Im/Mobilities in a ‘Hostile Territory’: Managing the Red Line

Bhungalia, L. (2012) ‘Im/Mobilities in a ‘Hostile Territory’: Managing the Red Line’, Geopolitics, 17(2), pp. 256–275. doi: 10.1080/14650045.2011.554462.Abstract: This article examines the biopolitical dimensions of conflict manifest in Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Exploring a managed relation between life and death largely unaddressed in Foucault’s conception of biopower, it contends that Israel’s “disengagement” can be seen as a more sophisticated, flexible form of engagement that does not disinvest in or abandon life, but actively regulates it. Close analysis of emerging tactics of population control in Gaza illustrate that neither a “pure” politics of life or death emerges; rather, a more complex management of the two is achieved through the modulation of crucial life-sustaining and life-eliminating flows into and out of the territory. This paper links biopolitical practices of mobility regulation to the ways in which life is enabled, constrained and denied for those in a territory designated as “hostile.” Thus, it directly connects the biopolitical dimensions of conflict to territory and the geopolitical violences of territoriality. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com