The Fickle Zone: Borderland and Borderlanders on the Egyptian-Israeli Front

Efrat Ben-Ze’ev and Nir Gazit

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2022, vol. 37, issue 5, 1025-1045

Abstract: This article is about the intrinsic inconsistency of human actions and relations near the Egyptian-Israeli border. We consider the border and its vicinity at a time of change, when asylum seekers were crossing into Israel in growing numbers (2006–2012) and then when a fence was being built in response (2012–2014). We are basing our findings on an ethnographic study conducted between 2012 and 2018, in which we explored how different border populations – Bedouins, soldiers and asylum seekers – experienced and interpreted the changes. Our perspective shifted between scales in order to understand how global, national and local events were manifested at ground level. The findings point to the fickle conduct of actors and the border-zone: Human behavior and practice tended to change on the spur of a moment; members of groups seemingly in conflict cooperated; tagging and categorizing people according to group was tricky; and power relations between the groups were inconsistent. These findings converse with the scholarship on Nomadology and on borderlands as being in the making.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2020.1847168

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