace the development and politics of mapping in one of the most contested territories on earth — Israel/Palestine. The two scholars offer a powerful analysis of central role of mapping in colonialism, nationalism, and Zionist nation-building, as well as in the futile attempts to achieve Palestine statehood. The book is a must for students, scholars and observers of this protracted political and cartographic drama." - Oren Yiftachel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev