Hollow Land by Eyal Weizman

Author:Eyal Weizman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

A reconstruction of the path of the Wall around the Tunnel Road. Daniel Bauer, 2003 (illustration by Eyal Weizman, 2004)

Following this principle of partition in three dimensions, the Department of Regional and Strategic Planning conceived of a mesh of two parallel road networks throughout the West Bank, separated along national lines, to be inaugurated with ‘a pilot’ of thirty-five roads. At places where two road networks cross, a vertical interchange of bridges and tunnels will separate the traffic systems, and Palestinians from Israelis. Twenty-six such interchanges of vertical separation have already been constructed; the other nineteen are currently being planned or are under construction.47 The neighbouring West Bank towns of Habla and Qalqilya, cut apart by the Wall into two separate enclaves in 2003, were reconnected the following year according to this principle by a subterranean tunnel constructed by Ministry of Defence contractors, running under the Wall and the Israeli road.

Danny Tirza explained this logic of separation by saying that ‘the dangerous friction’ between the settlers and the Palestinians ‘could be reduced if certain interchanges enabled Palestinians to enter the area from one side [and settlers from another]. We would drive above and they would drive below, and vice versa.’48 This separation of the road system is a complementary project to that of the Wall. It facilitates the possibility of contiguous walled-out Palestinian territories without the need to evacuate the Israeli settlements. Although the traffic networks pass by each other, the physical arrangements deny even the possibility of a cognitive encounter. According to Tirza, Israelis should be able to travel through the upper highways ‘without even noticing the Palestinian traffic underneath’.49

Indeed, Israelis driving along Road 443 from Tel Aviv via Modi’in to Jerusalem pass through a section of the road surrounded by high concrete walls on both sides. In 2004, the road became a border itself, and the concrete walls lining its sides, while painted with idealized images of the surrounding landscape, were raised to protect the passengers from the perils of the real landscape. These walls also conceal from Israeli commuters the fact that this part of the road is a bridge that spans an entire Palestinian village – Al-Muwahil (or the Mud Neighbourhood).50

Another of the most ambitious instruments of vertical separation is the new Jerusalem eastern ring road, currently under construction. The road is a bottleneck in the system, serving both settlers and Palestinians (the latter would have to use it when travelling from Bethlehem to Ramallah, because they are not allowed into walled-off Jerusalem). The road is split down its centre by a high concrete wall, dividing it into separate Israeli and Palestinian lanes. It extends across three bridges and three tunnels before ending in a complex volumetric knot that untangles in mid-air, channelling Israelis and Palestinians separately along different spiralling flyovers that ultimately land them on their respective sides of the Wall.51

A new way of imagining space has emerged.52 After fragmenting the surface of the West Bank by walls and other barriers, Israeli planners started attempting

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