Palestine from Above
Macht und koloniale Hegemonie - Dokumente im Dialog mit künstlerischen Projekten. 11. Sept. 2021 - 15. Jan. 2022, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah.
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Sandi Hilal, Alessandro Petti and Salvatore Porcaro.
THE ROAD MAP. 2003
a project by DAAR
The territories of Israel and Palestine are, in these days, a laboratory of the world. This is a region where, in few acres, an incredible variety of borders, enclosures, fences, check points and controlled corridors are concentrated. On January 13th and 14th 2003 we tried to measure, with our EU passport, the density of border devices in the surrounding area of Jerusalem. On January 13th we travelled on the highway 60, along with a person with an Israeli passport from the colony of Kiriat Arba to the colony of Kudmin. The following day, we travelled along with a person with a Palestinian passport from the city of Hebron to the city of Nablus. The two routes both start and end in the same latitude; at some points they overlap. Their travelling times, though, are profoundly different. To move between the two latitudes, the Israeli traveller took around one hour, while the Palestinian took five and half hours. The West Bank territories are divided into three different zones: Zone A: under Palestinian Authority military and administrative control. It includes most Palestinian cities; Zone B: under Israeli military control, but under Palestinian Authority administrative control. It mostly includes Palestinian villages: Zone C: under Israeli military and administrative control. It includes most Israeli colonies. This partition produced a leopard-skin like territory, where the three zones alternate with each other without any apparent logic.
The different temporality of the two routes is due to the fact that the Israeli travellers in order to move from a settlement to the other – from a Zone C to another Zone C – can use the so-called by-pass-roads: that is highways – often in tunnels or elevated – which link the colonies by-passing Palestinian villages.
On the other hand, the Palestinian travellers who want to move from one city in Zone A to another in a different Zone A must pass through B or C Zones which are under Israeli military control, crossing a number of both permanent and temporary check points – or trying to avoid them. The check points – which are situated along the “Green Line” that runs between Israel and West Bank as well as on the edges of East Jerusalem – cannot be crossed by those who have a “travel document” issued by the Palestinian Authority, unless they are also provided with a special permission issued by the Israeli government. Other check points are daily activated and removed according to Israeli government security guidelines. (DAAR, 2003)
Part of Chapter 4: Ports of Memory
More information about this section:
Curatorial introduction and Chapters (pdf)
© Photos, text: Courtesy of artists, authors, and A. M. Qattan Foundation
Macht und koloniale Hegemonie - Dokumente im Dialog mit künstlerischen Projekten. 11. Sept. 2021 - 15. Jan. 2022, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah.