Separation Fence Research Articles

Az izraeli–ciszjordániai határkerítés létrejöttének történeti és geopolitikai előzményei

Izrael az államterületéhez viszonyított határkerítések és izolációs falak hosszában a világelsők között van annak ellenére, hogy nyugati irányból az országot a Földközi-tenger szegélyezi. Az országot körülölelő kerítésrendszer lezárja a Libanonnal, Szíriával, Jordániával és Egyiptommal közös határokat. A palesztin területeket illetően az Izrael és Ciszjordánia között húzódó fal építését 2002-benkezdték meg, a Gázai övezetet pedig nem csupán a földfelszín felett, hanem nyolc méter mélységben is elszigetelik az alagútfúrások megakadályozásának érdekében. A téma kényes politikai mivoltát érzékelteti a szemben álló felek közötti, elnevezéseket illető polémia is: míg a cionista és pro-izraeli véleményformálók „szeparációs kerítésnek”, „biztonsági kerítésnek” vagy „terrorizmus elleni biztonsági falnak” nevezik, addig pro-palesztin források gyakran „Apartheid-fal” néven hivatkoznak rá. A körülzárt földrajzi területet is eltérően írják le – a palesztin államiság megteremtésének hívei Palesztinaként, a cionista érzelmekkel Nagy-Izraelt létrehozni vágyók és zsidó radikálisok az ókori területi elnevezéseket használva Júdea és Szamária néven. A szerző jelen tanulmányban a semleges színezetű, a földrajzi fekvésére utaló Ciszjordánia vagy nyugati part elnevezéseket használja. A dolgozat célja a történeti és geopolitikai áttekintés Izrael fizikai határfalainak kiépítéséről, majd a jelenkor új típusú, digitális kerítéseinek bemutatása. A kutatást személyes látogatások, interjúbeszélgetések és a szakirodalom feldolgozása alapozta meg.

Factors affecting the success of artificial pack formation in an endangered, social carnivore: the African wild dog

AbstractSocial integration is an important factor when reintroducing group‐living species, but examples of the formation of social groups before reintroduction are largely lacking. African wild dogs Lycaon pictus are endangered, and reintroductions have become a routine part of range expansion in South Africa. Wild dogs form packs that are essential to their reproduction and survival, and artificial pack formation is often required before reintroduction. We examined the proximate (i.e. social integration) and ultimate (i.e. reproduction) success of 43 artificial pack formation attempts in the South African managed metapopulation, between 1995 and 2018. The top (and dominant) model for proximate success included an interaction between total group size and an initial separation fence. Larger groups took longer to integrate, irrespective of initial separation, whereas smaller groups brought together immediately integrated faster than those that were initially separated. The top models for ultimate success included an interaction between the proportion of males and number of days spent in the pre‐release enclosure, the total number of days in the enclosure and an interaction between the proportion of captive‐sourced individuals and the total number of days in the enclosure. Ultimate success increased when packs spent less time in the enclosure, especially if those packs had a low proportion of males (i.e. female biased) or included >25% captive‐sourced individuals. Neither the size of the artificially created pack nor the season in which the pack was released affected ultimate success. The success of social integration and reproductive success of artificially formed packs in this study was higher than for natural pack formations. We provide guidelines for optimizing future artificial pack formation in wild dogs for reintroduction success. Our results serve as an example of the practical importance of social behavior in successfully implementing conservation measures for group‐living species.

Discreet and Hegemonic Borderscapes of Galilee: Lebanese Residents of Israel and the Israel–Lebanon Border

ABSTRACTFollowing the processual shift in border studies, recent concepts such as “borderities” and “borderscapes” allow for original analyses that give voice to multiple agents alongside that of the nation-state in bordering processes, elucidate the links between border representation and border experience, and establish borders as both “markers of belonging and places of becoming”. This article will explore the potentials of these concepts when applied, not to the highly mediatised Separation Fence in the West Bank, but to a less studied border that reveals parallel evolutions in Israeli borderities and contemporary Middle Eastern borderscapes: the Israel-Lebanon border. It will focus on a marginal and little known phenomenon, that of the migration of Southern Lebanese to Israel. The creation of the State of Israel at the expense of Pan-Arab and Palestinian national aspirations has laid the foundations for a diversified relation to this border amongst inhabitants of the Galilee today depending notably on their belonging to the indigenous Arab population, or the more recently settled Jewish population. Through an analysis of two groups of Lebanese migrants, who, although originating from the same villages in Lebanon, settled respectively on opposite sides of the Arab/Jewish divide in Galilee, we will see how different patterns of border crossings produce different levels of interiorisation of the Israel-Lebanon border and different uses of categories of identity and meaning defined by it. Reterritorialised in either of Galilee’s superimposed geographies, Southern Lebanese migrants reveal two alternative Galilean borderscapes, one normative and hegemonic, partaking in the “national order of things”, the other discreet and alternative.

Tourism along the geopolitical barrier: implications of the Holy Land fence

Geopolitical borders in the form of physical barriers greatly influence tourism, mainly as an obstacle to free transborder movement of tourists but can constitute a tourist attraction. The main aims of this article are to describe, analyze and propose a typology of consequences on tourism as a geopolitical barrier through a case study of the fence in the Holy Land. The security fence dividing Israel and the Palestinian Authority is also called a separation fence or wall and it is located in the heart of a tourism region of global interest. The methodology is based on a review of literature that deals with the ramifications of such a fence in general and specifically with reference to tourism. The study provides an understanding of the new reality created by the fence, its varied influences on tourism planning and its ramifications on physical, environmental, administrative and image-related aspects of reality in the area.

Israel Continues to Expand Its Settlements

This article provides a detailed analysis of the new trends of development of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. Since 1967, Israel has established about 150 settlements in the West Bank in addition to some 100 «outposts» or illegal settlements without Israeli official authorization. Now the settler population has estimated at over 520,000; the annual average rate of growth during the past decade was 5.3%, compared to 1.8% for the Israeli population as whole. As is known, after the Annapolis Conference held on 27 November 2007 Israel under the pressure from the international community announced officially not to create new settlements. But the Israeli authorities are now actively expanding in the occupied Palestinian territory, «border zones» or «buffer zones» in order to confiscate Palestinian land between the separation fence and the Palestinian communities located at a sufficient distance away from the wall.This study reveals the new forms and methods, aims and objectives of the Israeli official settlement policy and indicates a negative influence of the settlement factor on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process, political and socio-economic situation in the Middle East. The author do not exclude the possibility that if the political decision based on the principle of coexistence of two States not be achieved in the nearest future we may see soon on the map of the West Bank some Palestinian enclaves completely isolated like the Gaza Strip now. It is obvious that in the Jordan Valley and another parts of «zone C» Israel aims to do that it did in the area, where the block of settlements Maale Adumim is located, which Israeli politicians now consider an integral part of the territory of the State of Israel.

The effects of Israeli use of coercive and conciliatory tactics on Palestinian's use of terrorist tactics: 2000–2006

The study investigated the effects of Israel's use of offensive, defensive and conciliatory tactics on Palestinian's use of terrorist tactics. Proportional hazard modeling assessed the effects of Israeli tactics on total terrorist activity by Palestinians, suicidal and non-suicidal acts of terror, and acts of terror attributed to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and factions affiliated with Fatah. Palestinian acts of terror decreased following the construction of the separation fence, but increased during Operation Defensive Shield (ODS). However, the effects of various Israeli tactics differed for the different groups. Targeted assassinations increased Hamas terrorist activity, increased PIJ activity only if highly senior persons were targeted, and had no immediate effect on terrorist activity by Fatah-affiliated factions. ODS increased terrorist activity by Fatah-affiliated factions but had no effect on Hamas and PIJ. Several conciliatory measures were followed by periods of no terrorist activity at all by Hamas and Fatah-affiliated factions. The findings highlight the importance of considering the responses of different terrorist groups when evaluating effects of counterterrorist tactics.

Old conflict, new war: Israel's politics toward the Palestinians

Introduction: The Muqata New Wars in the Global Era PART I: THE CHANCES FOR PEACE Internal Struggle around the Oslo Agreements The Military Politics of the IDF PART II: AL-AQSA INTIFADA 'No Partner to Peace' From Disturbances to War Israel and the 'Global War on Terror' Operation Defensive Shield Social Protest in the War PART III: THE POLITICS OF SEPARATION Israel's Reaction to the Roadmap The Separation Fence Withdrawal from Gaza Epilogue: Israel's Further New Wars

Peace on the Fence? Israel's Security Culture and the Separation Fence to the West Bank

This article examines the role of the separation fence as a metaphorical reflection within Israeli society. Two points of view examined are the construction of the separation fence and the historical idea of separation. Since the founding of Israel, the goal of the political maxim has been to construct internationally approved borderlines. Starting from a historical perspective and continuing to modern day, the development and establishment of various differentiation concepts, the latest in the form of a separation fence, are represented within Israeli society. The search for a boundary and security is questioned as a possible psychological and social bonding component of Israel. Different approaches to the design of the state border are subjected to the sociology of space, as understood in a short analysis by George Simmel. The construction of the separation fence is the political implementation of the Delimitation Theories. Questions regarding recognized borders, security in the country, and the determination of the Palestinian population's identity are fundamental for Israeli society. The separation fence is the physical expression of these perceptions. Fear, as a collective theme, plays an important role in this debate, and the prospect of a future boundary is a step closer to positively influencing social sense. The need for Israeli security is linked to the search for identity and cohesion. Separation is also linked to Israeli identity, an identity that functions as a basic cohesion of Israeli society. The separation fence can serve as a solution to the historic, territorial conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. However, the separation fence provides no possible solutions for global changes in the Middle East. Against the background of the American withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the regional rise of Iran the purpose and function of the separation fence is, and remains, determined solely by Israeli society.

Impossible Intimacies: Towards a Visual Politics of “Touch” at the Israeli-Palestinian Border

The West Bank Wall (or ‘Separation Fence’) constructed by Israel along much of its border with the occupied West Bank offers a potent visual signifier of the divisive, restrictive and intrusive ways in which the Israeli occupation touches the everyday lives of Palestinians. Consequently, the Wall has become a prominent site of representational concern in Arab visual culture. This article examines two particular visual representations of the Israeli-Palestinian border, Mona Hatoum’s sculpture ‘Grater Divide’ and Simone Bitton’s film Wall, in order to explore the complex politics of encounter and representation that circulate around the border in these works. In doing so, it seeks to establish a broader understanding of the ways in which discursive and cultural boundaries might be negotiated and crossed in the service of an interdisciplinary model of Arab cultural studies.

The Palestinian—Israeli peace process and transnational issue networks: the complicated place of the Israeli NGO

Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) resisting the security fence and other Israeli security measures are in `virtual isolation' in networks dedicated to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and especially to the criticism of Israeli governmental policies and the construction of the security fence. The research reported is a hyperlink and term analysis of select issue networks on the web assembled around the security fence and other conflict issues. It shows that attempts by left-leaning Israeli NGO network actors to frame the issue in their own critical terms are ignored by networked transnational actors working in the Palestinian-Israeli issue space, even though it may be that both kinds of organizations campaign against it. The Israeli organizations, it was found, are largely in an issue space of their own making, distinct from the human rights frame that dominates the transnational networks. In putting forward the notion of the separation fence, theirs is also a particular local `peace process' approach to issue settlement, different not only from that of the dominant trans-national issue networks on the web, but also from official Israeli as well as certain Western governmental positions. The article concludes by finding that, according to the web, the local peace process is not a trans-national issue network affair.

From imposed ceasefire line to international border: The issue of the green line between Palestine and Israel

The border between the state of Israel and a future Palestinian state has not yet been settled, and has instead been postponed to final‐status negotiations. The question of the location of the border, however, is critical. Will it be alongside the separation wall and fence which Israel is constructing? Or will it fall along the Green Line defined by the ceasefire agreement of 1949, prior to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip? This paper shows, as a case study, how the Green Line, a temporary separation line determined by military considerations, changed over time into a de‐facto boundary, and later became regarded as an international border—thus highlighting that what may be intended to be ‘temporary’ in bordering processes can rapidly seem permanent. The paper also describes and analyses historical developments and narratives with respect to boundaries in Mandatory Palestine, and concludes with an analysis of the possible consequences of a failure to establish a new international border. It indicates that bordering processes are complicated matters that must take into account many factors, including narratives, changing ethno‐demographic realities and powerful interests, in contrast to ceasefire and separation lines, which usually relate solely to military matters.

Wall Stall

Construction of a portion of Israel's defense barrier is on hold. Amid several lawsuits as well as pressure from environmental activists and prominent ecologists, Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced last week that he will hold up work on the 300-km separation fence into the southeastern Judean Desert. Work on this section, which includes ecologically sensitive territory, began in December.

A wall, water and power: the Israeli ‘separation fence’

The ‘separation fence’ ‘constructed by Israel to isolate itself from the Palestinians’ raises many questions. Why was the construction of a fence perceived by the Israelis as a solution and as the only solution? What determined the specific, serpentine path of the fence and what impact does it have on both Palestinian and Israeli societies? A resulting reconfiguration of the power structure within Palestinian society is clearly unfolding and deserves analysis.

Jerusalem and the border, evolutive aspects

What meaning does the term border take on referring to a city? The city of Jerusalem is an interesting case study because with it the whole polysemy of the word border shows up, on every geographical scale. Since the start of the Al- Aqsa Intifada in 2000, support for the idea of a physical barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territories has grown tremendously among Israelis. On Jerusalem´s external boundary, this barrier takes the form of an eight-metershigh- wall. The Israeli government does not admit that the barrier’s sole purpose was the prevention of terrorist incursions. A policy of ethnic separation was clearly intended, the argument being that co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians had been a failure. How did the Holy city reach this pessimistic point, considering that the idea of an international city was proposed twice in the first half of the twentieth century, when its inhabitants had already suffered a separation between 1948 and 1967, and when a peace process had been initiated in 1994? Will this barrier become the new border between Israel and Palestine, between West and East Jerusalem? Keywords: Jerusalem, frontier, separation fence, municipal territory, international city.

FENCING THE LAST SKY: EXCAVATING PALESTINE AFTER ISRAEL'S ““SEPARATION WALL””

Since 2002, the ““Separation Fence”” has emerged as Israel's most defini-tive effort at reshaping the West Bank to date. Surveying the project's genealogy, ideological underpinnings, and diplomatic context, the article maps its concomitant implications: the bantustanization of the West Bank and any Palestinian state on some 50 percent of the territory; the fragmentation of Palestinian society and economy; the expansion and consolidation of Israeli settlement; and the physical and ““virtual”” transfer that looms as its conclusion. The author argues inter alia that the project has thus rendered irrelevant the current international ““me-diations”” in the conflict and terminally threatens also the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict.