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Visuals of the Wall and the Vanishing Landscapes in Palestine Nayrouz

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Visuals of the Wall and the Vanishing Landscapes in Palestine Nayrouz Framing Absence: Visuals of the Wall and the Vanishing Landscapes in Palestine Nayrouz Abu Hatoum A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Social Anthropology York University Toronto, Ontario September 2016 © Nayrouz Abu Hatoum, 2016 Abstract This dissertation explores people’s relationship to the landscapes of material, abstract, and visual borders in the context of Palestine-Israel. Since 2002, the construction of the Israeli separation Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has significantly transformed the way locals, particularly on the Palestinian side of the Wall see and articulate their relation to the landscape. Already living in a state of military occupation through restriction of movement, limited access to land and urban expansion on occupied territory, the Wall has considerably shifted Palestinians’ relationships to the landscape. To them the landscape has become a visual field on which power dynamics and political structures are embodied and expressed. Moreover, for many Palestinians the Israeli construction of the Wall is visible evidence of the on-going process of destruction of the Palestinian landscape. But what is the view of Palestinians and Israelis living on the Israeli side of the Wall and those living in Palestine but in close proximity to the Wall? What is their engagement with the Wall? To answer these questions, this dissertation draws on more than 12 months of ethnographic research in Israel and Palestine that involved extended interviews with Palestinian and Israeli photographers and activists in Israel, as well as Palestinians whose lives were affected by the Wall’s construction in proximity to their homes and for whom the Wall route brought them into direct confrontation with the Israeli military. This research also examined representations of the Wall in different visual projects. From a theoretical perspective, this dissertation asks how do visual fields facilitate the structuring of national imaginaries and what sights and future visions are offered by different readings of the landscape? To answer these questions, I employ anthropological theories of violence, borders and the visual, and propose the concept of landscapocide, a violent visual process through which landscapes are framed, and made to be seen and unseen. Through landscapocide and other anthropologically grounded theories and concepts I offer a new reading of the ways in which people in bordered contexts give meaning to what they see. ii Dedication To our land, and it is the one surrounded with torn hills, the ambush of a new past To our land, and it is a prize of war, the freedom to die from longing and burning and our land, in its bloodied night, is a jewel that glimmers for the far upon the far and illuminates what’s outside it ... As for us, inside, we suffocate more! Excerpt from Mahmoud Darwish 2007, "To Our Land" in The Butterfly’s Burden (2007). English translation by Fady Joudah. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation is a product of years of thinking, conversing, listening, reading and writing. Without the support and help of many people in my life, I would not have been able to finish this project. I first want to thank my family: my parents Nawal and Ghassan Abu Hatoum, and my brothers Sa’ady and Shady Abu Hatoum. Their support and belief in me was a crucial force in helping me complete this work. I am thankful to my supervisor, Professor Zulfikar Hirji, who introduced me to new ways of thinking about visual anthropology and encouraged me to develop my work in new directions in the field. My committee members, Professors Daphne Winland and Wenona Giles, also offered me invaluable support. Their insightful comments and suggestions have significantly improved my writing. I have been lucky to be part of the collegial environment of the Anthropology Department at York University, and I am thankful for the faculty and graduate students who were my colleagues throughout my PhD. My Aries Sun and Scorpio Moon kept me on the emotional edge for the past eight years of this journey. Without the generosity, hospitality, support and inspirational energy of many of my friends I would not have survived living in Toronto away from home: Aruna Boodram, Ayeda Ayed, Azada Rahi, Chelsey Lichtman, David Mofette, Ghadeer Malek, Ghaida Mousa, Hülya Arık, Janet Rowe, Jasmine Abdelhadi, Jessica Karuhanga, Julia Murphy, Loujayn Al Hokail, Nanky Rai, Nora Al-Aleiwi, Reeju Ray, Salma Al Atassi, Sarah Al Ghamdi, Seçil Daǧtaș, Shaira Vadasaria. I was lucky to have brilliant friends who were generous to provide me with their insights and comments on my writings as well as proofread and edited my work: Anna Carastathis, Johannah May Black, Natalie Kouri-Towe and Serene Husni. I am greatly thankful to my friend and editor Yasmine Haj who made this manuscript significantly coherent. I am deeply honoured and humbled by the generous support of my friends in Palestine, without whom this dissertation would have been a near impossibility: Deema Darawshe, Lama Jamjoum, Moheeb Al Barghouthi, Nisreen Abu Hunaina and Nisreen Mazzawi. Finally, I am very thankful to the Palestinians and Israelis who were my interlocutors in the field. Their insights, creativity, experiences, resistance, and vision adorn this manuscript with their hopes for liberation. iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT ___________________________________________________________________ II DEDICATION ________________________________________________________________ III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS _______________________________________________________ IV TABLE OF CONTENTS _______________________________________________________ V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ___________________________________________________ VII IMAGES ______________________________________________________________________ VII MAPS _______________________________________________________________________ VIII NOTES ON TRANSLATION AND TRANSLITERATION ___________________________ IX CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION: LANDSCAPES OF ABSENCE AND CONTESTED SIGHTS ______________________________________________________________________ 1 1. PALESTINE/ISRAEL: A HISTORY OF PARTITION AND BORDER FORMATIONS __________ 12 THE WALL: THE CURRENT STATE OF FRAGMENTATIONS AND BORDER FORMATIONS _____ 24 2. THEORETICAL DEBATES IN ANTHROPOLOGY: VISUALS, VIOLENCE, AND BORDERS ____ 29 3. MAP OF CHAPTERS _________________________________________________________ 60 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY IN VISUAL FIELDS __________________________ 67 1. POSITIONALITY ON THE BORDERLINE: PROXIMITIES AND DISTANCES _______________ 71 2. LOCATING THE FIELD: POSITIONINGS IN OCCUPIED LAND/SCAPE ___________________ 76 3. METHODOLOGY IN BORDER SIGHTS/SITES: VISUALS, BORDERS AND VIOLENCE _______ 99 4. METHODOLOGY IN LANDSCAPES OF VIOLENCE _________________________________ 102 5. DISTANT INTIMACIES: STUDYING MY OCCUPIER ________________________________ 109 6. CHALLENGES IN THE FIELD _________________________________________________ 122 CHAPTER THREE: LANDSCAPES OF BORDERS _______________________________ 127 1. SITES OF BORDERS: CROSSING, MEMORY, AND MOURNING _______________________ 139 2. “BECOMING A BORDER” ____________________________________________________ 144 3. BORDER ANXIETIES: THE PROJECTION OF THE WALL ___________________________ 153 4. WITNESSING LANDSCAPES, MARCHING WITH MAPS _____________________________ 162 5. THE DIVIDING LINES _______________________________________________________ 176 6. THE MENTAL DIVIDE ______________________________________________________ 184 v CHAPTER FOUR: LANDSCAPOCIDE, BORDER SIGHTS, AND DAILY VIOLENCE _ 194 1. CONCEPTUALIZING AND CONTEXTUALIZING LANDSCAPES OF BORDERS ____________ 200 2. JAWLAN: VIOLENCE AND LANDSCAPE OF BORDERS _____________________________ 209 3. FROM JAWLAN TO THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: LANDSCAPES OF VIOLENT ERUPTIONS __________________________________________________________________ 226 4. THE HOUSE AS A SITE OF VIOLENCE __________________________________________ 231 5. CORPOREAL SITES OF VIOLENCE ____________________________________________ 238 CHAPTER FIVE: FRAMING THE VANISHING: PHOTOGRAPHY OF PALESTINIAN LANDSCAPE ________________________________________________________________ 250 1. VISUALS OF OCCUPATION AND THE METAPHORS OF THE WALL ___________________ 256 2. DEPOLITICIZATION OF BORDERS: THE WALL AS A COMMERCIAL SIGHT ____________ 262 3. FRAMES OF PRESENCE: PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE WALL ___________________________ 278 4. FRAMES OF ABSENCE: VISUALIZING THE VANISHING ____________________________ 299 CHAPTER SIX: TRAJECTORIES AND LANDSCAPES OF RUINS; A CONCLUSION 312 1. CONTOURS _______________________________________________________________ 312 2. TRAJECTORIES ___________________________________________________________ 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY ____________________________________________________________ 331 vi List of Illustrations Images IMAGE 1: POPE FRANCIS PRAYS NEAR THE WALL IN BETHLEHEM. ................................................ 7 IMAGE 2: POPE FRANCIS PRAYING ON THE WESTERN WALL ........................................................... 8 IMAGE 3: KEY FOR MAP 1 .......................................................................................................................... 17 IMAGE 4: KEY TO MAP 2 ............................................................................................................................ 25 IMAGE 5: VIEW FROM THE ISRAELI “SIDE” .........................................................................................
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