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The West Bank Wall and the Non-Violent Anti-Wall Movements
Abstract
The ‘plan’ does not remain innocently on paper. On the ground, the bulldozers realize ‘plans’. (Henri Lefebvre, Production of Space, 1974, p.191) Bulldozers of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMD) realized the plans of the West Bank Wall, a physical obstacle separating the State of Israel from the Palestinian West Bank. The barrier takes different shapes along its [distance] expanse: In some areas it is a fence, in others it is a wall. The ‘fence’ is three meters high, and equipped with electronic sensors, ditches, barbed wire and patrolling paths. This whole obstacle is called the 'buffer zone' and it is between thirty and seventy meters wide. In other places, the obstacle turns to a 'solid barrier system,' a solid wall eight meters high. The barrier’s begin called ‘security fence’ or ‘separation wall’ does not make any difference in terms of the outcome. The West Bank Wall has changed the landscape, as well as life in Palestinian West Bank and Israel-Palestine politics. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that nearly 14,500 persons have been displaced since 2003, in 145 localities as a result of the construction of the Wall. However, in addition to restructuring the physical landscape, the West Bank Wall reshaped social and political relations. The Wall is a means used to separate the spaces of Israeli and Palestinian communities. While at the same time the West Bank Wall has brought Israelis and Palestinians together in unexpected ways. Since the beginning of the construction of the Wall, Israeli peace activists and Palestinian villagers have started to build solidarity networks and organize non-violent anti-Wall movements. Through an analysis of non-violent anti-wall movements, this paper will argue that despite the diverse political and social aims of its activists, the construction of the Wall has given these organizations a site around which they could cooperate. By making the materiality of the West Bank Wall an object of political science, this paper will try to advance a new approach to studying power and contestation, the ways in which separation, inclusion and exclusion are translated into politics of contestation.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Israel
Palestine
West Bank
Sub Area
None