Present checkpoint futures: the relaunch of checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territories

Alexandra Rijke*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The almost 100 Israeli checkpoints that are located inside the West Bank and on its ‘border’ with Israel play a particularly important role in the architecture of occupation. They represent key political technologies that are used to monitor, discipline and/or selectively limit the mobility of Palestinians. In this paper, I analyse the ways in which the design of the newly relaunched Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem represents a certain specific ‘checkpoint future’, materialized in the continued ‘evolution’ of Checkpoint 300, its machines and ‘façade of legitimacy’: a future in which the Israeli military regime controlling the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) is kept in place and the checkpoints and their inherent violence are increasingly normalized. Furthermore, I argue that this ‘checkpoint future’ does not lead to a less violent or arbitrary checkpoint regime. This remaining presence of violence should not be framed as a failure, instead, the continued presence of violence, analysed here as experienced and expressed in the arbitrary functioning of the checkpoint machines, as well as the ‘legitimised façade’ of Checkpoint 300 are intrinsically bound and an expression of the same violent future: a future with an enduring Israeli military regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)337-351
JournalGeografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography
Volume103
Issue number4
Early online date9 Aug 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • arbitrariness
  • architecture of occupation
  • biometric machines
  • checkpoint futures
  • Checkpoints
  • occupied Palestinian territories
  • Palestinian futures

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