Andrew Ross's Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel is a significant contribution to an emerging literature on Palestinian labor. Through an examination of various facets of the stone industry in both Israel and the West Bank, Ross develops a series of insights into the nature of settler colonialism, patterns of urban development, the political economy of Palestinian class formation, borders and migration, and the ecological impacts of occupation. By highlighting the ways in which Palestinians actually built Israel, Ross's book carries important implications for how we think about Palestinian political strategy and the debates around one- or two-state solutions.

The occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) are a major recipient of global aid flows, ostensibly aimed at improving development outcomes for the Palestinian population. This article presents a critical analysis of the ways that development is being conceived and practiced by major actors in the oPt. By analyzing different conceptions of power, the article examines how dominant approaches to development hide the ongoing reality of Israeli settler colonialism by dehistoricizing Zionism and its project; incorporating the structures of Israeli occupation into official Palestinian development strategy; and promoting an economic perspective that views development as an objective and disinterested process operating above (and outside) power relations. After considering some of the ramifications of current approaches to development, the article concludes with brief remarks on how this critique can help to reframe and articulate an alternative strategy.

This article examines the development of the Israeli capitalist class and the role played by the state apparatus in that development. In contrast to analyses claiming that Israel was a "socialist-type" economy prior to the mid-1980s, it argues that the Labor Zionist movement fostered the emergence of an indigenous capitalist class by encouraging the growth of private capital through key conglomerates initially tied to the state. Following the 1985 Economic Stabilization Plan, these conglomerates were placed in private hands linked with large foreign capital. Israel's recent incorporation into the global economy has undermined the traditional sustaining elements of the Zionist project, producing a crisis of legitimacy in the state. It also has important ramifications for the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations.