LINGUISTIC AND SPATIAL PRACTICE IN A DIVIDED LANDSCAPE by Abigail Sone A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of PhD Graduate Department of Anthropology University of Toronto © Copyright by Abigail Sone 2009 LINGUISTIC AND SPATIAL PRACTICE IN A DIVIDED LANDSCAPE Abigail Sone Department of Anthropology University of Toronto PhD 2009 Abstract of Thesis This dissertation demonstrates how changes in spatial boundaries map on to changes in the boundaries of national belonging through an ethnography of linguistic and spatial practice in a divided landscape. In Israel, as in many places around the globe, new forms of segregation have emerged in recent years, as violence and the fear of violence become increasingly bound up with the production of social difference and exclusion. In Wadi Ara, a valley in the north of the country where my fieldwork was based, segregation between Jewish and Palestinian citizens has dramatically increased since the fall of 2000, as the place of Palestinians in a Jewish state is being reconfigured. In this dissertation I focus on the changing movements and interactions of Jewish Israelis in Wadi Ara as they articulate with changes in the ways difference, belonging, and citizenship are organized on a national scale. I examine how increased hostility, fear, and distrust have become spatialized; how narratives of the past shape contemporary geographies; how competing ways of interpreting and navigating the landscape are mediated; and how particular forms of encounter are framed. My central argument is that through daily linguistic and spatial practice people in Wadi Ara do more than just make sense of shifting boundaries; they bring these boundaries into being and, in the process, they enact both self‐definition and exclusion, reflecting and circumscribing ii the changing place of Palestinians in Israel. The dissertation is based on 19 months of fieldwork between 2002 and 2006. iii Acknowledgments So many people are so happy to see me finish this dissertation. It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to thank them for their roles in seeing it through. First, I owe my greatest debt to the people at my fieldsites who welcomed me into their lives, made me feel at home, and matched each of my questions with two of their own. In particular I want to thank my friends whom I have called Nurit, Hila, Rina, and Ruth. I hope that what I have written does justice to their generosity and audacity. I gratefully acknowledge funding from the following sources: University of Toronto (Faculty of Arts and Science, School of Graduate Studies, Department of Anthropology); Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Much of this dissertation has been worked out in conversation with my advisor, Bonnie McElhinny. From the beginning, Bonnie has supported me and guided me through every step of the process. She has always known when to listen, when to push me, and when to ask just the right question. There is no more careful, committed reader than Bonnie, and every page in this dissertation has been improved by her close attention. Most importantly, Bonnie has been a mentor to me, showing me by example how to be the kind of scholar I want to be. My committee members, Michael Chazan and Joshua Barker, have been generous with their time and insight. Michael’s questions over the years have repeatedly pushed me to question what I think I know. I am particularly happy to iv have finally earned his “grudging respect.” Joshua’s feat is to be encouraging even as he asks the hard questions. His nuanced reading of my draft improved the dissertation considerably. My external examiner, Jasmin Habib, read the dissertation with great sensitivity and insight. Her comments have given me much to think about, and I look forward to continuing the conversation with her in the future. My thanks also to Jennifer Jackson for her constructive questions at my defense, and for a detailed final read; to Jack Sidnell for all I have learned from him over the years; and to Monica Heller, Ivan Kalmar, and Hy Van Luong for their feedback on earlier stages of the project. I was lucky to share my graduate career with colleagues and friends whose companionship and critical engagement made the years go by quickly. For suggestions, edits, debates, and conversations my thanks to Shaylih Muehlmann, Kregg Hetherington, Irma Molina, Emma Jo Aiken, Laurie Zadnik, Maggie Cummings, Donna Young, and especially Jessica Cattaneo, Saul Cohen, and Marnie Bjornson. Jessica and I went through our fieldwork together, long distance from Argentina to Israel. Her unerring ear and her ability to get me have been invaluable to my thinking on this project and to my writing. Saul started picking on me on our first day of the program and, thankfully, he hasn’t left me alone since. Throughout our sporadic, incoherent lunches over the years he has been a sounding board and kept me grounded. Marnie always sees through to the big picture, and I rely on her insight to give me the perspective I need. Being able to laugh about things with her has made many an unbearable moment bearable. Outside of school, Rebecca Dworkin, Amie Khondo, Yael Trehearne, and Lea Nogueira were always there to v send me off and to welcome me home, to cheer me on and to keep me laughing. During my fieldwork Osnat Efraty, Ayelet Baruch, and Ori and Rocha Zisling and their boys made Israel feel like home. My siblings have contributed to my fieldwork and writing in countless ways, providing crucial emotional, technical, logistical, artistic, and audio‐visual support at every step. Thank you especially to Judith for being my home in Jerusalem; to David for taking the pictures in Chapter Five; to Jacob for sending me key Haaretz articles; and to Eli for Mitzi and for so much more. Without Eli’s endless patience I would not have had an audio recorder to do fieldwork with, and the dissertation would be lacking a bibliography, maps, figures, and countless other crucial elements. Thanks also to Lily for etymological advice and to Jess for her enthusiastic questions. The knowledge that my parents, Ian and Laurie Sone, love me and believe in me sustained me in this, as in everything I do. The political and intellectual roots of this dissertation go back to values I learned from them, and from my grandparents, Norman and Mary Davis. My other family also helped get me through the last few years of writing, with their interest, encouragement, and constant queries as to whether I was done yet. Thank you to Mara, Mike, Saara, John, Janine, Dr. B, Morley, and the kids. Jonathan never left my side throughout the long process of writing up, even when he was in Belfast. He read every word, he finished my sentences, he told me what I meant to say, he knew what I needed, and he got me through the hard parts. Doing this without him would have been infinitely harder and much less fun. It is my good fortune that I didn’t have to. vi Table of Contents A Note on Translation and Transcription………………………………………………………..ix Maps………………………………………………………………………………………………………………x 1. Israel / Palestine 2. Wadi Ara and Surrounding Area 3. Main areas of Palestinian Localities in Israel Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………………….….1 1. Linguistic and spatial practice in a divided landscape 2. A history of the project: From Jerusalem to Wadi Ara Chapter One Shifting Boundaries and the Place of Palestinians in Israel………………………20 1. October 2000 2. Before and after October 3. Shifting boundaries: Change and the everyday 4. Divided landscapes 5. Linguistic and spatial practice 6. “Implicate relations”: Palestinians in a Jewish state Chapter Two Wadi Ara: A Divided Landscape............................................................................................65 1. Wadi Ara: Critical historical geography of a divided landscape 2. Givat Haviva: Fieldsite and methodologies Chapter Three White Spaces on the Map: Geographies of Intimate Distance…………………….93 1. Introduction 2. Aliza: “There’s noone to talk to” 3. Yoav and Benny: “Do they have blue ID cards?” 4. Yuval: “Good morning, neighbour” 5. Daniel: “A little less white” 6. Conclusion: Situated geographic imaginations Chapter Four Return to the Wadi: Narratives of Nostalgia, Violence, and Fear……………..130 1. Introduction: Return to the Wadi 2. Nurit and Hila 3. “He used to go there all the time”: Narratives of nostalgia 4. “You don’t go into those places”: Narratives of violence 5. Strategies of avoidance: Narratives of fear, risk, and danger 6. Going there: Hila and Nurit’s own boundaries 7. Conclusion: Returning again to the Wadi vii Chapter Five Erasure and Disclosure on the Trans­Israel Highway.........................................172 1. Introduction: “In spite of everything” 2. Highway 6 3. Highway 6 and Palestinian citizens of Israel 4. Sign language 5. Conclusion Chapter Six Fieldtrips and Other Encounters………………………..……………………………………200 1. Mukebele, December 3, 2003 2. Encounter 3. Tiyul 4. “Names without places”: Nazareth, December 30, 2004 5. Ethnographic tourism 6. “A remainder of long, long ago”: Um el Kutuf, November 8, 2004 7. Imperial encounters 8. “Animals in cages”: Barta’a, October 13, 2004 Chapter Seven Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………..261 Figures………..……………………………………………………………………………………………..265 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………283 viii A Note on Translation and Transcription Unless otherwise stated, all transcribed interactions are translated from Hebrew. I have indicated where the original interaction took place either in Arabic or in English. I have used the following transcription conventions: [….. …..] square brackets in two turns mark overlapping speech (.) pause it’s not – dash marks self‐interruption (a word or phrase broken off before it is finished) xxxx unable to decipher kno::::w colons mark elongated syllable [a bypass road] square brackets mark transcriber’s comments THAT’S what capital letters mark loud, emphasized speech hhhh laughter ‘lets meet’ single quotes indicate quoted speech .