Abstract:

Agonism against the Odds: Epistemic Disruptions and Bodies of Dissent in Palestine and Israel explores how performative protest can challenge epistemic violence and reconfigure antagonistic political relations in the deeply asymmetrical and polarised context of Palestine and Israel. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Haifa and elsewhere, the dissertation examines joint Palestinian–Israeli commemorations, Jewish Israeli anti-occupation and anti-apartheid protests, and Palestinian artistic performances. 

At the centre of the thesis is the concept of agonistic epistemic disruptions, which captures how embodied acts of dissent interrupt dominant narratives, make marginalised forms of knowledge visible, and open space for alternative political subjectivities and imaginaries. Bringing agonistic theory into conversation with scholarship on epistemic violence, counter-hegemony and performative resistance, the dissertation asks what forms of political contestation remain possible under conditions of profound structural inequality and violence. 

The thesis makes three main contributions. It advances agonistic theory by examining its possibilities and limits in highly asymmetrical conflict; provides new empirical insights into Palestinian and Israeli practices of dissent, commemoration and political performance; and develops an agonistic ethnographic approach that foregrounds contestation, multiplicity and the politics of knowledge production. In doing so, the dissertation demonstrates both the transformative potential and the limitations of embodied dissent in challenging dominant knowledge regimes and deeply entrenched antagonisms.