Kafka at the West Bank checkpoint: de-normalizing the Palestinian encounter before the law

The checkpoint has emerged as a quintessential trope within the contemporary Palestinian imagination, to such an extent that “checkpoint narratives” have arguably come to assume a dangerously “normalized” status as everyday, even iconic features of Palestinian existence. Turning to the films Route 181 by Michel Khleifi and Eyal Sivan, and like twenty impossibles by Annemarie Jacir, this article explores how alternative representations (and theorizations) of checkpoint encounter might serve to “de-normalize” the checkpoint in a way that invites us to interrogate the very nature of the checkpoint apparatus in itself, including the nature of the “law” that it represents. Mobilizing the critical paradigms of the “state of exception” and “homo sacer” drawn from the theoretical work of Giorgio Agamben and the literary work of Franz Kafka, the article argues that apprehension of the enduring oddity and abnormality of the checkpoint serves as a vital mode of critical resistance to the policies of “spatio-cide”, “securitization” and colonialism exercised at the hands of the State of Israel through the checkpoint mechanism

إدوارد سعيد: ﺻﻮﺕ ﺍﻟﺘﻔﻜﻴﺮ ﺍﻟﻤﺴﺘﻘﻞ / Edward Said: The Voice of Independent Thinking

[This paper focuses on Edward Said\u27s unique character, which explains his popularity as well as his impact as an academic, writer, and spokesman for the Palestinian cause. Said was born in Jerusalem, an open city, which made it possible for him to discover the magnificence of cultural pluralism, and which was later to qualify him to reject all closed narratives. The author warns against the neo-conservative war on Said\u27s ideas, for those who hate him most recognize the strength of his influence-it was they who incited the Congress to pass legislation insuring that another Said could not happen in America. Defiance was one of Said\u27s main traits. Edward Said, according to the author, would not cease to launch his political and intellectual battles, undetained by his illness or obstacles set in his way, since the road to Ithaca is long and the barbarians -coming from the corridors of the Pentagon this time-are already climbing the walls and shooting at the World. /‮تنطلق هذه الورقة من التكوين الخاص لشخصية إدوارد سعيد التي كانت من أهم أسباب الحب الذي أحاطه به الناس، ومن أهم أسباب فاعليته الأكاديمية بوصفه باحثاﹰ، وفاعليته السياسية بوصفه ناطقاﹰ باسم الحق الفلسطيني، وتشير إلى أن ولادة إدوارد في القدس متعددة الديانات والمذاهب أهلته لفضح كل السرديات المنغلقة على يقينها٠ ويحذر الكاتب من الحرب التي أعلنها تيار المحافظين الجدد في الولايات المتحدة ضد أفكار إدوارد سعيد، فالأكثر إدراكاﹰ لفاعليته هم أولئك الذين يكرهونه بلا هوادة والذين حرضوا الكونغرس الأمريكي على سن قانون يمنع تكرار نموذجه إلى الأبد٠ وقد كان التحدي بذاته، لكونه قيمةﹰ أخلاقية، مكوناﹰ أساسياﹰ من مكونات شخصيته، إن لم يكن أبرز مكوناتها٠ ولهذا خاض معاركه السياسية والفكرية، غير عابئ بمرضه أو بما يوضع في طريقه من عقبات، لأن الطريق إلى إيثاكا طويلة والبرابرة (القادمون من أقبية الپنتاجون هذه المرة) يصعدون الأسوار بالفعل، ويطلقون النار على العالم ٠‬