pg 6
The following chapters form an 'archival probe', investigating the history and modus operandi of the various spatial mechanisms that have sustained - and continue to sustain - the occupation's regime and practices of control.
(see footnote re: use of this term in Mutations published 2001))
pg 6-7
Elastic geography
...the frontiers of the Occupied Territories are not rigid and fixed at all; rather, they are elastic, and in constant transformation. The linear border, a cartographic imaginary inherited from the military and political spatiality oft eh nation state has splintered into a multitude of temporary, transportable, deployable and removable border-synonyms - 'separation walls', 'barriers', 'blockades', 'closures', 'road blocks', checkpoints', 'sterile areas', special security zones', 'closed military areas', and 'killing zones' - that shrink and expand the territory at will. These borders are dynamic, constantly shifting, ebbing and flowing, they creep along, stealthily surrounding Palestinian villages and roads.... The anarchic geography of the frontier is an evolving image of transformation, which is remade and rearranged with every political development or decision.
...
The Separation Wall, merely one of a multiple barriers, is constantly rerouted, its path registering like a seismograph the political and legal battles surrounding it. Where territories appear to be hermetically sealed in by Israeli walls and fences, Pal. tunnels are dug underneath them. Elastic territories could thus not e understood as benign environments: highly elastic political space is often more dangerous and deadly than a static, rigid one.
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