Limits of Dissent, Perils of Activism: Spaces of Resistance and the New Security Logic

Kotef, Hagar; Amir, Merav

Abstract

On 26 December 2003 an Israeli activist was shot by the Israeli Army whilehe was participating in a demonstration organized by Anarchists Against the Wall (AAtW)in the West Bank. This was the first time Israeli Soldiers have deliberately shot live bulletsat a Jewish-Israeli activist. This paper is an attempt to understand the set of conditions, theenveloping frameworks, and the new discourses that have made this event, and similarshootings that soon followed, possible. Situating the actions of AAtW within a muchwider context of securitization—of identities, movements, and bodies—we examinestrategies of resistance which are deployed in highly securitized public spaces. We claim thatan unexpected matrix of identity in which abnormality is configured as security threat renderthe bodies of activists especially precarious. The paper thus provides an account of the newrationales of security technologies and tactics which increasingly govern public spaces.

Citation

Kotef, H., & Amir, M. (2015). Limits of Dissent, Perils of Activism: Spaces of Resistance and the New Security Logic. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 47(3), 671-688. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12130

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 8, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Dec 14, 2014
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 15, 2114
• Journal: Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography
• Print ISSN: 0066-4812
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8330
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 47
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 671-688
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12130