A PATCHWORK OF BARRIERS: GENDER, EVERYDAY LIFE AND URBAN (IM)MOBILITY IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK

Abstract

This article advances the proposition that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank engenders a regime of mobility, manifested in a patchwork of barriers that directly impacts the daily lives of Palestinians. Employing the Wall as an analytical anchorage, alongside checkpoints and the documentation system as constituent elements, the first section of the article delves into the production of the barriers and controls over the flow of people, ideas, and projects. Simultaneously, an examination is undertaken regarding how this regime is experienced in everyday life, elucidating appropriations that facilitate navigation through the territory. Furthermore, the study explores how mobility experiences generate gendered impacts, highlighting differential effects on women and men. Throughout the article, I argue that beneath the apparent chaos within this regime lie everyday rationalities that guide the practices of both Israeli and Palestinians. Concurrently, the patchwork manages the movement by framing the routines of Palestinians within a paradigm of suspicion, while also integrating into the urban fabric, yielding a phenomenology of dwelling intricately woven into this (im)mobility.