Speaking of Walls: Ontological Security Discourse and the West Bank Barrier

Rodden, Sarah

Speaking of Walls: Ontological Security Discourse and the West Bank Barrier

dc.contributor.advisor	Raymond, Mark
dc.contributor.author	Rodden, Sarah
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Heinze, Eric
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Aqil, Shah
dc.date.accessioned	2018-08-02T15:29:32Z
dc.date.available	2018-08-02T15:29:32Z
dc.date.issued	2018
dc.date.manuscript	2018-08-01
dc.description.abstract	The official government justification for the construction of the West Bank barrier is that it was a security measure necessitated by an increase in Palestinian terrorism during the Second Intifada. There are many challenges to this narrative, however. The slow pace of construction on the barrier over five years before its eventual abandonment in 2007 calls into question the sense of urgency one would expect from a project intended to address an immediate and intense physical security threat. Most notably, the long, winding route of the barrier and its path over strategically problematic terrain further complicate the state’s security routines and raise questions about how exactly such a route serves Israel’s security needs. This study uses discourse analysis to answer the following question: Given the high monetary and reputational costs and the added complication to physical security routines, why did Israel choose to erect the West Bank barrier? This study analyzes 63 texts, comprised of 7 interviews, 8 government reports, 41 news articles and op-eds, and 7 political speeches from the Second Intifada years (2000-2005), focusing analysis on the discursive construction of Palestinian violence and the decision to construct the West Bank barrier. The results of this study suggest that, while the physical security threat posed by the violence of the Second Intifada necessitated a physical security response, the violence of the Second Intifada, and Israel’s initial response to it, threatened three of the state’s identities: the security-seeking state identity, the Jewish national identity, and the democratic identity. This ontological security crisis made the West Bank barrier, a policy option that had been rejected from the time of Yitzhak Rabin, palatable.	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/11244/301335
dc.language	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Ontological security	en_US
dc.subject	International Relations	en_US
dc.subject	Israel	en_US
dc.subject	West Bank barrier	en_US
dc.thesis.degree	Master of Arts in International Studies	en_US
dc.title	Speaking of Walls: Ontological Security Discourse and the West Bank Barrier	en_US
ou.group	College of International Studies	en_US