It is not only depopulated alleys and public spaces adorned with tacks
and graffiti, however, that can make us feel wary of our surroundings, but
closures, exclusionary mechanisms, and the presence of armed units, that
are supposed to increase safety, in fact can create fear, social exclusion, and
encourage mutual suspicion (Davis, 2003; Shirlow, 2003)(Fig. 2).
Exclusionary mechanisms, such as walls, fences, and checkpoints, are
ubiquitous in IsraelPalestine, enclosing and separating off buildings,
neighborhoods, communities, and territories (Fig. 3).
The West Bank Wall, which the Israeli government started to build in
2002,and remains as of yet unfinished, is the summation of various exclu-
sionary Israeli policies that regulate movement and interchange between
Israeli- and Palestinian-controlled areas. Such mechanisms of segregation,
restrictions of movement, and social exclusion maintain and enforce social
and spatial orders, and at the same time institutionalize the fear of the
“other” within not only the physical, but also the cognitive infrastructures
of society. Indeed Danny became petrified, not when passing Palestinians
on the street, but when moving past Israeli soldiers supposedly there to
guard him against them!
Secondly, who then do we fear? Fears tend to be evoked by those who
are socially excluded and marginalized and those who are defined as the
“other.” According toSaid (1994),Arabs have long been defined as “the
other”the exotic, the irrational, the unpredictable, and the dangerous
(Fig. 4).
Fig. 2. Signifiers of Securitization and Danger.Source: Old City of Jerusalem,
security checkpoint to Dome of the Rock. Photo taken by the author.
Knowledge-Making and its Politics in Conflict Regions 23