כוח, משפט ומקום בצל הכיבוש: ניתוח גאוגרפי משפטי של השתנות אזור סוסיא (שבשפא יטא شفايطّا) בין 1967ל-1998

Focusing on the specific but representative case of changing the legal status of the Susya area, within the Shafa Yatta area, between 1967 and 1998, this paper examines Israel's extensive and ongoing utilization of the legal system in the occupied territories.Seizing and encroaching on local Palestinian lands, this gradual, dynamic, systematic,and purposeful process has shaped space and demography in the Susya area in ways that serve the Jewish settler population .This issue is examined by a legal analysis of official-legal proceedings (such as declaring plots as “state-owned lands”, reallocating these lands, and expropriations for public purposes by the local military commander) citing court deliberations, and applying insights from social sciences, and specifically from critical-legal geography theory and the concept of settlement and colonialism.Despite the import of academic legal discussion and critical analysis of land policy and its implications for the residents of the region and for Israel, legal-academic writing on land issues in the territories from a critical legal, geographical, and societal perspective is limited. In addition, the legal-critical discussion concerning the Susya area in particular is new, hence the importance and originality of this paper.The paper examines the processes of expropriation, but also provides a platform for the voices and narrative of the local population, highlighting their resistance and reactions to these processes by delving into the examination of social-spatial links, unaddressed in existing research.