Settlers in Contested Lands

Settlers feature in many protracted territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts around the world. Explaining the dynamics of the politics of settlers in contested territories in several contemporary cases, this book illuminates how settler-related conflicts emerge, evolve, and are significantly more difficult to resolve than other disputes.

Written by country experts, chapters consider Israel and the West Bank, Arab settlers in Kirkuk, Moroccan settlers in Western Sahara, settlers from Fascist Italy in North Africa, Turkish settlers in Cyprus, Indonesian settlers in East Timor, and Sinhalese settlers in Sri Lanka. Addressing four common topics-right-sizing the state, mobilization and violence, the framing process, and legal principles versus pragmatism-the cases taken together raise interrelated questions about the role of settlers in conflicts in contested territory. Then looking beyond the similar characteristics, these cases also illuminate key differences in levels of settler mobilization and the impact these differences can have on peace processes to help explain different outcomes of settler-related conflicts. Finally, cases investigate the causes of settler mobilization and identify relevant conflict resolution mechanisms.

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Edited by Oded Haklai and Neophytos Loizides

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Contents and Abstracts1Settlers and Conflict over Contested Territories chapter abstractThis chapter introduces an innovative theoretical framework for investigating settlers in contested territories. Defining settlements as political action involving the organized movement of a population belonging to one national group into a territory to create a permanent presence and influence patterns of sovereignty, the theory explores diverse trajectories relating to how demographic engineering is used in state-building and state-expansion endeavors. A number of observations are made about the relationship between the principle of "right-peopling," sovereignty, and territorial boundaries. The diverse contours of conflict that emerge with pre-existing populations who make claims on the settled territory are then explored, with particular attention paid to the accentuated ethnonational dimension, the time factor, international constraints, and the variable agency of the settlers as a consequential factor for conflict resolution. 2The Decisive Path of State Indecisiveness: Israeli Settlers in the West Bank in Comparative Perspective chapter abstract In contrast to common perceptions that view this case as sui generis, Israeli settlements exhibit important familiar patterns observed in other cases. First, settlement activity is a means to influence territorial boundaries through demography. Additionally, bureaucratic institutions accompany population movements. Furthermore, settler identity is consequential, thus highlighting the relationship between "right-peopling" a territory and sovereignty. But the Israeli experience also has distinctive characteristics. Israeli governments have not adopted a consistent policy regarding settlements. This lack of coherence stems partly from the dynamic interplay of variable international and regional conditions, the attributes of Israeli domestic politics, and contested notions about the relationship between territorial and socio-national boundaries. Furthermore, Israeli settlers have proven to be a consequential agent that influences practices beyond what is observed in most other cases. Ultimately, political outcomes have been influenced by the dynamic and mutually constitutive interaction between state (and central government) and settlers. 3Moroccan Settlers in Western Sahara: Colonists or Fifth Column? chapter abstract Since occupying the former Spanish Sahara in 1976, Morocco has pursued active and passive settlement policies resulting in significant changes in the territory's population, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Though the territory now boasts a large Moroccan population (perhaps outnumbering the indigenous Sahrawis by as much as three-to-one), very little is known about the demographic composition of these settlers and their relationship to the broader political question of Western Saharan independence. Not only are there strong reasons to question many of the assumptions about the politics of settlers and of natives in Western Sahara but there are also unique dynamics at play in this conflict that hold insights for understanding the politics of settlement in contested territories more broadly. 4Settlement, Sovereignty, and Social Engineering. Fascist Settlement Policy between Nation and Empire chapter abstract Was Mussolini's settlement program in Libya in the 1930s merely a further installment of European settler colonialism? The chapter explores the program in light of broader demographic policies implemented by the Fascist regime, not only on the North African shore but also in the newly annexed territories in northern Italy. Rooting Italian families in contested soil, the Fascist state became the primary motor: initiating, organizing, and financing the settlements with the stated aim of nationalizing contested lands. While resembling strategies of colonial settlement, these programs aimed at consolidating and expanding the Italian nation, thus marking a transition to the use of population settlement as a tool of nation- rather than empire-building. 5The Indonesian Settlement Project in East Timor chapter abstract On December 7, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor, and controlled the region for the next twenty-four years. Alongside military control, Jakarta transferred into the territory tens of thousands of Indonesian nationals. This chapter analyzes the Indonesian population transfer into East Timor. Placing the settlement project in the broader context of the Indonesian claim to East Timor, it explores the fundamental aspects of the population transfer. It also explains why the Indonesian settlement project was initiated and pursed, including an investigation of the manner in which Indonesia used the settlers as part of its effort to subdue local resistance and deflect international opposition to its rule in the area. 6Settlers and State-Building: The Kirkuk Case chapter abstract This chapter examines the migrations of Arab settlers to Iraqi Kurdistan after 1963 and their impact on negotiating the disputed territory of Kirkuk. It argues that demographic shifts and the actual numbers of Arab settlers have played a key role in framing Kurdish claims to Kirkuk, particularly as they have affected population percentages and distribution of resources. However, while the presence of settler communities may have played a key role in the early phase of the Kurdish authorities making claims to Kirkuk, their influence has weakened over time as the Kirkuk issue has taken on a life of its own. Changes in the nature of the Kirkuk problem and the framing processes linked to it will provide the basis for conflict resolution strategies.These will include issues of power sharing between Kurds and Arabs, as well as with other minority groups, governance issues, and revenue sharing. 7Settlers, Immigrants, Colonists: The Three Layers of Settler-Induced Conflict in Sri Lanka chapter abstract This chapter analyzes the role of settlers and settler-related rhetoric in ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, illustrating the different layers and shades that such conflicts can involve. It distinguishes between a discursive element (rhetoric and accusations of "settlers" and "settlement"), a temporal element (the historical time frame in which population movements took place) and a structural/situational element (whether this movement was driven by market forces or whether it was state-sponsored, as well as the material condition of the people introduced to the land). Sinhalese agitation against the Indian Tamil plantation workers and the policy of expelling them to India (which was halted in the 1980s) is…