Posted: 04.09.2009
Comparing Palestinian and Israeli practices and constructs of separation
during the post Intifada (2005-2009)
Cédric Parizot, Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem
This presentation studies interactions between Israelis and Palestinians within places where they still cross each other trajectories during the post Intifada period (2005-2009).Two types of places have been chosen: on the one hand, bypass roads and check points, where Palestinians and Israelis cross each other without meeting and, on the other hand, streets of West Jerusalem were local Jewish Israeli residents regularly interact with West Bank Palestinian workers. The aim is to understand how the constructs of the interactions and spaces can produce at the same time blindness and hypersensitivities: while Israelis hardly notice Palestinians in these places, conversely, Palestinians feel a reinforcement of Israeli presence and occupation. In all, I’ll try to show to what extent, these ordinary interactions and the actors who participate in them play a central role in the production of sense of distinctiveness, discontinuity and separation between Israeli and Palestinian populations and spaces, despite the level of their remaining interactions and the intricateness of their geographic realm. Drawing on this study, I would apprehend separation as a mechanism of power whose functioning involves diffused and heterogeneous forms of power. Moreover, based on this research, I would like to reconsider the multiple dimensions of separation that have been underscored in Eyal Weizman theory of “Politics of verticality”, as well as to deepen the approach of the Israeli Palestinian conflict as a conflict focused on the management of space uses and constructs as Ariel Handel has suggested it.
1000 THOUGHTS 1 BETHLEHEM NIGHT
A series of informal meetings designed to open up a space for the exchange of thoughts and project developments
4 September 2009, 08.30 pm
location: Beit Sahour, Suk Ishab Madrasa Al Chatolic Street
Daar Sandi Hilal & Alessandro Petti