Negotiating Boundaries, Narrating Checkpoints: The Case of Machsom Watch

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Notes

¹ See, for example, Samuel Huntington, ‘The clash of civilizations?,’ Foreign Affairs, 72(3) (1993), pp. 22–49.

² See, for example, Raymond Cohen, Negotiating across Cultures (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1997); and Ahmad H. Sa'di, ‘Modernization as an explanatory discourse of Zionist–Palestinian relations,’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 24 (1997), pp. 25–48.

³ See, for example, Dan Rabinowitz, Overlooking Nazareth: The Ethnography of Exclusion in Galilee (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Yehezkel Lein, Land Grab: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2002); and Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation (London: Verso, 2007).

⁴ See, for example, Ilan Pappé, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006); and Joseph A. Massad, ‘History on the line: Joseph Massad and Benny Morris discuss the Middle East,’ in: Joseph A. Massad (Ed.) The Persistence of the Palestine Question (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 154–165. The placing of these authors in these different categories is only an approximation; many of them could be put in several different categories due to the overlap and complex interplay of the different categories of analysis.

⁵ Baruch Kimmerling (Ed.), The Israeli State and Society: Boundaries and Frontiers. SUNY Series in Israeli Studies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989); Meron Benvenisti, Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); and Oren Yiftachel, ‘Centralized power and divided space: “fractured regions” in the Israeli “ethnocracy,”’ GeoJournal, 53 (2001), pp. 283–293.

⁶ Information on Machsom Watch comes primarily from discussions with activists while accompanying shifts in 2004–05 during a period of research partially funded by the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). Where noted, I also draw on publications and reports available on their website as well as recent works discussing the practices of the organization.

⁷ For more about the founding of Machsom Watch and its practices, as well as its operating principles and group dynamics, see Yehudit Kirstein Keshet, Checkpoint Watch: Testimonies from Occupied Palestine (London: Zed Books, 2005), which was written by one of its co-founders.

⁸ Although Machsom Watch was started by a small group of political activists, as the group has grown (over 500 members as of 2005), it has attracted more ‘mainstream’ women who participate for reasons based more on humanitarian or human rights grounds. This tension will be discussed briefly later in this article. For a more extended discussion see Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; and Maia Carter Hallward, ‘Building space for peace: challenging the boundaries of Israel/Palestine,’ PhD dissertation, American University (2006).

⁹ In this article I will focus on the West Bank and not the Gaza Strip for several reasons. (1) I was unable to obtain a permit to access Gaza during my field work and Machsom Watchers similarly cannot access Gaza, so the work of Machsom Watch and my own observations are limited geographically to the West Bank. (2) Settlers were evacuated from Gaza in 2005, although Israel remains in control of all entrance and exit points, as well as the airspace. (3) The West Bank and Gaza have different histories and socio-cultural-political dynamics which far exceed the space of this article; the West Bank (Judea and Samaria in Israeli official discourse) is much more important in the eyes of religious Jews and seen as integral to the Jewish state as it contains many of the religiously significant cities of Jewish history and tradition, i.e., Hevron (Hebron), Shechem (Nablus), and Beth Lahem (Bethlehem).

¹⁰ I use the term ‘separation barrier’ for the series of concrete walls, fences, ditches, roads, surveillance equipment, towers, and sand traps that are also called the ‘security fence’ or the ‘annexation wall.’ See Andreas Mueller, A Wall on the Green Line? (Jerusalem: Alternative Information Center, 2004), p. 87; PASSIA, Settlements and the Wall: Preempting the Two-state Solution (Jerusalem: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, 2004), p. 16; and Yehezkel Lein & Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, Under the Guise of Security: Routing the Separation Barrier to Enable the Expansion of Israeli Settlements in West Bank (Jerusalem: B'Tselem and BIMKOM, 2005), p. 89.

¹¹ See Oren Yiftachel, ‘The internal frontier: territorial control and ethnic relations in Israel,’ in: Oren Yiftachel & Avinoam Meir (Eds) Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998), pp. 39–68; Jeff Halper, Obstacles to Peace: A Re-framing of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (Bethlehem: PalMap of GSE, 2004); Majid Al-Haj, ‘Whither the Green Line? Trends in the orientation of the Palestinians in Israel and the Territories,’ Israel Affairs, 11 (2005), pp. 183–206; Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; and Virginia Tilley, The One-state Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli–Palestinian Deadlock (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005).

¹³ Gearoid O'Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), pp. 14–15.

¹² Robert David Sack, Human Territoriality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).

¹⁴ See further Gearoid O'Tuathail & John Agnew, ‘Geopolitics and discourse: practical geopolitical reasoning in American foreign policy,’ in: Gearoid O'Tuathail, Simon Dalby & Paul Routledge (Eds) The Geopolitics Reader (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 79–80.

¹⁵ Sack, Human Territoriality.

¹⁶ Author interview with Baha Bakri, Public Relations spokesperson, Palestinian Central Elections Commission, Ramallah, 23 November 2004; and B'Tselem, Restrictions on Movement: Checkpoints and Forbidden Roads (Jerusalem: B'Tselem, 2007), available at < http://www.btselem.org/english/Freedom_of_Movement/Checkpoints_and_Forbidden_Roads.asp> (accessed 7 May 2007).

¹⁷ See Yehezkel Lein, Land Grab; Hagit Ofran & Dror Etkes, ‘And Thou Shalt Spread …’: Construction and Development of Settlements beyond the Official Limits of Jurisdiction (Jerusalem: Peace Now Settlement Watch, 2007), p. 31; and Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land.

¹⁸ Sack, Human Territoriality, p. 26; and Oren Yiftachel & Avinoam Meir, ‘Frontiers, peripheries, and ethnic relations in Israel: an introduction,’ in: Oren Yiftachel & Avinoam Meir (Eds) Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries: Landscapes of Development and Inequality in Israel (Boulder, CO: Westview), pp. 1–16.

¹⁹ Sack, Human Territoriality, pp. 30–34.

²⁰ Space does not allow a full discussion of the cooperation between the Israeli government and the settlement enterprise and the history of land zoning, etc. For an extended discussion of this process see Weizman, Hollow Land; and Idith Zertal & Akiva Eldar, Lords of the Land; The Settlers and the State of Israel, 1967–2007 (New York: Nation Books, 2007).

²¹ See Tilley, One-state Solution; Weizman, Hollow Land, p. 121; and author interview with Limor Yehuda, Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Jerusalem, 4 April 2005.

²² B'Tselem, Forbidden Roads: Israel's Discriminatory Road Regime in the West Bank (Jerusalem: B'Tselem—Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 2004); PASSIA, Settlements and the Wall; and Tilley, One-state Solution.

²³ Nina Mayorek, ‘Let's go see the West Bank,’ ‘Jerusalem Women Speak’ tour, Washington, DC, April 2005; and B'Tselem, Restrictions on Movement.

²⁴ OCHA Weekly Briefing Notes (13–19 October): Update for oPt (East Jerusalem: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2004), available at < www.ochaopt.org> (accessed October 2007); and B'Tselem, Restrictions on Movement.

²⁵ Israeli law prohibits Israeli citizens from entering Area ‘A,’ which is nominally under Palestinian civil and security control. Israeli settlers living in the West Bank are not stopped at checkpoints and generally are granted free access; all settlements were deemed Area ‘C’ under the Oslo Accords, with full Israeli civil and military control.

²⁶ Machsom Watch, A Counterview: Checkpoints 2004 (Jerusalem: Machsom Watch, 2005), B'Tselem, Restrictions on Movement.

²⁷ Elia Awwad, ‘Perceiving the “Other” in the Al-Aqsa intifada,’ Palestine–Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture, VIII (2001), p. 97; and Ilfat Maoz, Shoshana Steinberg, Dan Bar-On & Mueen Fakhereldeen, ‘The dialogue between the “self” and the “other”: a process analysis of Palestinian–Jewish encounters in Israel,’ Human Relations, 55 (2002), pp. 931–962.

²⁸ Machsom Watch, ‘About us,’ available on the organizational website, < machsomwatch.org/eng/aboutUsEng.asp?link = aboutUsEng&lang = eng> (accessed 6 October 2007).

²⁹ For simplicity's sake I use the term ‘soldier’ even though some checkpoints are staffed by members of the Border Police and others by soldiers in the Israeli Defense/Occupation Forces (IDF or IOF, depending on one's frame of reference).

³⁰ Machsom Watch, ‘About us.’

³¹ Anat Zanger, ‘Blind space: road block movies in the contemporary Israeli film,’ Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 24 (2005), p. 45.

³² Dorit Naaman, ‘The silenced outcry: a feminist perspective from the Israeli checkpoints in Palestine,’ NWSA Journal 18 (2006), p. 172.

³³ Author interview with Dalia (name changed by author to protect privacy), Huwarra checkpoint and environs, 25 May 2005.

³⁴ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch, p. 16.

³⁵ Author interview with Lauren, Naomi and Amy (names have been changed), Jerusalem-Abu Dis, 30 November 2004.

³⁸ Ziv, Bureaucracy of the Occupation, p. 50; emphasis added.

³⁶ Hadas Ziv, The Bureaucracy of the Occupation: The District Civil Liaison Offices (Jerusalem: Machsom Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, n.d.), available at < http://www.phr.org.il/phr/files/articlefile_1108316859979.pdf> (accessed October 2007).

³⁷ Tsili Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse by Administrative Means: A Matter of Policy? A Report on the Operational Practices of the Civil Administration in Occupied Palestinian Territories (Jerusalem: Machsom Watch, n.d.), n.p., available at < http://www.machsomwatch.org/docs/civilAdministration.asp?link = summaries&lang = eng> (accessed October 2007).

³⁹ IDF Spokesperson, quoted in Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse.

⁴⁰ The eight DCOs in the West Bank are part of the Civil Administration, which is under the Ministry of Defense and has the task of overseeing civilian life in the West Bank. The DCO offices are often difficult to access because of their location off restricted roads (which means Palestinians need a permit to apply for one), and the operating hours are often inconvenient. For more discussion of the DCO policies and operating practices, see Ziv, Bureaucracy of the Occupation; Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse.

⁴¹ Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse.

⁴² Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse.

⁴³ Goldenberg, Systematic Abuse.

⁴⁴ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch.

⁴⁵ Author interview with Rachel, Nora and Anat (names have been changed), Beit Iba/Sarra, 12 February 2005. For more discussion, see Keshet, Checkpoint Watch.

⁴⁶ Michal Sagi, Presentation on Machsom Watch, Daila Center, West Jerusalem, 25 January 2005.

⁴⁷ Author interview with Eilat and Maya (names have been changed), Qalandia and a-Ram, 14 December 2004.

⁴⁸ Author interview with Dalia.

⁴⁹ As one Israeli journalist says: ‘the routine of the checkpoints, which robs from Palestinians hundreds of thousands of hours of life and energy every day, completely evades the Israeli media. This loss of time is a much more effective weapon than any artillery shell in draining the Palestinian people, until they agree to the solution of an enclave-state.’ Amira Hass, ‘Candy at the checkpoint,’ Haaretz, 6 September 2007, available at < http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901373.html> (accessed October 2007).

⁵⁰ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; Naaman, ‘Silenced outcry’; and Tamar Duke-Cohen, The Questions We Must Ask, National Public Radio transcript (Weekend Edition, Sunday 30 September 2007), available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId = 147984672007 (accessed 7 October 2007).

⁵¹ Author interview with Eilat and Maya (names have been changed).

⁵² This incident had a high profile in the Israeli and international media, largely because of the resonance of the event for Jews who experienced similar humiliation under the Nazi regime prior to and during World War II.

⁵³ Author observation, 25 May 2005, Huwarra checkpoint.

⁵⁴ Author observation, 25 May 2005, Huwarra checkpoint.

⁵⁶ Sagi, Presentation at Daila.

⁵⁵ Author observation, 25 May 2005, Huwarra checkpoint.

⁵⁷ Rachel, Nora and Anat (names have been changed), 12 February 2005.

⁵⁸ Palestinian shared taxi.

⁶⁰ Machsom Watch, Machsom Watch Summary—February 2005 (Jerusalem: Machsom Watch, 2005), available at < http://archive.machsomwatch.org/docs/monthlyReports/February2005Eng.asp?link = summaries&lang = eng> (accessed October 2007).

⁶¹ Mayorek, ‘Let's go to the West Bank.’

⁵⁹ On more than one occasion I witnessed debates between Israelis and Palestinians in particular over the applicability of international law to issues in Jerusalem, but also of the relevance of international law in general. Officially Israel claims the Fourth Geneva Convention is not applicable to the Occupied Territories, for example, and generally is highly distrusting of the United Nations, which it sees as highly biased against Israel. Interviews with Israelis in a wide range of civil society organizations also regularly attested to mainstream Israeli distrust of ‘human rights’ discourses. This is in part due to the ‘peace with security’ versus ‘peace with justice’ distinction between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating aims.

⁶² Jonathan Cook, ‘Watching the checkpoints: daily indignities and humiliations,’ Counterpunch, 23 February 2007, available at < http://www.counterpunch.org/cook02232007.html> (accessed 10 October 2007).

⁶³ Asa Kasher & Amos Yadlin, ‘Assassination and preventive killing,’ SAIS Review 25 (2005), pp. 47, 55; and Duke-Cohen, The Questions We Must Ask.

⁶⁴ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; and Naaman, ‘Silenced outcry,’ p. 170.

⁶⁵ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch, p. 6.

⁶⁶ Author interview with Anat (name has been changed), Jerusalem, 12 February 2005.

⁶⁷ Author interview with Rachel and Nora (names have been changed), Beit Iba, 12 February 2005.

⁶⁸ Keshet, Checkpoint Watch, p. 42.

⁶⁹ In particular, this is demonstrated by events I observed in Hebron, where Machsom Watch women were sometimes denied entry into the Kiryat Arba settlement for not being Jewish enough or where categories of identity were applied selectively by soldiers and ‘civilians’ (Machsom Watch members as well as settlers—who, because they are usually armed, have ambiguous status) alike. For more discussion, see Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; Naaman, ‘Silenced outcry’; Cook, ‘Watching the checkpoints’; and Hass, ‘Candy at the checkpoint.’

⁷⁰ Duke-Cohen, The Questions We Must Ask.

⁷¹ I use ‘women’ rather than ‘organization’ intentionally, as there is no centralized hierarchy or official platform for the organization beyond the basic principles listed on its website (www.machsomwatch.org). Consequently, the ‘organization’ is comprised of the individual actions, decisions, and interpretations of the several hundred women—with a wide range of political perspectives—who go to the checkpoints on a regular basis.

⁷² Ali Waked, ‘Machsom Watch: roadblock operating “Dungeon,”’ Yediot Aharonot (Tel Aviv), 4 Septembr 2007), available at < http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3445895,00.html> (accessed 10 October 2007).

⁷³ See also Keshet, Checkpoint Watch; and Naaman, ‘Silenced outcry.’

⁷⁴ Author interview with Dalia (name has been changed).