Shdema is the name of a future jewish settlement charted for the area surrounding an abandoned Israeli military base in Bethlehem. Yesterday, I visited the base and took plenty of photographs. The city center of Bethlehem and the surrounding homes are visible and were often shelled from the base, my guide tells me. The base was active up until three years ago. Now, the Israelis want to make this area a settlement. When it comes to settling the West Bank, the rule of thumb is maximum geography for minimum demography. The most land for the least dense population of Palestinians. Water resources and topography also factor in.

The cement walls are spraypainted with blue stars of David. Here, it becomes clear that Israel is suspended in a perpetual state of jingoism. "Israel belongs to the Jews" and "Your parents lied, Shdema is Jewish" are words of jewish individuals badly wanting to maintain a fledgling construct of national identity at the expense of this land's non-jewish inhabitants. Nationhood and war have thus become synonymous in this region of the world.

Jews should be able to live in Palestine. They should be able to enjoy their spiritual ties to this land. But their claim of nationhood at the expense of an Arab population who has lived here for generations makes Israel a tainted ideal, because it is a nation fated perpetually for iron-fisted militarism.

So what about Palestinian nationhood? Is it possible for us to view the Israel-Palestine conflict through a post-national lens? National identity after all is a figment of our imaginations. Can we forgo it? In Occupied Palestine, forgoing Palestinian self-determination for a state in the era of indigenous independence movements feels unjust. But maybe Palestinians will show us a way out of an obsolete and divisive system of organizing the world.