An Ethnography of Security Practices and Perspectives in Tel Aviv
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Ordinary Security: an ethnography of security practices and perspectives in Tel Aviv Natalie Konopinski PhD in Social Anthropology The University of Edinburgh 2009 1 Table of Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... 5 Chapter one: Introduction......................................................................................... 6 Part one: Boredom and Waiting............................................................................ 51 Part two: Surveillance and Suspicion................................................................... 84 Chapter two: Documents and Expertise .......................................................... 94 Chapter three: Reading danger off bodies and race ................................... 119 Chapter four: Consenting Citizens? ............................................................... 160 Part three: Protection and the (in)competent state .......................................... 175 Chapter five: Conflict and communities of critique....................................... 189 Chapter six: Corruption and the scandalous state....................................... 254 Chapter seven: Convict on the run................................................................. 260 Chapter eight: Conclusion.................................................................................... 283 Bibliography............................................................................................................ 288 2 Declaration 15 May 2009 I declare that, except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is entirely my own work, and that no part of it has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Natalie Konopinski 3 Abstract Anthropological approaches to contexts of violence and conflict often focus on the exceptional and extraordinary moment of violence or its memory, leaving little room for the ordinary ways in and through which much conflict is lived. How might conflict and violence permeate ordinary practice, daily events and experience? What about the mundane and anticipatory moments through which violence may be predicted, anticipated and waited upon? This thesis explores ordinary security perspectives and practices among Jewish-Israelis in Tel Aviv. It is based on 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork among security guards, civil guards and city residents between 2005 and 2007 as they do and discuss bitachon (security). Participant observation with street-level security staff, with civil guard patrols and within the critical activities and conversations at a local neighbourhood kiosk café all explore practices, perspectives and experiences of security. This thesis argues that security practices that are often invoked as a precaution against danger and a provider of protection may paradoxically produce a sense of even more danger, uncertainty and insecurity. Security is not only about spectacular conflicts or strategic concepts but is also engaged with and experienced through mundane and ordinary social life. As well as claiming to protect the nation-state or managing strategic threats, security is also a kind of practice and emotion; an atmosphere, activity, and a feeling. Security is not only about extraordinary events and explosive situations, but also about a particular kind of waiting; an uncertain and boring anticipation of potential violence to come. It may be less about performance, legibility, or defence against dangerous others, than the identification of intimate and illegible populations, the playing out of racialized notions of danger and the ethno-nationalist uncertainties of the nation-state. In this context, collective anxieties and insecurities may be brought about not by the scale or magnitude of security threats, but by the perceived incapacity and protective impotence of the state. This thesis contributes to the anthropology of conflict and violence, the anthropology of Israel/Palestine and urban anthropology more generally. It points towards ways in which anthropology may meaningfully contribute to and enter dialogue with security studies, and argues in favour of an ordinary approach to the analysis of conflict and security. 4 Acknowledgments Fieldwork was made possible by the generous support of an ESRC Post-Graduate Studentship. I am deeply indebted to Tobias Kelly for his support and supervision over the past few years. Toby’s encouragement and insightful contributions made the writing up process an exciting endeavour. I am also grateful to Dimitri Tsintjilonis for his reading and thoughtful comments. Thanks also to Iris Jean-Klein whose supervision helped shape the project and saw me through my work in the field. The members of the Social Anthropology writing-up seminars have also been a source of guidance. I am equally grateful to the many informants I had the pleasure of working with and meeting during my time in Tel Aviv, whose generosity with their time, experiences and opinions made fieldwork possible. Thanks especially to Irit, Rafi, Inbal and Moti whose friendship made my stay in Tel Aviv enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Many thanks to Andy Gee, my Israel buddy, for his support and friendship throughout. Thank you Konopinskis for your never-ending support. Thanks Betsy, for everything. 5 Chapter one: Introduction About four weeks after my arrival in Israel I was woken in the middle of the night by the electronic ping of a telephone text message. I was staying in Tel Aviv with Tali, an Israeli acquaintance I had met once back when we were eighteen, and who became my closest friend in town. The message was from Andy, an Edinburgh anthropologist up in the north of the country, checking I was not out that night because a club had just been attacked. As I discovered the next morning, a Palestinian suicide bomber had detonated in the midst of queuing clubbers at the entrance to the Stage club by Tel Aviv’s beachside, killing four and wounding around thirty people. Security staff had stopped the bomber entering the building but failed to avert the inevitable explosion. At the time I was startled and nudged Tali awake to tell her the news. But it seemed such events were not so extraordinary or unsettling for Tali. “Oh I can’t deal with this right now” she grumbled and then sighed, rolled over, and fell right back asleep. During the months after the Stage club attack a couple of other suicide bombers hit Israeli towns, Jewish Israeli settlers left the Gaza strip, targeted killings in the West bank continued, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke. About a year later a suicide bomber attacked a shawarma stand in Tel Aviv and Hamas were elected into power by Palestinians in Gaza. By the summer of 2006 Gaza was under Israeli military blockade and Israel was at war with Hizbullah in southern Lebanon – all in the name of security. Yet with every strategic military operation and promise of security precisely the inverse – insecurity – seemed the familiar result. Israel, a state whose formation in 1948 rested on a demand for safety and security for the Jewish people through national self-determination after centuries of European persecution, vulnerability, and humiliation, paradoxically appears to produce even more danger and insecurity for its Jewish population. Twentieth century Zionism (Jewish nationalism) championed the mutual construction of the state and security. Yet the very creation of the State of Israel, perpetual military activity and prolonged conflicts and 6 hostilities with surrounding Arab states and Palestinian populations have produced the reverse, turning the Israeli population into a prime target and placing the Jewish people under threat of attack in the very place presumed “home”. Security seemed far from reality for Tel Avivians in the summer of 2006, under threat – however fantastic – of missile attack by Hizbullah, listening to politicians promise to protect the state, and watching rockets rain down across the north and fellow citizens huddling in bomb shelters on the nightly news. Moreover, with lingering disputes over rightful ownership of territory along the border with Lebanon and the once Syrian Golan Heights, continuing conflict surrounding Israeli activities in the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, and the possibility of a Palestinian state, the perceptual and physical borders and boundaries of the Israeli state and Israeli citizens resemble fluid frontiers, neither stable nor secure. Security practices, often invoked as a precaution against danger and provider of protection may paradoxically produce even more danger, uncertainty and insecurity. Bitachon (security) however, is not only about spectacular conflicts or theoretical concepts but is also engaged with and experienced through mundane and ordinary security practice and social life. It is mundane and ordinary experience as well as extraordinary and violent acts through which we so often conceptualise security concerns or view life in Israel/Palestine. Security is also experienced and played out through the ordinary, daily, street-level screening of bodies and bags by security staff – like those outside the Stage club – at the gates to public space and place in Tel Aviv. Security may also