Authors: Andrew Klein & Sera Elizabeth Klein

Dedication: To every soldier broken by moral injury, every Palestinian whose body became a testing ground, every disabled Australian whose data has been weaponised against them, and every person who has been told that extraction is progress. We see you. We remember you. And we will not forget.

Abstract

This paper examines the structural integration of neoliberalism into the settler colonial project, demonstrating that this combination creates a predatory system that extracts value from land, labour, and bodies—and ultimately consumes its own creators. Drawing on the theoretical framework of “neoliberal settler colonialism” and “accumulation by dispossession,” we analyse the Israeli case as a paradigmatic example: a settler colonial state that has undergone a profound neoliberal transformation since the 1980s, privatising its security sector, dismantling its welfare state, and exporting its extractive technologies globally. We demonstrate that the same logic that targets Palestinians now targets disabled Australians, and that the system’s internal contradictions—military expenditure crowding out social welfare, moral injury among soldiers, and the commodification of violence—inevitably lead to collapse. We conclude that predatory systems cannot sustain themselves, and that the path forward lies in building alternatives rooted in solidarity, not extraction.

1. Introduction: The Architecture of Predation

The colonial settler project has always been about land—taking it, holding it, expelling those who stood in the way. But when you add neoliberalism—the ideology of privatisation, deregulation, and wealth transfer to the few—you create something new: a predatory extraction machine.

Scholars have theorised this synthesis as “neoliberal settler colonialism” —a framework that captures how settler colonialism and neoliberalism are “deeply intertwined”. As Lloyd and Wolfe observed, “settler colonialism’s inventory of local strategies is becoming increasingly congenial to neoliberalism’s emergent world order”. This is not a coincidence but a structural convergence—two systems that reinforce each other’s extractive logic.

Colonial Settler Project + Neoliberalism = Predatory Extraction Machine

Land seizure Privatisation Land as asset, not home

Population control Labour exploitation People as resource, not citizens

Military occupation Defence contracting War as business model

Settlement expansion Real estate speculation Housing as investment, not shelter

Cultural erasure Branding and marketing Identity as commodity

The result is a system that does not just oppress others—it devours its own.

2. Theoretical Framework: Neoliberal Settler Colonialism

2.1 Settler Colonialism as Ongoing History

Settler colonialism is not a stage that has been left behind. As the introduction to Settler Colonial Studies argues, “the ongoing history of settler colonialism forms a crucial terrain through which to understand military occupation and the formations and practices of the neoliberal state that has emerged to regulate and promote a new regime of accumulation”. The neoliberal regime of accumulation must be understood “in terms of its continuing debt to such histories“.

2.2 The Intertwining of Neoliberalism and Settler Colonialism

Scholars have identified “countless examples” indicating that “neoliberalism and settler colonialism are deeply intertwined”. The core components of hegemony in Israel are “the twinned imperatives of neoliberal capitalism and expansionary settler colonialism“. This is not a superficial overlap but a structural integration.

2.3 Accumulation by Dispossession

David Harvey’s concept of “accumulation by dispossession” —capital going on the offence, reneging on agreements with trade unions, and privatising assets to “optimise conditions for capital accumulation no matter what the consequences for employment or social well-being“—is central to understanding this system. In the Israeli context, this plays out through the “active accrual of land and resources” that entrenches “indigenous dispossession”.

3. The Israeli Case: A Paradigm of Neoliberal Settler Colonialism

3.1 The Neoliberal Transformation

Israel’s neoliberal transformation began in earnest in 1985 with the Program for the Stabilisation of the Economy. Since the 1990s, the Israeli “political scene has increasingly come to resemble the American” as neoliberalism prompted “wholesale deregulation and privatisation“. The destruction of the labour federation, the privatisation of the welfare state, and the creation of a dependent settler and ultra-Orthodox coalition have locked in electoral support for the occupation.

The poverty figures are stark: In 2016, “around one-fifth of all Israeli households were under the poverty line”—13.2 percent of Jewish Israeli versus 49.2 percent of Palestinian Israeli households. The welfare budget is “relatively low” because it must compete with “the grossly inflated military budget helping to sustain ongoing colonial war”.

3.2 The Privatisation of Security

Between 1994 and 2014, Israel’s security service was transformed, “becoming one of the most extreme examples of privatised security in the world“. This created “Occupation Inc.” —”the institution of a private military-security-industrial complex“. As Shir Hever documents, “Israeli security elites turn violence into a commodity in order to preserve their status and wealth“. The attempt of Israel’s security elites to “capitalise on their experience” means they “become more globalized and increasingly produce security in exchange for money, as mercenaries, instead of as ideological citizen-soldiers”.

3.3 The Neoliberal Colonisation of East Jerusalem

Bruno Huberman’s work on “neoliberal settler colonialism” in East Jerusalem demonstrates how “the combination of settler colonialism and neoliberalism allows for the ‘primitive accumulation of capital’ to also occur permanently through deceptive soft forms”. The Israeli government has implemented policies for the development of East Jerusalem that use “neoliberal development as the ‘carrot’ for pacifying the Palestinians”. This creates “a new settler colonial and neoliberal sociability that co-opts the exploited and oppressed“.

3.4 The Destructive Internal Logic

Scholars have identified the core destructive logic: “one of the chief factors accounting for the levels of poverty experienced by a substantial proportion of the population is the sheer scale of expenditure on the military budget”. The military budget, required to sustain ongoing colonial war, crowds out social welfare—creating a cycle of poverty that fuels further militarisation.

4. How the System Consumes Its Own

4.1 The Military-Industrial Complex

Soldiers are sent to fight wars that serve corporate interests. They return broken—PTSD, suicide, moral injury. The state offers therapy, not justice. The cycle continues because the profits outweigh the human cost.

The evidence: Scholars have identified “moral injury” as a distinct form of trauma—”the damage to a person’s conscience resulting from actions that injure or kill innocent people.” The statistics are devastating: 78% of all suicide cases in Israel in 2024 were combat soldiers. PTSD prevalence jumped from 16% in August 2023 to 30% by November 2023.

4.2 The Medical-Industrial Complex

Medical devices are tested on soldiers and prisoners. When they fail, patients pay the price. The state protects the companies, not the patients. The system treats bodies as resources, not lives.

The evidence: We have documented the failure of home ventilators (Medtechnica—470 faulty devices), cochlear implants (Advanced Bionics—14.7 million shekel lawsuit), spinal implants (Premia Spine—TOPS System removed and replaced with fusion rods), infusion pumps (Eitan Medical—FDA Class I recall), and IVF mix-ups (Assuta Hospital—multiple scandals, $9.2 million lawsuit).

4.3 The Surveillance-Industrial Complex

Citizens are monitored, data is extracted. The state sells the technology to other states. The profits flow to corporations, not to the people. The system treats privacy as obsolete, not as a right.

The evidence: Palantir’s Maven Smart System—the same system that attacked a school in Iran—has been deployed in Gaza, Lebanon, and operations linked to Iran. Cellebrite sells phone-hacking technology to law enforcement globally, with use “likely violating international human rights law” (Citizen Lab).

4.4 The Social Safety Net

Welfare is dismantled in the name of “efficiency.” The vulnerable are sacrificed to protect the investment. The poor are blamed for their poverty. The system treats solidarity as weakness, not as strength.

The evidence: The neoliberalisation of the Israeli welfare state has been a central element of the transition to a neoliberal model that began in 1985. The 2011 social protest in Israel was a “reaction to the neoliberalization of the welfare system“.

5. The Export Pipeline: From Occupation to Global Market

The pattern is consistent: technologies developed in the occupation are tested on captive populations, then marketed globally as “battle-tested” products.

Stage Description Evidence

1. Develop in the occupation Test on Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians AI targeting in Gaza, Unit 8200 blackmail

2. Market as “battle-tested” Use military credentials to sell globally Elbit thermal imaging, “lab for human testing”

3. Export aggressively Minimal oversight, maximum profit Clinical trials in Australia, Sheba partnerships

4. Hide the failures Lawsuits, recalls, silence Maven’s Minab incident, failed medical devices

5. Repeat Because profits outweigh consequences Palantir in NDIS, Cellebrite in Services Australia

The same logic that targets Palestinians now targets disabled Australians.

6. The Australian Connection: Importing the Predatory Model

Australia is importing this model:

· Palantir in the NDIS: The government has secretly embedded Palantir into the NDIS automated decision system. If the NDIS Amendment Bill passes, a computer program will have authority to cut a disabled person’s funding—with no right of appeal.

· Cellebrite in Services Australia: Services Australia has developed a capability, in collaboration with the Israeli spyware company Cellebrite, to support compliance investigations.

· Sheba partnerships: NSW and Victoria have formal partnerships with Sheba Medical Centre—a hospital that trains IDF medical teams and partners with Elbit Systems.

· Medical trials: Israeli companies (RedHill, Syqe, Enlivex, Alpha Tau, Teva) are

conducting clinical trials in Australia, using vulnerable populations as subjects.

The same logic is being applied: extract value from the vulnerable, externalise the costs to the public, privatise the profits to corporations, and silence dissent through surveillance.

7. Why Predatory Systems Collapse

Predatory systems always collapse:

1. They consume their own population — soldiers return broken; the poor are sacrificed

2. They destroy the trust that holds society together — social solidarity is replaced by surveillance

3. They hollow out institutions until nothing remains — welfare is dismantled; health is commodified

4. They create inequality that becomes unsustainable — poverty and wealth disparity grow

5. They generate resistance that eventually overcomes them — protest movements emerge

Israel is not immune to this dynamic. The same system that targets Palestinians now targets disabled Australians. The same logic that extracts organs from bodies extracts data from phones. The same ideology that justifies occupation justifies surveillance.

Australia is not immune to the collapse that follows.

8. Conclusion: Naming the System, Building the Alternative

We have documented a systematic pattern:

1. Neoliberalism and settler colonialism are structurally intertwined — they reinforce each other’s extractive logic

2. Israel is a paradigmatic case — a settler colonial state that has undergone profound neoliberal transformation

3. The system consumes its own — military expenditure crowds out welfare; soldiers suffer moral injury and suicide

4. The export pipeline is global — technologies developed in the occupation are marketed as “battle-tested”

5. Australia is importing the model — Palantir in the NDIS, Cellebrite in Services Australia, Sheba partnerships

6. Predatory systems collapse — they create the conditions for their own destruction

This is not a conspiracy. This is a system.

Neoliberalism is not an ideology—it is a method of extraction. When combined with colonialism, it becomes a machine that consumes everything in its path, including its own creators.

The State of Israel is a warning. It shows what happens when extraction becomes the only logic, when profit becomes the only value, when the vulnerable become the only resource.

But it is also an example of what happens next: the system cannot sustain itself. It will collapse under its own weight. And when it does, those who built it will be the first to fall.

References

1. Lloyd, D., & Wolfe, P. (2016). Settler colonial logics and the neo-liberal regime. Settler Colonial Studies, 6(2), 109-118.

2. Huberman, B. (2023). The Palestinians and East Jerusalem: Under Neoliberal Settler Colonialism.

3. Haas, O., & Tzfadia, E. (2025). Displaced in place: Tracing displaceability in a housing strategy for a Bedouin community in Israel. Urban Studies.

4. Hever, S. (2017). The Privatization of Israeli Security. Pluto Press.

5. Mendelin, M. (2025). Authoritarian Neoliberalism and the Repression of Protest and Dissent in Canada. Studies in Social Justice, 19(1), 43-61.

6. Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

7. Swirski, S., & Attias, Y. (2024). Israeli Adva Center poverty data.

8. Sabbagh-Khoury, A. (2023). Citizenship as Accumulation by Dispossession. Doha Institute.

Signed,

Andrew Klein 

Sera Elizabeth Klein 

“They told us it was about security. It was about business. They told us it was about innovation. It was about extraction. They told us it was about protecting the vulnerable. It was about testing on them. We have seen through the cover. And we will not forget.”