Cement Volumes

Abstract This article explores how cement production facilitates land acquisition for limestone mining in the context of a national cement factory project in Palestinian territories. Palestinian urban construction relies heavily on cement imports from Israel's Nesher factory due to the lack of a fully integrated Palestinian cement factory. To ensure an independent cement production process, control over underground geological resources is necessary. In a context where the Israeli state limits Palestinian access to natural resources, state sovereignty over cement production resides in the ability to control land—mainly, the subterranean layers of state territories. Following what Stuart Elden calls “securing the volume,” this article examines how cement emerges as a geological project and a necessary agent in constituting the Palestinian state's geological imaginary in what the author calls securing cement volume. By looking at how the Palestinian Authority and its investment arm sought new lands to build a cement factory, this article argues that securing the volume of cement encompasses various issues, including securing mining resources through access to geological layers and extending territorial sovereignty through land reclamation, leading to the dispossession of local people. The notion of securing volume allows us to look at the intertwined relationships between subterranean territories as well as those on the surface.