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Bordering and Immobility: A Study of the Palestinian Body within the Settler Colonial Context in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
Abstract
For this study, I operationalize the theory of “bodies as borders”, “border elasticity”, and “self-bordering” in a settler-colonial setting specific to Israeli / Palestinian relations though comprehensive field research. Bodies as borders refers to the idea that the borders follow Palestinian movement and their location and enforcement are based on Palestinian movement and residence, border elasticity refers to the constantly shifting borderings in and around Israel and the OPT based on the notion of elastic sovereignty, and self-bordering refers to instances and episodes where Palestinians have decided not to engage in a certain activity (go to work, go to a medical appointment, etc.) due to elastic borderings and interactions with the Israeli military. This research looks at seemingly disjointed episodes of categorization within Palestinian communities and evaluates how these categories reflect different degrees of spatialities of power. These episodes include the experiences of Palestinian laborers in the West Bank, Palestinian patients in Gaza, Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab (Negev), and Palestinians from East Jerusalem who are met with the effects of Israeli settler colonial tactics in different ways, but demonstrate a similar pattern of bordering an indigenous community. The framework of analysis of “bodies as borders” identifies the importance of seeking answers in the liminal spaces that are created by the effect of settler colonialism on the bordering of an indigenous group in the production of state space. Through time Palestinian bodies have become shaped by their constructed existence within and around Israeli social relations. The settler colonial framework shapes our understanding of the concepts of bordering, elastic sovereignty, and self-bordering, but when combined with this case study, pushes us to see how the framework should alter our previous understanding of the border as a physical space in Israel and the OPT. The congruity of settler colonialism and bordering debates, joined with political, economic, social, and cultural factors in Israel and the OPT, lead to the understanding of behavioural and identity narrative alterations that shape the colonised existence of the indigenous Palestinian people.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geography
International Relations/Affairs
Sociology
Geographic Area
Gaza
Israel
Palestine
West Bank
Sub Area
None