The Making of a Void Sovereignty: Political Implications of the Military Checkpoints in the West Bank

Abstract

Research on the Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank has emphasized not only that these checkpoints have dire implications for the Palestinians living there, at the personal, familial, and communal levels, and devastating effects on the Palestinian economy, but also that they have far-reaching consequences for the ability of the Palestinians to establish an independent political entity. At the same time, analysis of the Israeli forms of domination over the Palestinians has also stressed the role of a Palestinian governing authority in sustaining the Israeli rule, since the former relieves the latter of its responsibility to care for the occupied Palestinian population. This paper aims to address this apparent contradiction claiming that a comprehensive analysis of Israeli forms of domination requires a spatial examination of the operation of sovereignty with an assessment of governmentalizing arrays. This combined analysis suggests that a Palestinian sovereignty, but one which is emptied of its actual ruling power, is construed at the checkpoints as an epiphenomenon of Israeli apparatuses of control.

Spaces of abandonment: Genealogies, lives and critical horizons

“…Filip de Boeck, for example, reminds us that "the space of the street and the time of the night, the two worlds to which abandoned children are relegated to, are perceived by many children not as sites of exclusion and social abandonment but, on the contrary, as spaces of possibility and promise, of empowerment, of play and diversion, and, above all, of freedom" (2009, page 142-143). In another, more explicitly geopolitical spatialization of catastrophic abandonment, Azoulay and Ophir (2013) record the transformation of Gaza since the Second Palestinian intifada: while not relinquishing its ultimate sovereign authority to take life, Israel has abdicated its responsibilities of care for those who remain subjected to its power (see also Amir, 2013). But, they add, "However apt the metaphor of homo sacer, one should not be misled into thinking of abandoned Palestinians as passive victims.…”

Re‐inhabiting no‐man's land: genealogies, political life and critical agendas

“…In the two decades that followed the deportation, ‘containment’ became emblematic of more sophisticated systems of Israeli governance over the occupied Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The 1993 Oslo Accords enabled Israel to gradually abdicate its responsibility for the Palestinian population, while setting up a restricting regime of movement that confined Palestinian life to strict enclaves governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) (Amir ; Azoulay and Ophir ). Replicating the particular dynamic of governmentality featured in the southern Lebanese no‐man's land, Israel's policy disjoined management of life from responsibility for it (Amir , 229).…”

“…The 1993 Oslo Accords enabled Israel to gradually abdicate its responsibility for the Palestinian population, while setting up a restricting regime of movement that confined Palestinian life to strict enclaves governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) (Amir ; Azoulay and Ophir ). Replicating the particular dynamic of governmentality featured in the southern Lebanese no‐man's land, Israel's policy disjoined management of life from responsibility for it (Amir , 229). By replacing permanent military presence in population centres with a control of enclave perimeters, Israel maintains ultimate control over all Palestinian realms of life, while placing the onus of care for the population on the governing apparatuses of the PA.…”

Perspectives on Social Suffering in Interviews and Drawings of Palestinian Adults Crossing the Qalandia Checkpoint: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

“…The structural changes included both architectural and administrative forms (e.g., changing the checkpoints into terminals, operating the checkpoints by both private “security” companies and IDF soldiers), while the conceptual changes have mainly been semantic and are part of the Israeli government’s ongoing attempt to redefine “terminals” as legitimate border-crossing points (Mansbach, 2009; Amir, 2013). …”