Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2016
The Principle of Competitive Exclusion, first articulated by Gause in 1934, states that two species or populations cannot inhabit the same niche: one will consistently out-compete the other. Of four possible outcomes, the logistic equations that describe such interaction present only one possibility for coexistence, that being when the density-dependent mechanisms of one population become activated before intergroup competition eliminates the other. In applying Gause's Principle as an explanatory model to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this research explores the present bantustanization of the West Bank as a logical outcome of interspecific competition, but sees the competition coefficients of the equations as the key factors in promoting a stable equilibrium.